Autumn reading

I never thought about the challenges of teaching seasons to a preschooler in the San Francisco Bay Area. Even though it is October, the air is still warm. Snow never falls. And in summer, you need a sweater to protect you from the chilly evenings. You have to use your imagination to conjure up the impressive colors of changing leaves or the frosty wonderlands of winter. Now, I am not complaining. I would not exchange the near perfection of my microclimate for real life teaching examples in my own neighborhood. It is okay that we will have to drive up to Tahoe to see snow and travel back East to show her the display of autumn color which I remember. In the meantime, though, we are reading about seasons. According to Audrey, it is fall time and the leaves are fallin'. And even though they are crunchy and brown, we jumped through them on our way to the library to get some books that show us how fall is supposed to look.

• Lois Lenski, Now It's Fall
• Tasha Tudor, Pumpkin Moonshine
• Cynthia Rylant, In November
• Margaret Wise Brown, The Little Scarecrow Boy
• Judith Rawlinson, Fletcher and the Falling Leaves
• Anne Rockwell, Apples and Pumpkins
• Nancy Elizabeth Wallace, Apples, Apples, Apples

And on seasons, in general

• Alice and Martin Provensen, The Year at Maple Hill Farm
• Tasha Tudor, Around the Year
• Brian Wildsmith, Animal Seasons
• Tasha Tudor, Five Senses
• Charlotte Zolotow, Over and Over

And a true sign fall is here in Northern California, it looks like rain. We are waiting anxiously for it.