Lesson Plans and Teaching Resources for The Leaf Thief

Use The Leaf Thief by Alice Hemming to strengthen your students' comprehension skills, build their vocabulary, and help them understand how words work.

All of Squirrel's leaves have turned from green to red, gold, and orange. It is Squirrel's favorite time of year. But when he notices that one of his leaves has gone missing, Squirrel becomes a detective on a case to solve the leafy mystery. He asks all of his friends if they have taken his leaves but has no luck cracking the case. Luckily, Squirrel has Bird who finally helps him find The Leaf Thief.

Students will enjoy learning how to use comprehension strategies like determining importance, retelling, and predicting to deepen their comprehension of this laugh-out-loud story. After reading the book, students can practice working with -th digraphs. Or they can have some fun writing a reminder note to Squirrel to help him remember who the Leaf Thief is. Students can also spend some time practicing how to read with expression using this fun resource.

Explore lesson plans and activities to help you teach with The Leaf Thief in the drop down below.

Determining Importance with The Leaf Thief

The first page of Determining Importance with The Leaf Thief

Determining Importance with The Leaf Thief

The Leaf Thief by Alice Hemming is a smart choice to use when introducing younger readers to the concept of determining importance while reading. With this lesson plan and set of resources, students will learn to pay attention to the pictures and the characters to deepen comprehension and identify the important parts of the text.
Common Core State Standards Alignment
TEKS Alignment

Making Connections with The Leaf Thief

The first page of Making Connections with The Leaf Thief

Making Connections with The Leaf Thief

This set of resources makes it easy for students to make meaningful connections to The Leaf Thief. Use the included prompts to guide students as they make personal connections with the characters, text-to-world connections based on the changing season described in the book, and text-to-text connections to think about the ways in which this book compares to others they might have read.
Common Core State Standards Alignment
TEKS Alignment

Making Inferences with The Leaf Thief

The first page of Making Inferences with The Leaf Thief

Making Inferences with The Leaf Thief

Alice Hemming and Nicola Slater provide readers with a delightfully funny story that is made even more fun through the use of alternating fonts and brightly colored illustrations. Use this resource set to teach your students how to use the clues the author and illustrator provide to make inferences about the characters and plot - your students will love making inferences with this book!
Common Core State Standards Alignment
TEKS Alignment

Making Predictions with The Leaf Thief

The first page of Making Predictions with The Leaf Thief

Making Predictions with The Leaf Thief

Students will delight in using their background knowledge about the ways trees change in the fall to make predictions in The Leaf Thief. Alice Hemming's use of dialogue paired with Nicola Slaters hilarious illustrations work to give readers the information they need to make predictions while reading this laugh-out-loud story.
Common Core State Standards Alignment
TEKS Alignment

Retelling and Summarizing with The Leaf Thief

The first page of Retelling and Summarizing with The Leaf Thief

Retelling and Summarizing with The Leaf Thief

With a limited cast of characters and a problem that's easy to identify, beginning readers will have a lot of fun learning to retell and summarize the story elements that make up The Leaf Thief. The page-specific prompts included in this resource set will help students logically retell the story and deepen their comprehension of the text.
Common Core State Standards Alignment
TEKS Alignment

Digraphs with The Leaf Thief

The first page of Digraphs with The Leaf Thief

Digraphs with The Leaf Thief

This word work lesson plan and set of teaching resources use The Leaf Thief by Alice Hemming as a springboard for instruction focused on digraphs.By anchoring word study to the text, students will benefit from seeing how consonant digraph -th is used inside of the text before engaging in both guided and independent practice with words.
Common Core State Standards Alignment
TEKS Alignment

Vocabulary Connections with The Leaf Thief

The first page of Vocabulary Connections with The Leaf Thief

Vocabulary Connections with The Leaf Thief

This set of vocabulary development resources for The Leaf Thief highlights the words that are most important for students to know and understand while reading the book. Through engaging in fun word games, matching words to definitions and pictures, and practicing how to categorize words, students will develop the vocabulary necessary to comprehend this story and many others.
Common Core State Standards Alignment
TEKS Alignment

Running Record with The Leaf Thief

Thumbnail for Running Record with The Leaf Thief

Running Record with The Leaf Thief

Use this Running Record to assess oral reading fluency with The Leaf Thief. Track meaning, structure, and visual accuracy using the first 100 words of the text to determine whether or not this book is a good fit for the readers in your classroom.

Cause and Effect Sentence Stems with The Leaf Thief

Thumbnail for Cause and Effect Sentence Stems with The Leaf Thief

Cause and Effect Sentence Stems with The Leaf Thief

Understanding cause and effect is a key comprehension and language skill. The text structure of The Leaf Thief includes several examples of cause and effect relationships, making it easy to use as a springboard for modeling or independent practice. This simple resource includes four sentence stems. Each sentence stem presents an effect. Students will use what they know about the book to fill in the cause of the effect.

Cause and Effect Matching with The Leaf Thief

Thumbnail for Cause and Effect Matching with The Leaf Thief

Cause and Effect Matching with The Leaf Thief

Read The Leaf Thief then have some fun matching cause and effect sentences from the book. By using these cause and effect cards, students will demonstrate both their comprehension of the text and their understanding of cause and effect relationships in hands-on and interactive way. This resource includes matching/sorting cards and a sorting mat for four cause and effect sentences in The Leaf Thief. Each cause card is marked with a square and each effect card is marked with a circle, making it easy to support students who struggle with matching cause and effect relationships.

Writing with The Leaf Thief

Thumbnail for Writing with The Leaf Thief

Writing with The Leaf Thief

The BookPagez extension activities are a great way to push student engagement beyond the pages of the text. Try using this activity with early finishers, with students who show a deeper connection with the text, or as a center activity.

Determining Importance with The Leaf Thief (Spanish)

  • Student Practice Page and Answer Key
  • Reader's Notebook Prompt
  • Graphic Organizer

Making Connections with The Leaf Thief (Spanish)

  • Student Practice Page and Answer Key
  • Reader's Notebook Prompt
  • Graphic Organizer

Making Inferences with The Leaf Thief (Spanish)

  • Student Practice Page and Answer Key
  • Reader's Notebook Prompt
  • Graphic Organizer

Making Predictions with The Leaf Thief (Spanish)

  • Student Practice Page and Answer Key
  • Reader's Notebook Prompt
  • Graphic Organizer

Retelling and Summarizing with The Leaf Thief (Spanish)

  • Student Practice Page and Answer Key
  • Reader's Notebook Prompt
  • Graphic Organizer

Writing with The Leaf Thief (Spanish)

Worksheet

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About the Book

The cover for the book The Leaf Thief
Title: The Leaf Thief
Author: Alice Hemming
Genre: Fantasy, Informational
Themes: Perseverance, Weather, Plants, Friendship, Fall, Laugh Out Loud
ISBN: 9781338865738
Publisher's Summary:
Perfect for fans of Fletcher and the Falling Leaves, The Leaf Thief is a funny picture book that teaches kids about autumn, adapting to change, and the seasons. Squirrel loves counting the leaves on his tree―red leaves, gold leaves, orange, and more. But hold on! One of his leaves is missing! On a quest to find the missing leaf, Squirrel teams up with his good friend Bird to discover who the leaf thief could be among their forest friends. With vibrant art and captivating characters, the magic of autumn is captured beautifully on each page as readers tag along Squirrel's forest adventure. Is there truly a leaf thief afoot, or is something else going on in Squirrel's forest? A perfect exploration of change―both seasonal, and the anxiety that change sometimes causes. Bonus material explaining about the changing of the seasons. Poised to be a new fall classic.
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