Tag: trees

This is an updated version of a previous storytime from a couple of years ago. This year, I’m doing apples and pumpkins as separate programs, so I didn’t use activities about them (although they would be perfectly fine to incorporate!) Instead, I focused on scarecrows and blackbirds, changing leaves and weather. My themes don’t always lend themselves well to use the parachute (which is why I use it heavily for my outdoor summer programs), but occasionally it works well for one of these indoor programs. Falling leaves and whooshing wind make autumn a great theme for the parachute.

You can see another version of this theme from 2020 and 2023. Additionally, find themes for Apples and Pumpkins!

Early Literacy Tip: Factual books are a great way to expand children’s knowledge about the world, especially when you can see and experience something in their world, like the changing of the seasons. You can read the whole book or choose certain pages your child might be interested in. In fact, it’s perfectly okay to read only parts of any book, or to just focus on the pictures. You can adapt the experience to your child’s interest and attention span. The important thing is to make reading together a positive experience.

Welcome Song: Hello, Friends* †

Warm Up Song: Wake Up, Feet*
This is a repeated song that everyone seems to enjoy. I always begin and end with feet and tummies, but find two other body parts to wiggle in the middle. I rotate between elbows, cheeks, hips, noses, arms, chins, thighs, heads, shoulders, ears, knees, and fingers.

Lifting Rhyme: Toast in the Toaster*

Intro: Oh, the air is turning crisp (kind of), the days are getting shorter, and the leaves are starting to change colors. We’ve just changed to a new season – autumn, or fall! Have you ever wondered why the leaves turn colors? Here’s an explanation I found in an informational book called Why Is it Fall? by Sara L. Latta. I read the two-page spread about why leaves turn colors, then mention our early literacy tip for the day.

I wanted one verse to talk about the blackbirds eating corn, so we could transition into the scarecrow song! It’s usually pretty easy to come up with a name rhyme to make this one whatever you’d like it to be. I didn’t update the rhyme sheet to add this verse, I just led it for the group. Easy enough to follow along!
Fall is the time that the fruits and vegetables that have been growing all summer are ready to eat. So who likes to eat them? The animals do!
Fingerplay: Two Little Blackbirds
Two little blackbirds sitting on a hill
One named Jack and one named Jill
Fly away Jack, fly away Jill
Come back Jack, come back Jill

Two little blackbirds pecking at the cob
One named Beth and one named Bob…
Source: adapted from the traditional

Fair warning on this one – when I see the first line, I automatically chant it like “teddy bear, teddy bear.” It took some effort to remember to sing it to Twinkle, twinkle. This is actually just the first verse of the rhyme we found at Adventures in Storytime. But I liked the fact that it ended with a “stomp your feet” so I could encourage them to scare away the blackbirds. The second verse is cute, too, but I went for a shorter version and repeated it. Due credit – my coworker created the rhyme sheet for this one!
Let’s put up a scarecrow to scare those blackbirds!
Action Song: Scarecrow, Scarecrow
(tune of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star)
Scarecrow, scarecrow, turn around
Scarecrow, scarecrow, touch the ground
Stand up tall and blink your eyes
Raise your hands up to the sky
Clap your hands, then tap your knees
Turn around and stomp your feet
Source: Adventures in Storytime

Transition: If You’re Ready for a Story* 

It’s not the “middle of fall” but the beginning of it, so these were the things we had to look forward to! (and oh, how I wish there was a scarecrow in the picture of the brown fields!)
Read: In the Middle of Fall by Kevin Henkes & Laura Dronzek

This was my week to do my monthly evening program, which is open to a wider audience (0-5). They were already pretty hyped up, so I went with the more interactive title. I asked them to do the actions on the floor in front of them while I did them in the book itself.
Read: Tap the Magic Tree by Christie Matheson

I have used this rhyme from Mel’s Desk for many programs, and have even adapted it for a winter theme. It’s very simple but cozy and comforting. My flannel was made using Mel’s photo as a template.
Let’s do a rhyme about the colors of autumn
Flannel Rhyme: Blue is the Sky
Blue is the sky, Yellow is the sun
Silver are the stars, When the day is done
Orange is the leaf, Brown is the tree
Red is the apple, For you and me
Source: Mel’s Desk

I think my kiddos like any iteration of Wheels on the Bus, ever. I tweaked the lyrics to this one just a bit, replacing the people raking leaves (which is a difficult motion to do without an implement) to the people walking by go crunch – foot stomping is an easy one!
I love the color and crunch of fall leaves!
Action Song: The Leaves on the Trees
(tune of Wheels on the Bus)
The leaves on the trees turn orange and red, (flip hands)
Orange and red, orange and red
The leaves on the trees turn orange and red,
All around the trees

The leaves on the trees come twirling down… (twirl fingers downward)
The leaves on the ground go swish, swish, swish… (flick hands back and forth)
The people walking by go crunch, crunch, crunch… (stomp feet)
The kids in the yard go jump, jump, jump… (jump!)
Source: Jbrary

Time to get out the parachute! Let’s do a rhyme about being a tree. Trees start as little seeds. Can you get small?
We did this rhyme twice, getting low and high with the ‘chute, and waving it gently in the breeze. The second time, I dropped a bunch of fabric leaves on the parachute at the last line, and launched into Autumn Leaves Are Falling Down right away.
Parachute Rhyme: Once I Was a Seed
Once I was a seed and I was small, small, small (crouch low)
I grew into a tree and now I’m tall, tall, tall! (stand up and stretch out arms like branches)
My branches sway in the breeze so soft (sway and wave hands/’chute like a leaf)
And when it’s autumn, all my leaves fall off! (lower ‘chute)
Source: Storytime in the Stacks

Parachute Song: Autumn Leaves Are Falling Down
(tune of London Bridge)
Autumn leaves are falling down
Falling down, falling down
Autumn leaves are falling down
All around the town

verse 2:
The wind will blow them round and round…
Source: King County (WA) Library System

I next invited adults to hold the parachute while the kids got underneath.
When the seasons change, the weather changes, too. I think it’s about to rain. Let’s get under the umbrella!
Action/Parachute Song: Come Under My Umbrella
(tune of Did You Ever See a Lassie?)
Come under my umbrella, umbrella, umbrella (move parachute up and down)
Come under my umbrella, it’s starting to rain
With thunder and lightning, and lightning and thunder (wiggle ‘chute more strongly)
Come under my umbrella, it’s starting to rain
Source: traditional

This is a great way to put the parachute away. I ask for only grownups to hold on, and then let them know they are letting go at the end. Once the parachute was whisked away, I asked the kids to help me pick up all the fabric leaves that were scattered about.
The autumn wind is going to blow away the parachute!
Parachute Song: Parachute Fly
(tune of Skip to my Lou)
(kids go under the parachute and adults raise and lower)
Up, up, up it goes,
Down, down, down so low
Raise our parachute to the sky
Count to 3 and watch it fly
Spoken:
Up on one…
Down on two…
Up on three…
and FLY! (adults let go and leader pulls ‘chute in to themselves)
Source: Gymboree

Action Song: Zoom, Zoom, Zoom!*

Craft: Leaf Rubbing
Back to basics! I went on a nature walk and found leaves of different species, with different shapes and even tried varying the colors that they were, including a few green leaves. I hadn’t done this craft since I was a child, so a few tips: make sure you pick leaves that are not completely dried out – they need to still be supple. That might mean plucking them from low branches instead of finding them on the ground. They also dry out really fast! We did great on the first day, but there were some crunchy ones the second day. I unwrapped the labels from leaf-colored crayons: red, orange, yellow, brown, and green, and demonstrated for everyone. Not all the adults knew what to do. The leaf goes UNDER the paper, and you need to use the FLAT side of the crayon. But the rubbings themselves are like magic – you see the delicate veins and outline come through the paper and it’s amazing.

Play Time
I put out a laundry basket of baby toys – rattles and cars, sorters and stackers, toy phones and spinners. For the older toddlers and siblings, we have foam blocks, soft food toys, puzzles, plastic farm animals, and lacing cards and I rotate among a few of these options each session. We play for 5-10 minutes at the most, then I ring the bell and ask the kids to help me clean up. The clean up bit is good practice for them – I often say “it’s hard to say goodbye to toys, so that’s why we practice every storytime!” I think that helps the grown ups who may be embarrassed that their kid is crying or refusing to put a toy away. So much of what we do in storytime is practicing skills, and I don’t expect the kids to “do it right’ every time, or even most times.

Goodbye Song: See You Later Alligator* 

Other books I had available for families to browse (and may work for you on this theme)
Humpty’s Great Fall – Amy Moore & Josh Cleland
The Leaf Thief – Alice Hemming
Mouse’s First Fall – Lauren Thompson
Full of Fall – April Pulley Sayre
Fall Mixed Up – Bob Raczka & Chad Cameron
On a Gold-Blooming Day – Buffy Silverman
Leaf Man – Lois Ehlert
Leaves – David Ezra Stein
Goodbye Summer, Hello Autumn – Kenard Pak
Autumn Babies – Kathryn O. Galbraith & Adela Pons
We’re Going on a Leaf Hunt – Steve Metzger & Miki Sakamoto
The Very Last Leaf – Stef Wade & Jennifer Davison
Fletcher and the Falling Leaves – Julia Rawlinson & Tiphanie Beeke
Wonderfall – Michael Hall

This storytime was presented in-person on 9/24, & 9/25/25.

Storytime Handout:

*Lyrics to these songs can be found on the Repeated Songs & Rhymes page.

† Click the image of rhyme/song sheets to download a non-branded PDF