Book Review: Fall Feast

Learn how plants and animals spend fall getting ready for winter in this sweet picture book. Fall Feast: Nature’s Harvest by Sean Taylor and Alex Morss features a family going for a walk on a cool fall day and observing what’s happening in nature.

Morss is an ecologist, journalist and educator, so you can be sure the facts shared in the book are accurate, while Cinyee Chiu’s illustrations are warm and inviting.

The children see birds, squirrels, fungi and nibbled nuts and apples on their walk, and learn from their mama how animals get ready for winter (and fungi and bugs help nature along by devouring a dead tree). They gather fallen apples and take them home to mom, who makes a fall treat so they can have their own feast together.

After the story, the book talks about why fall happens (because of the tilt of the earth away from the sun) and explores in more detail what’s happening with plants and animals this time of year. Some plants drop their leaves, for example, while others make berries or seed pods to spread their seeds around for next year.

Some animals hibernate or migrate, while others store up food, make a warmer winter shelter or grow thicker fur to keep warm.

It also covers insects, fungi and other decomposers, and gives tips for helping out the plants and animals in the fall. (I’d have liked a recipe for what they call flapjacks in the book but looks more like a cake to me, but that’s maybe just me.)

This book is the fourth in a series of books about nature and the seasons, which also includes Winter Sleep, Busy Spring, and Wild Summer. If you like the style and the story you might want to pick up all four so you have the complete story of the year for your family or classroom to share.

About the book: 32 pages, hardcover, published 2024 by Happy Yak. Suggested retail price $19.99.

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Watermelon Activities for Kids

I’m in deep denial about the fact that new year is almost upon us again! It’s been the fastest and the longest year at the same time, and I can look back and see some good things as well as some things I wish had gone differently.

Doing a year in review with your kids — whether in the classroom or at home — is a good way to capture some of their memories and the things they really liked about the year gone by.

There are a lot of different printable year in review worksheets you can use if you want to make this super easy. Here are links to a few (often part of larger posts about NYE celebrations with kids that are worth a read, too):

Teach Beside Me has lots of fun printables fro the end of the year, including a year in review that covers favorite memory, funniest memory and the best book they read, among other topics.
NurtureStore‘s version has space for a self-portrait and prompts like favorite toy, best day out this year and future dream job.
Remember favorites, their “best idea” of the year and have room for setting goals for next year with this one from The Keele Deal.
The year in review from Yes We Made This has room for drawing or writing and includes things like something they learned, a memory they made and a place they visited.

Of course you could pretty easily make your own year in review for the whole family to do that asks questions based on what you most want to remember. (Favorite video game? Best friend? Favorite family memory?)

And if after the year in review you’re ready to look ahead a bit, Mrs. Merry has new year’s resolution printables to inspired kids to look ahead and set goals for things they want to try. You can totally fill this one out as a grownup, too.

[Photo: Mrs. Merry]

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