Fall Story Time!

Hocus Pocus, It's Fall! by Anne Sibley O'Brien features beautiful illustrations with eleven gatefolds that open to reveal even more beautiful illustrations. All you have to do to get them to open is to say the magic words, such as the following: Alakazam!, Open sesame!, Abracadabra!, and Shazam! The page with the picture of the "spiky pods that are brown and dried" opens to reveal the fluffy white seeds floating and drifting away from the pods. Other gatefolds include the following: a beautiful bunch of trees with red, orange and yellow leaves; children and a dog playing in piles of fallen leaves; chipmunks storing nuts; and an apple pie that wins first place at the fair! The children enjoyed saying the magic words and guessing what the scenes in the gatefolds might be.

Mouse's First Fall by Lauren Thompson tells the story of Mouse and Minka playing in piles of fallen leaves. While I was reading the book, the children helped me identify the colors of the leaves and count the leaves. We also identified the shapes of leaves and found Minka when Minka was hidden in a leaf pile.

We finished story time with Fall Is Not Easy by Marty Kelley. In this story, a tree tries to change its leaves into the traditional colors of fall leaves: yellow, orange, and red. Instead it changes into a rainbow tree, a happy face, a tree with purple and yellow leaves, a tree with red and white leaves, a hamburger tree, a tree with blue and green leaves, and a jack-o-lantern tree. The children had fun pointing out the different leaves and patterns on the tree and laughing.
I didn't read the following books at story time, but they were books that I picked out as possible story time books.

Leaves by David Ezra Stein tells the story of Bear's first fall. He doesn't understand why the leaves are falling and he tries to catch the leaves and put them back on the tree. As he grows sleepy, he fills a hole in the ground and hibernates during his first winter. When he wakes up in the spring, he is happy to see the budding leaves and the leaves that have just started to unfold. He enthusiastically welcomes them!

In Little Tree by Loren Long, a little tree's leaves turn yellow, orange, and red, along with the rest of the trees. But even though the rest of the trees drop their leaves, Little Tree is afraid to do so. He hangs on tightly to his! A squirrel, a doe, a duckling, and a fox try to get Little Tree to drop his leaves, but he refuses. But when Little Tree can no longer feel the sunlight and can no longer hear the mourning dove's song, he drops his leaves. Eventually, he grows into a great big tree.

In the Middle of Fall by Kevin Henkes, is a book with beautiful and amazing illustrations by Laura Dronzek that show the beginning, middle, and end of fall. Apples are described as ornaments and other pages feature bright orange, yellow, and red leaves, frisky squirrels, a gray sky, brown gardens, and big round orange pumpkins. This book would make a good one on one read aloud.