Fletcher and the Falling Leaves by Julia Rawlinson

Fletcher and the Fallin Leaves is one of the sweetest books for kids I know! There just won't be a classroom that won't fall in love with Fletcher.

  The little fox cub is friends with a beautiful tree and when the gorgeous autumn tree (who does not love going to the park in autumn when everything around is colored gold and red) starts losing its leaves, Fletcher cannot let his best friend lose all of its beauty. Fletcher does everything possible to save the leaves, but nature takes it way and Fletcher discovers a surprise - that in winter trees have a different kind of dress, this time made of ice.

The story in the picture book has great educational value. First, this is first and foremost a story of friendship. Reading about Fletcher trying to save his friend can help your little students think about the value of friendship in their life. This is great for personal opinion writing and comparing the character to yourself.

Next, you can read this story at the end of autumn to prepare your class for the transition to the winter season. In my study unit, I prepare compare the winter/autumn tree and sort activities into those we do in winter and in autumn worksheets.

Finally, the story is packed with great vocabulary to practice, so even just reading the story together will introduce your early readers to the beautiful language used in the book.

If you love the story and would like to further work on it in the classroom, a book companion/study unit filled with 10 pages of fun activities is available in my TpT store HERE.


The activities in the study unit available on TPT include:

Reading Literature skills 
• Filling in the story map
• Answering quiz and open questions about the plot of the story
• Retelling the story
• Picking the relevant word to finish the sentence

Vocabulary practice 
• Describing the tree in autumn and in winter
• Naming and coloring the animals in the story, matching who said what
• Sorting the activities into things we do in autumn and in winter
• Related words matching

Writing 
• Expressing personal opinion to the writing prompts
• Comparing the character at the beginning and the end of the story

"Giraffes Can't Dance" by Giles Andreae

A truly amazing story to boost your students' self-confidence is ""Giraffes Can't Dance" by Giles Andreae. The book introduces your students to lovely Gerald, who thought he did not know how to dance but turned out to be the most amazing dancer in the world!

The story is great for mindset growth themed units in your curriculum. The readers follow Gerald the giraffes' journey from being shy and self-conscious to accepting his inner beauty. The plot will bring home the idea that we are all beautiful in doing the things we love.

An extra reason to read this in the classroom is that the book is written in poetic form and is actually adapted as a song! Search "Giraffes Can't Dance" on YouTube to find the song.

Vocabulary introduced in the story is most suitable for 2nd grade. The words highlighted for practice in my curriculum are vocabulary related to

• dancing and movement; 
• physical description of Gerald the giraffe; 
• jungle-animals. 

Low-prep study unit accompanying the story is available for purchase on TpT HERE.