The weather changes, the leaves turn and you are faced with this dilemma: should I be the festive teacher, or the dutiful teacher? The one who closes the windows and trudges through the curriculum, or the one who cancels class to carve pumpkins?
In college I imagined I would be the festive teacher. Once I was actually in the classroom I was dedicated to being the dutiful teacher. But inevitably the season would make itself felt and I just couldn’t resist a short break from my lesson plans for a holiday themed activity.
More recently, I’ve tried to get the best of both worlds by creating holiday “mini units.” These include seasonal versions of everything I would normally do (read alouds, guided practice, etc.). I include books from multiple genres so it’s easy to choose the ones that best fit my current instructional goals. Here’s a peek at the one I made for fall…
8 Fall Read Alouds for Upper Elementary
The heart of the unit is 8 prepared read alouds. I use my versatile template so I can easily highlight the questions that are most relevant to this year’s students. My favorite book from the list is Golden Delicious: A Cinderella Apple Story by Anna Egan Smucker. It tells the surprising and incredible history of the Golden Delicious apple. Here’s the full list:
- Fletcher and the Falling Leaves by Julia Rawlinson
- Golden Delicious: A Cinderella Apple Story by Anna Egan Smucker
- Our Apple Tree by Gorel Kristina Naslund
- Pumpkins by Jaqueline Farmer
- The Pumpkin Book by Gail Gibbons
- The Autumn Equinox: Celebrating the Harvest by Ellen Jackson
- The Apple Pie Tree by Zoe Hall & Let’s Cook with Apples by Nancy Tuminelly (this one is a paired reading)
Once I’ve requested these books from the library the rest of the unit is as easy as pie…
14 Activities that Connect to Your Reading Curriculum
Just because we’re having some seasonal fun, doesn’t mean we’re not learning. Students respond to the read aloud by delving into some core reading concepts such as…
- Word Choice
- Figurative Language
- Setting
- Point of View
- Main Idea & Supporting Details
- Text Structure (even includes a card sort)
- Graphic Features
- Making Connections
- Differentiating Between Fact & Fiction
No matter where you are in your reading curriculum, some of these topics are bound to fit in with your current instructional goals. Here’s a look at two of the vocabulary activities:
Students choose a word from the text, brainstorm synonyms and then organize the words by intensity.
After reading Golden Delicious: A Cinderella Apple Story, students consider how and why the name “Golden Delicious” was chosen.
If you’d like more information about these activities and read alouds, you can preview them here. What are some of your favorite fall-themed read alouds? I’d love to add some to my list!
