Fall-Themed Literacy Activities

I had some fall literacy activities in my leaf reading and writing activities post, but I wanted to include a few more with a more general fall theme if you’re into that. See also my roundup of printable fall books for kids for some easy reading and coloring activities.

KidSparkz has a great collection of free fall printables for literacy, math and more. Of particular interest to us right now are the printable alphabet flashcards and number cards, which could be used to decorate a bulletin board, spell out kids’ names or for other activities.

Speaking of alphabets, you can also get a full alphabet (upper and lower case) on apples, apples with objects that start with each letter for matching, and lots of other fun apple themed early literacy activities from Make Take Teach. Learn about how to use them at that link, and purchase the set from Teachers Pay Teachers.

Play with rhyming words with a fall theme with the printable rhyming acorns activity from Mrs. Jones’ Creation Station. Each half of an acorn shows a picture and they pair up with another picture of something that rhymes, like jet and net, pig and wig.

Help kids learn their letters with this adorable feed the scarecrow activity from ABCs of Literacy. The printable (free when you enter your email) includes the scarecrow face and upper case and lowercase letters on straw shapes. Just add the face to a paper bag and you can practice letter recognition by saying a letter and having the child feed the right one to the scarecrow (or use it for the first or last letter in a word for an extra challenge).

The fall find it writing center from The Kindergarten Connection is a great one to use in the classroom. You hide images of different fall things around the room, and kids color them in as they find them. The hidden images include the word written out, and kids can read it out loud when they find each item.

Kids can practice their handwriting skills with these fall handwriting pages from The Natural Homeschool. Each word has a picture and the words are written on the lines beside the picture so kids can trace them or write the words on the lines below.

If you need even more little printable books for kids to read, check out I See Fall from Fun-a-Day. This fun little book includes different things kids might see in the fall, like leaves, apples, pumpkins, sunflowers, acorns and scarecrows. Kids can color the objects and, in one version, they can write in the word see in each sentence.

Fall Math Activities

10 Cute Coloring Pages for Fall

A Gross Motor Movement Game for Fall

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Leaf Reading and Writing Activities

The celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe is important throughout Mexico and other parts of the world. Her feast day is Dec. 12, and the celebrations honoring her appearance to Juan Diego in 1531 begin a few days before that.

Whether you celebrate yourself or just want to share about the celebration at home or in your classroom, Las Mañanitas: The Beautiful Celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe is a good place to start. The book, by Ernesto Joel Vega Rosales and Jeanette Gonzalez Seneviratne, with illustrations by Dana Sanmar, tells the story of a family’s celebration of the feast day in both English and Spanish.

They prepare with a novena, which is nine days of prayers and preparations. The children, Lucia and Pablo, are given special outfits made by their grandmother that look like what Juan Diego might have worn when he saw Our Lady. The book describes the prayers that are made each day, such as a prayer for respect for life, for families and for the indigenous people of the Americas, to name a few.

As told in the book, Juan Diego was a native Mexican born near modern day Mexico City. His given name was Cuaauhtlatoatzin, which means “He who speaks like an eagle.” When he converted to Christianity his name was changed to Juan Diego, and as he walked to church he passed a hill called Tepeyac. One day he heard the birds singing especially beautifully and a voice called him to go to the top of the hill.

There he saw Our Lady of Guadalupe, who asked him to tell the bishop she wanted a chapel built in her name at the foot of the hill. The bishop asked for a sign that Juan Diego really saw her, and later she had him collect flowers that she blessed and take them to the bishop. When Juan Diego dropped the flowers, an image of Our Lady could be seen on his cloak, which is still on display in her basilica to this day.

The feast day is celebrated as mañanitas, which includes singing, indigenous music and dancing, and children presenting flowers to Our Lady. Juan Diego is remembered today as being humble, brave and faithful, and was the first indigenous American made a saint.

The book is colorful and tells the story in a clear way, and it’s fun to have it both in English and Spanish if you teach Spanish or speak Spanish at home or in the classroom. It’s a great way to learn the basics of the celebration and the story of Juan Diego and why he is still remembered today.

About the book: 40 pages, paperback, published 2024 by Loyola Press. Suggested retail price $14.99.

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