Fall Literacy- Lesson Plans and Book Companion Units

Over the summer, I blogged about organizing my Fall literacy units and storing these in portable bins.  Many followers requested more details about the plans and specific books in my seasonal collection, which continues growing thanks to all the creative educators out there!  I'm going to start with my Fall books and write a separate post for my Halloween ones.  This post contains links to products I obtained from my peers, books that I read to my son that he has since outgrown, and affiliate links to quickly order books and lesson plans that catch your eye.

1.)  The Seasons:  Fall by Nuria Roca

PERFECT preschool book for this season with bright pictures and educational activities like counting, identifying category members, and singing.  The last two pages are parent guides for enhancing learning.  I think a Fall scavenger hunt based on the items mentioned in this book (leaves, nuts) would be a fun carryover for preschoolers.  This is a link I found on Pinterest for a cute scavenger hunt.

2.)  Ten Apples Up On Top by Theo. LeSieg

This famous book is fun for preschool through first grade.  Last week, I read this story to a group of 26 preschool children.  Each child held 1-2 apples with numbers written on them and each time I came upon a target number in the book, three students had to come forward and tape their apples to a poster board.  In the end, we made the three stacks of 10 apples as discussed in the book and children attended well to the reading because they had to watch and listen for their numbers.  Several students wanted to take turns standing under the apple stacks once the book was finished.

I also found some great math worksheets from one of my favorite sites: homeschoolshare.com  The author includes suggestions for a simple, preposition game and social studies activity about bragging, just like the characters from the book.

School time snippets has a craft using pom poms as the apples glued above images of characters from the book.

Scroll down this post from Mrs. Bumgardner's First Grade Class blog for a higher level craft to accompany this book.  In this activity, students make combinations of five using red and green apples.  SLPs could further expand it into discussing concept pairs like "same/different" and "more/less."

3.)  There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves by Lucille Colandro

Who doesn't LOVE a good, old lady book?!  I use this series with preschool through second grade with many a satisfied customer!  Younger grades can have fun feeding the old lady pictures of objects using this paper bag craft and older kids can retell the sequence using this story stick craft from Make Learning Fun.
You can also find a nice variety of companion lessons at Sharing Kindergarten's post.  There is a freebie included in this link in addition to materials that you can purchase.  Not enough?  Jenna Rayburn at Speech Room News has a companion package for this book at her TpT store.  Included are activities to address sequencing, rhyming, verb tenses, pronouns, grammar, and much more!  Her materials NEVER disappoint!

4.)  Too Many Pumpkins by Linda White

Last year, I stumbled upon a free reading comprehension game by Sharing Kindergarten for this book, so I actually got the companion package well before the book arrived in the mail.  There are 36 questions suitable for children in first through third grade.  Follow this link to print your free game board, question cards and answer key.

5.)  Apples and Pumpkins by Anne Rockwell

The last book in my bin for my fall collection is primarily about the fall with a page or two on Halloween at the very end.  I spent some time printing Mayer-Johnson images to cover the words and make the text readable for little ones.  Now, my version exposes toddlers and preschoolers to early literacy and it further promotes labeling pictures and reading from left to right.

For more Fall lesson plans, you can browse through my Pinterest board!  Be sure to follow me on Bloglovin and Facebook for updates on new posts!  In October, I will provide details about my Halloween book collection and companion activities.