Welcome Fall!
While many people think of the trees and leaves as dying right now, is death the right word to use to describe what is happening? It's actually not. (Check out what I learned about this in Full of Fall on my last blog post.) Sure the leaves themselves die, but the tree doesn't. And there's more than just the lose of leaves that's going on this time of year. Think of all the seeds we see this time of year and what is happening to them. I love when I pick up a children's book and learn something new and I have two books that focus on seeds to share with you today.
Written by Lola M Schaefer and Adam Schaefer
Illustrated by Frann Preston-Gannon
Along with leaves falling everywhere this time of year, there are acorns everywhere. I love listening to them fall down through the trees, and watching the chipmunks and squirrels scurry about gathering them. I think that's one fall activity that is often overlooked so I love how this book brings this activity to mind.
Because of an Acorn is a fantastic, simple book about the circle of life. I love that you can see and get a sense of the circle of life without it being too emotionally overwhelming for children. I think the authors did a beautiful job of showing how each part of a forest ecosystem is connected. That acorn grows into a tree, the tree houses all sorts of wildlife, and because of each one something else comes to live and grow. Fran Preston-Gannon has done a wonderful job detailing each part that is highlighted in the text and foreshadowing what will happen next. The illustrations are full of color and dominate the pages. I love how Fran has made sure to include so many other animals and parts of the forest that aren't in the text, you see a bear and cub they they aren't mentioned, but this shows so much more of the ecosystem and brings up more for conversation.
The sequence of event is flawless! The lessons you can make off of this one simply written book are countless. The dedication says, "For all the naturalists, young and old -L.M.S and A.S." and they are right, it's a book that as an adult I find beautiful but it's written on a level for children to understand. Looking at this book as a teacher I can see lessons for preschoolers all the way up through biology class being tied into this book.
I know I have shared the Sneaky Snacky Squirrel game before, but our preschoolers really love this game and it goes so well with this book I have to share it again. And check out the Acorn Soup game I found for children age 2:
A Seed Is Sleepy
Written by Dianna Hutts Aston
Illustrated by Sylvia Long
The very first thing to take me in with this book is the astounding detail in the illustrations! Sylvia Long has done a fantastic job showing each seed, plant, the flowers, fruit, and leaves. The colors are bold and brilliant and draw the reader in.
This book came highly recommended to me from a librarian who knows how much I love being outside and nature. This is a book I get wrapped up in just studying it. Each flower, and seed are labeled and the amount of information packed into this kids book really is amazing and makes it a book that any adult can pick up read and learn something new from. We had lessons in science about the stages of seed growth in school, but I didn't learn the different parts of a seed.
Dianna has made a very diverse, non fictional book about seeds that's completely captivating. I say diverse because there are (in my opinion) three different ways you can read it. There is the main sentence "A seed is sleepy...A seed is..." so if you have a group or a child with a shorter attention span you can just read it that way the build up to reading more in depth. For my five year old daughter I read her the main sentence and the bold part that starts to explain what they mean by sleepy or thirsty. Then there are longer paragraphs that go much farther in depth to talk about a certain seed which is really neat.
This is one book that isn't focused on fall. It's a book you can read in the fall because many plants go to seed in the fall like the acorns falling or another way to look at it is that the seeds have grown and their fruit is ready or the seeds are ready to harvest. This book would also be great to break out in the Spring and read about seeds then and do your own grow kit.
Because of an Acorn is a fantastic, simple book about the circle of life. I love that you can see and get a sense of the circle of life without it being too emotionally overwhelming for children. I think the authors did a beautiful job of showing how each part of a forest ecosystem is connected. That acorn grows into a tree, the tree houses all sorts of wildlife, and because of each one something else comes to live and grow. Fran Preston-Gannon has done a wonderful job detailing each part that is highlighted in the text and foreshadowing what will happen next. The illustrations are full of color and dominate the pages. I love how Fran has made sure to include so many other animals and parts of the forest that aren't in the text, you see a bear and cub they they aren't mentioned, but this shows so much more of the ecosystem and brings up more for conversation.
The sequence of event is flawless! The lessons you can make off of this one simply written book are countless. The dedication says, "For all the naturalists, young and old -L.M.S and A.S." and they are right, it's a book that as an adult I find beautiful but it's written on a level for children to understand. Looking at this book as a teacher I can see lessons for preschoolers all the way up through biology class being tied into this book.
Lesson ideas from this book:
Who lives in a tree? Who lives in the forest?
Circle of life.
What is an ecosystem? Take it farther with notes from the afterword in Because of an Acorn and examine how that would effect the environment if one part of the system was changed (died off).
Do some Acorn Crafts for adults or kids (Thank you Pinterest!)
Some additional learning games for children:
Collect acorns or use some fake or wooden ones for counting, sorting, or markers for fall bingo
Some additional learning games for children:
Collect acorns or use some fake or wooden ones for counting, sorting, or markers for fall bingo
I know I have shared the Sneaky Snacky Squirrel game before, but our preschoolers really love this game and it goes so well with this book I have to share it again. And check out the Acorn Soup game I found for children age 2:
A Seed Is Sleepy
Written by Dianna Hutts Aston
Illustrated by Sylvia Long
The very first thing to take me in with this book is the astounding detail in the illustrations! Sylvia Long has done a fantastic job showing each seed, plant, the flowers, fruit, and leaves. The colors are bold and brilliant and draw the reader in.
This book came highly recommended to me from a librarian who knows how much I love being outside and nature. This is a book I get wrapped up in just studying it. Each flower, and seed are labeled and the amount of information packed into this kids book really is amazing and makes it a book that any adult can pick up read and learn something new from. We had lessons in science about the stages of seed growth in school, but I didn't learn the different parts of a seed.
Dianna has made a very diverse, non fictional book about seeds that's completely captivating. I say diverse because there are (in my opinion) three different ways you can read it. There is the main sentence "A seed is sleepy...A seed is..." so if you have a group or a child with a shorter attention span you can just read it that way the build up to reading more in depth. For my five year old daughter I read her the main sentence and the bold part that starts to explain what they mean by sleepy or thirsty. Then there are longer paragraphs that go much farther in depth to talk about a certain seed which is really neat.
This is one book that isn't focused on fall. It's a book you can read in the fall because many plants go to seed in the fall like the acorns falling or another way to look at it is that the seeds have grown and their fruit is ready or the seeds are ready to harvest. This book would also be great to break out in the Spring and read about seeds then and do your own grow kit.
No matter the season, I hope you take the time to look over both of these wonderful books and notice the small details in life.
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