"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 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 (
• Story Elements – 2 differentiated versions are included for this activity
• Squirrel’s Problem & Solution
• Cause & Effect - 4 differentiated versions are included for this activity
• Who is Squirrel? (
• Character Traits 2 differentiated versions are included for this activity
• Character Perspective
• Character Development
• Story Retell (ANSWER KEY included)
• Sequencing
• Plot Map (ANSWER KEY included)
• Summarizing
• Making Inferences
• Making Connections
• Sensory Details
• Seasonal Imagery
• Theme - 2 differentiated versions are included for this activity
• Thematic Statements
• Mystery of the Missing Leaves
• Save the Leaves
• Vocabulary Matching Cards (color and B&W )
• Vocabulary Crossword Puzzle (ANSWER KEY included)
• Vocabulary Word Search Puzzle (ANSWER KEY included)
• Wait… There’s More!
• Book Review
• Design a Book Cover
• The ABCs of Fall

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.