The Leaf Thief Book Activities and Craftivity

THE LEAF THIEF

The Leaf Thief by Alice Hemming is a perfect fall book for a read aloud and guided reading study in Kindergarten, First Grade, and Second Grade! Your students will LOVE this seasonal story featuring Squirrel, and the mystery of the missing leaf. Who is the Leaf Thief?! This entertaining read aloud, paired with these book companion activities, will help students practice essential literacy and reading comprehension skills in a fun and engaging way.

THE LEAF THIEF BOOK ACTIVITIES AND TEACHING IDEAS

Squirrel is resting in his nest, his belly full of hazelnuts. As he lazily counts his leaves, he notices that one of his leaves is missing. Who is the Leaf Thief? Squirrel sets off to find out.

Squirrel seeks the help of his friend, Bird. As Squirrel flits about, he notices that Mouse's boat is made from a leaf. Is Mouse the Leaf Thief? No, he's not. Bird reminds Squirrel that it is perfectly normal to lose a few leaves in autumn.

The next morning Squirrel notices more leaves are missing! Then he sees that Woodpecker making a nest with leaves. But Woodpecker has collected these leaves by himself, and is not the Leaf Thief.

Bird again reminds Squirrel that this happened to him last year, and that he should just try to relax. So Squirrel heads back to his nest. Squirrel tries yoga, taking a bath, and taking a nap in hopes that he will feel more relaxed. But it doesn't help. Squirrel is still upset that someone is stealing his leaves!

The next day Squirrel sees Bird decorating his birdhouse with fall leaves. Is Bird the Leaf Thief? No he's not, but Bird shows Squirrel who the culprit is! Bird points out to Squirrel that the Leaf Thief is everywhere, shaking trees and rustling leaves. The Leaf Thief is the wind! It happens every year in the fall. The leaves blow away and will grow back in the spring. This satisfies Squirrel, until he wakes up to see that the ground is covered in snow. Who stole the grass?!

This book study unit is packed with fun activities that will help your Kindergarten, First Grade, and Second Grade students with story elements, making predictions, character traits, making text to self connections, author's purpose, main idea, making inferences, vocabulary, writing, giving opinions and advice, problem and solution, story retell, reading comprehension, and much more!

These activities can be used for whole class instruction, during small group guided reading time, as individual student work, or as part of a book club. Copy a pack for each student and you're ready to go!

This Leaf Thief book companion will save you tons of planning time, is no prep, and is great to leave for a sub!

Want to make sure you are hitting the reading standards for Kindergarten, First Grade, or Second Grade? This resource includes ELA standards charts for Common Core, TEKS and VA SOL, showing you exactly which skills your students are learning while doing these activities!

This Leaf Thief unit includes lots of activities, so you can differentiate to suit your students' learning abilities and needs.

THE LEAF THIEF CRAFT

The craft in this pack has students writing a story retell or sharing about their favorite part of the story. This craftivity makes a fun seasonal bulletin board display, to showcase student learning!