Fall for a Fantastic Fall Baby and Toddler Story Time!

The first book that I read for my baby and toddler story time was Full of Fall by April Pulley Sayre. This delightful nonfiction book depicts how the leaves change into yellow, orange, and red colors and then fall onto the ground "they drift and dry; their edges curl" and how in the water "they float and sink; snag and swirl". There are pictures of how the leaves fade, brown, and decompose, and the book ends with "Oh. Hello, snow!" The photographs are breathtakingly beautiful and there are two pages of bullet point facts about fall at the end; explaining how and why leaves change their colors.

This book can also be used to help teach colors by asking the children what colors the various different leaves are. 

This book may work better for a preschool story time because my babies and toddlers started to get restless halfway through while they were listening to the book. 

The second book that I read was In the Middle of Fall by Kevin Henkes. The colorful and vibrant pictures depict the season of fall from the middle of fall until winter's arrival. Pictures of brightly colored leaves, frisky squirrels, brown dying sunflowers, bright red apples, and round orange pumpkins help to illustrate the season. The text is short and simple, but descriptive. I also like Kevin Henkes' book When Spring Comes. 

Kitten's Autumn by Eugenie Fernandes tells the story of a fall day in kitten's life through illustrations that resemble collages. The story shows how the other animals, for example how chipmunk, hummingbird, bear, beaver, and raccoon eat their meals. At the end of the story, kitten eats his meal by the fireside. 

Leaf Jumpers by Carole Gerber is a nonfiction book that illustrates the following types of leaves: red maple, sugar maple, white oak, basswood, birch, willow, gingko, and sycamore. The illustrations show a puzzled dog watching the leaves falling, children watching and collecting the falling leaves, and jumping into a huge leaf pile! A page about how and why leaves turn colors along with the various types of leaves appears at the back of the book. This book would be good for a preschool story time as well. 

Tree Story Time!

Today, I did a preschool story time with the theme of trees. It was a lot of fun for both me and the kids! 

The first book that I read was Shake the Tree! by Chiara Vignocchi. This delightful story starts with a mouse who sees a nut in the tree. He decides to shake the tree a little to the right and a little to the left to get the nut ..... but a fox falls out! The fox decides to eat the mouse, so the mouse runs right back up that tree! Then the fox shakes the tree and down falls a warthog! After the fox runs up the tree, the warthog shakes the tree and a bear falls out. When the bear shakes the tree all of the animals, all of the leaves, and the nut fall to the ground. Everyone is relieved and happy when the bear decides to eat the nut. It's fun to read this story and shake the book a little bit to the right and a little bit to the left as you read it. Also, this story is very interactive. You can ask the children the following questions: 
1. Who fell out of the tree?
2. Who ran up the tree?
3. Who wants to eat the nut?
4. Who wants to eat whom?

I finally got around to making a flannel board version of Fall Is Not Easy by Marty Kelley. The leaves for the trees that I made were loosely based on his illustrations. I added red leaves with pink hearts and blue leaves with white clouds. I kept the spring leaves, summer leaves, rainbow leaves, smiley face leaves, and jack o lantern leaves. This book is about a tree that has trouble changing its leaves in fall into the traditional fall colors of red, yellow, and orange. In the book, the tree never succeeds into changing into the fall colors, but in my flannel board it does. 

Tap the Magic Tree by Christie Matheson is one of my favorite story time books, along with her other book: Touch the Brightest Star. During the winter, you and the children tap the tree for leaves to grow! Rubbing the tree brings beautiful pink buds to the tree and touching each bud causes the buds to bloom. Give the tree a jiggle and watch the blooms fall off! Shake the tree to cause the red apples to fall. Pat the leaves and blow a breeze to get golden, red, and orange leaves. Clap your hands to bring the snow! Be patient as the bluebird builds a nest and lays a beautiful turquoise egg - your reward is a baby bluebird! 

Alternate Books: 

The Busy Tree by Jennifer Ward 

Tree: A Peek-Through Picture Book by Britta Teckentrup