Observing leaves doesn’t have to be an elementary or high school project as we discover in Count Down to Fall.  Author Fran Hawk combines math and science with poetic verse and in doing so she provides some tips for helping young children remember tree names.

Ten sweet gum leaves,
Orange, purple, and red,
Look like bright colored stars
As they fall on earth’s bed.
 
The author packs a lot into each verse and illustrator Sherry Neidigh keeps the eyes busily searching the pages while the verses are being read. What do we learn from this colorful two-page spread? The page is framed by the tree’s bark. In the four corners (of the two-page spread) we find a summer sweet gum leaf, a fall leaf, a mature seed pod and the tree’s image. While counting we find ten sweet gum leaves and the verse provides leaf descriptions. The leaves are star shaped; the colors are not just red but also orange and purple.  It also supplies the tree’s name, Sweet Gum.  While counting leaves we notice that each has lots of different shades of red, orange and purple (perhaps even a little yellow).  There are also animals in this nighttime forest setting.  The harvest moon illuminates the forest floor and we find two raccoons, a frog and a large moth.

This extremely helpful approach makes the reading fun while teaching math skills and offering early science lessons.  I love the book’s efficiency. The next page is nine dogwood leaves and again the format repeats but this time the animals are opossum and a new moth.  The clever use of the tree’s bark as part of the frame really supports the images and the content, but then that’s a primary function of tree trunk and bark.  Bark protects trees and trunks hold them upright but that’s probably reading too deeply into this early childhood book.

Still, it’s a clever use of space.  I also like reserving the four corners to depict a drawing of the flower, seed/fruit, leaf, and tree shape (wearing fall colors). Eight beech tree leaves drift around a cat – Hawk compares the leaves to the yellow of cats’ eyes. Six linden leaves reflect golden sunlight.

Every two-page spread has a tree and some charming and appropriate animals.  The pages are small treasure hunts and not only can readers count leaves but they can count all of the nuts, cones, and animals found on each.  They might ask about the holes on the linden leaves and you can compare all of the different types of “fruits” and seeds.  On the last pages they can show off their identification skills. The ground is covered with freshly fallen leaves, nuts, and seeds as well as some of the animals they’ve just met. The frame on this two-page spread shows four different barks so you might have to return to the story to review what the previous barks looked like.  With all of the playful animal distractions on each page readers probably didn’t look too closely at the bark frames. The landscape on the last page wears winter white and provides a feeling that winter has chilled the air.  Only a few animals remain visible while several are tucked away in their winter beds.

Teaching with Count Down to Fall
This is a beautiful book designed for early childhood learners, preK through kindergarten. This teaches science skills, reinforces observation, and introduces leaf properties and natural habitats. It’s a very introductory book for teaching counting skills, but the fun for young readers who know how to count will be in discovering the rest of the page content.

Sherry Neidigh’s art is beautiful. She works with watercolor, pencil, and gouache.  She claims to enjoy drawing animals and children and it shows. Her attention to detail is most impressive and this is the second book where her art has caught my attention more than the author’s story. The first was The Best Nest – the attention to detail and her obvious research create realistic settings for the stories.

This charming and obviously educational book should be shared in the classroom or at home.  It’s one that will handle multiple readings and it’s perfect for autumn activities if you live in a part of the country with lots of fall leaf color. It’s close to being perfect with the only glitch on number five. Each verse identifies the tree, except number five. 

Five prickly cases
With nuts, brown and hard,
Pull leaves along with them
As they thump in the yard.
 
No, it’s not a prickly ash but instead it’s a chestnut leaf. However, I’m not going to let that detract from my overall impression of this quality book.

We have Sylvan Dell Publishing to Thank.
Four pages of “For Creative Minds” activities in the back provide educational support for the book’s content.
+ Plant Parts is an activity that encourages matching descriptions (stems, seeds, roots, chlorophyll/green leaves) to plant parts although I think they mixed the answers of 4 and 5;
+ Leaf matching to a few leaf shapes (although they confuse shapes with leaf margins – please forgive me, my degrees are in forestry and education).
+ What Good are Plants discusses some uses of plants for both animals and humans.
+ A final activity of matching leaf shape of summer leaves to fall leaves.

Online at Sylvan Dell Publishing there is much more.
The book is aligned to national standards. I’ve been conducting quite a few teacher workshops this summer and introducing teachers to a selection of books that help teach science in the early elementary grades. They overwhelming loved the online resources provided by Sylvan Dell. Specifically, regarding this book, they particularly liked the sorting cards and the graphing activities offered online in the Teaching Activities resource. They like that this is a book to be re-read for more information but that it also fosters language and writing skills through the exploration of science and rhyming. I like the related websites that support the book’s content and I greatly appreciate knowing that Sylvan Dell approached professionals to verify the text’s and illustration’s accuracy.

Check out the educator resources at Sylvan Dell’s website, www.sylvandellpublishing.com/Count.php, and see how this can enrich your classroom or home school teaching experience. Parents and grandparents will also enjoy sharing Count Down to Fall with their favorite young readers.  This gets a 4 1/2 stars but I'm rounding up to five.


I wish to thank Sylvan Dell Publishing for the opportunity to provide an honest review of this book. I find their products impressive and incredibly valuable resources for teachers. Who says you can’t teach science through reading—certainly not me!

Recommended: Yes