The Leaf Thief Book Companion & Read Aloud Activities for Fall

This fall picture book companion is a perfect accompaniment to Alice Hemming's book, The Leaf Thief. It's the ideal interactive read-aloud for autumn or for educating your students about seasonal changes, friendship, patience, and kindness. Students will love the engaging and fun activities, and you will appreciate the time saved hunting for high-level resources to teach reading concepts that students frequently struggle with.

With 36 print-and-go reading activities to choose from, this resource is ideal for customizing learning to your student's specific needs and academic ability. Students will investigate characters, identify story elements, identify the theme, sequence events from the story, explore and use new vocabulary, discover cause-and-effect relationships, explore plot elements, and much more! The activities provided are designed to enable students to apply higher-level thinking skills, to encourage students to provide text evidence to support their thinking, and to challenge students to express their own thoughts and/or perspectives.

🌟This Resource Includes:🌟

• See, Think, Wonder (1 page) - Before reading the book, students will examine the front cover and describe what they see, make predictions about what the book is about, and the questions they think the book might answer.

• Story Elements #1 – Students fill in the boxes with words and pictures to represent the story elements. Picture clues are included for students who need a little prompting.

• Story Elements #2 – Students fill in the boxes with words and pictures to represent the story elements.

• Squirrel's Problem & Solution (1 page) – Students identify & explain the problem & solution in the story.

• Cause & Effect #1 - Students cut-and-paste the images and match them to the events from the story. This activity is for students who need more prompting.

• Cause & Effect #2 - Students fill in the missing information with either the cause or the effect.

• Cause & Effect #3 - Students fill in the missing effects.

• Cause & Effect #4 - Students identify cause and effect relationships in the story.

• Who is Squirrel? (1 page) - Students include details from the story to describe what the character says, thinks, does, and feels.

• Character Traits (2 pages) - 2 differentiated versions are included for this activity

• Character Traits #1 - Students choose two important character traits that describe the main character and provide evidence from the text to support their choices.

• Character Traits #2- Students choose the most important character trait that describes each character and provide examples from the text that support the traits they chose.

• Character Perspective (1 page) - Students will compare the perspectives of the characters on a story event of their choice by drawing a picture and adding words to the thought bubbles.

• Character Development (1 page) - Students describe how Squirrel's character changed throughout the story.

• Story Retell - (1 page) – Students cut-and-paste the picture cards to match the event descriptions. (ANSWER KEY included).

• Sequencing (1 page) - Students will write a sentence and draw a picture to show the correct order of events in the story.

• Plot Map (1 page) - Students cut-and-paste the event cards in the correct order and describe what's happening for each event. (ANSWER KEY included)

• Summarizing (1 page) - Students complete the Somebody, Wanted, Because, But, So graphic organizer and write a summary of the story.

• Making Inferences (1 page) - Students use clues and schema to come up with two inferences they made from the text.

• Making Connections (1 page) - Students make connections to two events from the story.

• Sensory Details (1 page) - Students choose an event from the story and describe it from the character's perspective using all five senses.

• Seasonal Imagery (4 pages) - Students will describe the seasons using their five senses. A student handout for summer, autumn, winter, and spring is included. students can choose their favorite season, or complete the activity for each season.

• Theme #1 - Students answer the questions to determine which theme best fits the story and provide text evidence to support their choice.

• Theme #2 - Students answer the questions to determine the theme of the story and provide text evidence.

• Theme #3 Thematic Statements - Students choose the thematic statement that they believe best fits the story and include evidence from the text to support their choice.

• Mystery of the Missing Leaves (1 page) - Students compare what Squirrel thinks happened to the leaves to what actually happened.

• Save the Leaves (1 page) - Students will create a plan for Squirrel to prevent the wind from taking the leaves.

• Vocabulary Matching Cards (color -2 pages and B&W 2 pages) - This activity can be used during stations or posted on a word wall to reinforce vocabulary words from the story.

• Vocabulary Crossword Puzzle (1 page) - Students will complete a crossword puzzle by matching words from the story to their definitions. (ANSWER KEY included)

• Vocabulary Word Search Puzzle (1 page) - Students will find the hidden words in the puzzle. (ANSWER KEY included)

• Wait... There's More! (1 page) – Students will create 2 more pages for the end of the book including a few sentences and colorful illustrations similar to those used in the story.

• Book Review (1 page) – Students rate how much they enjoyed the book, draw a new cover, and explain why kids should or should not read it.

• Design a Book Cover (1 page) – Students design a new cover for the book.

• The ABCs of Fall (1 page) - Students choose words or phrases that begin with each letter of the alphabet to describe the fall season.

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💡Need ideas for different ways you can implement these activities?

• Focus on different reading skills each day for targeted instruction and have students complete a corresponding printable to check for understanding.

• During centers, students can independently read the story again and complete an activity that reviews a previously taught concept.

• Work with students on a reading concept they struggle with during guided reading or strategy groups.

• Students work with a partner(s) or in literature circles to complete additional reading activities.

This resource is for extension read-aloud activities only. The book is not included.