Teaching Science in Elementary School is crucial for nurturing young minds, but as educators, finding the time and resources to create engaging lessons can be a challenge. That's where this podcast comes in. Welcome to Naturally Teaching Elementary Science. The show dedicated to supporting elementary teachers in their quest to bring authentic and place based science experiences to their classroom. I'm Victoria Zablocki, a certified elementary teacher turned outdoor educator with over a decade of experience coaching teachers on effective science teaching methods. I'm passionate about making science accessible, understandable and fun for educators and students alike. Join me as we explore strategies for teaching science in elementary school with practical teaching tips, insightful interviews, picture book reviews and more. Whether you've taught for a long time or just started your teaching journey, this podcast is your trusty resource for enhancing your science curriculum. So let's grow together.

[1:02]

All right, everybody, welcome back to the Naturally Teaching Elementary Science podcast. My name is Victoria Zablocki and I'm your host. So I know we don't want to acknowledge it, but the changing of the seasons is coming quickly. I have already spotted leaves turning from green to orange, birds wrapping up their nesting seasons, and squirrels burying nuts in my yard. So to be the bearer of bad news, fall is on its way, and if you're looking for a way to introduce this shift to your elementary students, I suggest picture books. They're a great way to explain how plants and animals react to the shift in the weather and the amount of daylight. And if you've listened to my other episodes about picture books, I'm sure that you've caught on to the fact that I'm very passionate about teaching science concepts with the help of children's literature. And this is for good reason. There's plenty of research out there that's shown that integrating science and literacy has many benefits, including saving teachers time and their schedule, improved attitudes of children towards science, better overall performance in reading and science and so many more. And if you want more information about those benefits and methods for integrating science and literacy, go check out my blog post, "Teaching with Books: How to Integrate Science and Literacy for Elementary Classrooms." And I'll make sure to put that link in the show notes, because it's a helpful read if you're interested in integrating science and literacy. In this episode, I want to summarize 10 fall picture books that can help you introduce seasonal signs of fall, leaves that are falling down, and the way that animals act in Autumn.

[2:36]

So the first book I want to talk about is called Fall is For School by Robert Neubecker, and this book is mostly about transitioning from summer vacation to school in the fall, but there are a few seasonal signs that he mentions, such as the turning of leaves and the cooling of weather. And this book is written in rhyme and rhythm, and from the perspective of an optimistic sister and a pessimistic brother pair. So the sister is super excited to go back to school, and the brother doesn't want to go but the sister explains all the good things about going back to school in the fall and finally convinces him to go back. So even though this book isn't super heavy on the fall season aspect, it could be a great option for the beginning of the school year to help your students transition back to school. Plus you can also look closely at the illustrations to find signs of fall. So even though they're not explicitly described, you can see in the illustrations different colors on the trees, different animals getting ready for winter. These seasonal signs can be hidden, almost like a Where's Waldo sort of situation. So you could treat it that way, "We're back in school. What do you notice in the background of these illustrations that lets you know that the seasons are moving from summer to fall?"

[3:47]

Book number two is called It's Fall by Renee Kurilla, and this book is also written with rhyme and rhythm, and it's more about seasonal signs than the previous book. Some of the seasonal signs mentioned are colorful leaves, shadows, going back to school, how to dress for fall, falling acorns, mums and picking apples. This book is very colorful and vibrant with its illustrations, and it provides sights, sounds and smells of the seasons. So it's starting to get into the sensory aspect of fall. This illustrator definitely had diversity in mind when they did their illustrations, because it has the benefit of depicting a variety of races in the children as well as physical abilities in the illustrations. And this provides your students an opportunity to see themselves in the literature that we read to them. Even though there's a variety of races depicted in this book, the text tends to follow the typical United States traditions of Halloween and Thanksgiving, like trick or treating and eating a meal with family, and that may not be true for all of your students and their culture. So if you're looking for some other books that don't mention these holidays in the fall and are just focused on seasonal signs, I would suggest checking out my article on naturallyteaching.com called "A Free Fall Picture Books List for Teachers with 16 Recommendations." In this article, I cover more books that do not have the holiday aspect of fall and mostly focus on seasonal signs. And I'll make sure to put that link in the show notes, so that way you don't have to try to remember the name of the article.

[5:21]

Book number three is called Mushroom Rain by Laura K. Zimmerman, and Zimmerman does a fantastic job explaining different aspects of mushrooms in a child friendly way. Mycology is not an easy thing to understand. It is very abstract, and it goes against everything that we observe every day about plants, because fungus are not plants, and more children have experiences with plants, so mushrooms can kind of blow their mind. But Zimmerman does a great job of describing different shapes mushrooms might have, the scents they may give off, what animals could eat them, how they spread and how they grow, and the illustrations by Jamie Greene are absolutely lovely and inviting and make it one of my favorite picture books about mushrooms for children. So how does this connect to fall? Mushrooms can be found year round, but they're especially prevalent in the fall when the rains arrive and it's fun to look for the variety of colors and shapes that mushrooms come in during the fall season, because they're so abundant. My caution with mushroom hunting with your students, though, is that it can be a really fun activity, and your students are going to enjoy finding all the different shapes and colors of mushrooms as a sign of fall, but remember to have your students look and not touch. Mushrooms can be dangerous if they're not identified by an expert, so you want to observe and appreciate them, but from a distance. So if you want to have a mushroom investigation in your classroom where your students can get hands on, you can purchase portabella caps from the grocery store, and then you can poke and prod them. But you want to make sure you don't have any allergies in your class before you do that.

[6:58]

Book number four is Miss Maple's Seeds by Eliza Wheeler, and in this book, there's a fictitious character named Miss Maple who's miniature and she collects lost seeds during the summer, and she cares for them during the winter until they can travel to their new home in the spring. So this book talks about seed disbursement techniques, including floating along the river, riding on the wind and falling into soil. Also within the text, Wheeler mentions that the rich soil, sun and rain will help the seeds grow, so they also cover the needs of plants in this story as well. So what's the connection to fall for this book? This book itself actually takes place in the fall, and it's also applicable because most plants have been pollinated by fall and have seeds on them, and they need to go somewhere. So if you have science standards that are focused on seed dispersal, this is an encouraging and fun story to introduce the idea of seeds moving to new places. And if you like this book and you're looking for pre made activities to go along with it, you should check out my picture book companion, Miss Maple's Seeds Book Companion for 2nd Grade in my Teachers Pay Teachers store, it includes already made science and ELA activities for second grade, Next Generation Science Standards and ELA Common Core State Standards. The picture book companion includes background about seed dispersal for teachers, lesson plans for each of the nine activities, an opinion writing, a shared research project, engineering and modeling, and experiment and more. And I'll make sure to put a link for that in the show notes.

[8:29]

Book number five is Summer Green to Autumn Gold by Mia Posada, and this book begins with the talk of green summer leaves and the role of chlorophyll, but in a child friendly way with diagram-like illustrations, so it really puts that abstract concept of photosynthesis into an age appropriate way for elementary students. Posada then moves on to explain how the chlorophyll hides the other pigment of the leaves during the year, but then once the weather and the amount of sunlight changes, the chlorophyll fades and the color is exposed. And after she explains all of this background on how we get colorful leaves in the fall, she also shares that once the leaves fall, they decompose and feed the forest. So this book is a great option if you're working on the food chain and web, since it explains how producers make their own food and one way that the trees can feed other animals. It's also just a great way for students to understand that the color they're seeing in the fall is always present. It just happens to be masked by the green during the growing season. And as a bonus, Posada includes some helpful information for you at the end of the book, including things like info about different kinds of leaves, more about pigments in nature, a blurb about fall colors around the world, and an explanation about fall colors changing from year to year.

[9:50]

Book number six is Fall Leaves Fall by Zoe Hall, and I don't know if she did it on purpose, but it's fun to say it, because it all rhymes. Fall Leaves Fall by Zoe Hall. This book begins with the main characters discussing how they know when it's fall. So signs that fall has arrived in this book include leaves changing color and falling to the ground. The main focus in this book is the leaves and how they change and how that's a sign of fall. The characters suggest collecting leaves, and they talk about observable characteristics of the different types of leaves that they find, and they also make art with their leaves. So this would be a great introduction to fall for younger students. I'm talking early childhood kiddos, and would also make a great intro to practicing outdoor routines and procedures, like I described in Episode 14, Outdoor Classroom Routines and Procedures: 5 Easy Activities for Your First Week Outside. So if you haven't listened to that one, I discussed five different activities that you can use to practice your classroom routines and procedures outside. And this one would be a great book that you could read one day and then the next day you could explore your space and collect leaves to make art with.

[11:02]

Book number seven is Full of Fall by April Pulley Sayre, and Sayre uses rhyme, rhythm, simple sentences and real pictures to share characteristics of leaves in the fall, and that includes characteristics such as changing color in the fall, descriptive words for different leaf parts and how those leaves fall from the trees. This is a great introduction to the sights and sounds of leaves in the fall, and it could be a great way to start the season with your early childhood learners.

[11:33]

Book number eight is Migration by Gail Gibbons, and this book describes the migration of a variety of animals, including birds, insects and mammals of all different kinds and in different parts of the world. Gibbons describes how some animals travel great distances while others travel short distances, depending on what they find in order to meet their needs. She also covers a variety of land and water species, and has depictions of their migration routes on each page, which is pretty awesome to look at and to be able to compare different species throughout the story. Some of the species that she covers are mallard ducks, Canada geese, sandhill cranes, Arctic terns, caribou, elephants, sea turtles, salmon, tuna and swordfish, walruses, sharks, gray whales and blue whales. So how does this connect to fall? Many animals begin their migration in Autumn, because their food sources are harder to come by in wintertime, so they have to get on the move before their food sources are completely gone. Migration does occur again in spring, when the animals are ready to mate and have babies, so they return to their nesting or breeding grounds in the spring, when their food sources are available again. As a note on this book, I would consider this more appropriate for upper elementary students, due to Gibbons' explanations, vocabulary and length of the book that she's written. If you wanted to use it with early childhood learners, I would suggest paraphrasing the pages and pointing out information in the illustrations instead of reading it verbatim.

[13:08]

Book number nine is How Do Birds Find Their Way? By Roma Gans. This book is all about birds and how they know where to go during their migration journeys. Gans describes different techniques including following rivers, mountain ranges and seashores, using the sun's position in the sky, patterns of the stars in the sky, and also the possibility of using Earth's magnetic field. Gans also explains what triggers birds to migrate south in the fall and north in the spring. So again, the connection here is that many birds begin their migration in Autumn because their food sources are harder to come across in the winter. So I caution you with this book, because at the beginning of the book, one of the pages refers to the birds flying south where it's warmer, and then stops there. Gans doesn't explain that they go south where it's warmer for their food, they just stop at where it's warmer. And we want to get in front of this misconception because animals are going south, because their food is available in the wintertime south of where they are, it happens to be warmer, but that doesn't mean they're going there because it's warm. As a quick example, the Canada goose will travel from north to south in the wintertime because it eats from the water, and in the north, the water freezes, so they would starve to death. So instead, they make their way south because the water is open and they can find their food source. So as you're reading this book, just make sure you're pointing out that these animals are moving south because they are looking for their appropriate food.

[14:43]

Book number 10 is Animals in Fall: Preparing for Winter, by Martha E. H. Rustad. And this story begins with seasonal signs that indicate fall have arrived, such as cooler weather and shorter days. And then Rustad then goes on to explain the different adaptations that animals use to. Vibe winter, including migration, putting on fat for the winter, hibernation, changing colors and growing thicker fur. Some of the species that they introduce in this book include gray whales, Monarch butterflies, Canada geese, black bears, rattlesnakes, snowshoe hares and white tailed deer. And so the connection for this book is that it clearly lays out a variety of techniques animals use in the fall to get ready for winter, but it's done in a very child friendly way, and it also shows how those techniques are used by animals in the full illustration spread. So it's a nice visual and text combination to be able to help students understand the different ways that animals get ready for winter, plus a bonus, if you like this book as part of a collection specifically written for fall called Cloverleaf Books: Fall's Here and some of the other titles include Fall Apples: Crisp and Juicy, Fall Harvests: Bringing in Food, Fall Leaves: Colorful and Crunchy, Fall pumpkins: Orange and Plump, Fall Weather: Cooler Temperatures. So you could get this whole series and use it to be able to explain a variety of aspects of fall, especially if your students really love this book. But I personally appreciate how well it explains the techniques animals use to get ready for winter.

[16:25]

So in a nutshell, we talked about 10 fall picture books to introduce seasonal signs falling leaves and what animals do in the fall. The titles that were summarized include, Fall is for School by Robert Neubecker, It's Fall by Renee Kurilla, Mushroom Rain by Laura K. Zimmerman, Miss Maple's Seeds by Eliza Wheeler, Summer Green to Autumn Gold by Mia Posada, Fall Leaves Fall by Zoe Hall, Full of Fall by April Pulley Sayre, Migration by Gail Gibbons, How Do Birds Find Their Way? by Roma Gans, and Animals in Fall: Preparing for Winter by Martha E. H Rustad. And don't forget, if you're looking for more fall picture books, check out my article, A Free Fall Picture Books List for Teachers with 16 Recommendations on naturallyteaching.com or follow the link in the show notes. Also, if you're looking for science and ELA activities to go along with Miss Maple's Seeds, check out my picture book companion, Miss Maple's Seeds Book Companion for 2nd Grade in my Teachers Pay Teachers store. Thank you for taking time to listen today. I know you're busy, and I truly appreciate the time you take to tune in. If you have any questions wonderings or fall picture books that you like to read, get a hold of me on Instagram and naturally.teaching or you can email me at victoria@naturallyteaching.com and don't forget to check out the show notes for this episode naturallyteaching.com/episode16 for all the links that I mentioned in this episode, thanks again for joining me today and until next time, keep exploring, keep learning and keep naturally teaching. Thank you so much for tuning in to today's episode of the Naturally Teaching Elementary Science podcast. I hope you found it informative, inspiring and full of actionable insights to enhance your science teaching journey. Connect with me on social media for more updates, science tidbits and additional resources. You can find me on Instagram and Facebook at naturally.teaching. Let's continue the conversation and share our passion for elementary science education together. Don't forget to visit my website naturallyteaching.com for all the show notes from today's episode. If you enjoyed today's episode, please consider leaving a review on your favorite podcast platform. Your feedback helps me improve and reach more educators just like you. Thank you again for listening and until next time, keep exploring, keep learning and keep naturally teaching you.