Kids Math and Reading: Zero Is The Leaves on the Tree

Zero Is The Leaves On The Tree by Betsy Franco was in the same section with other math books that we were checking out and I decided since we were going to have L week at school that it would be a good thing at home.

In the book,  the beginning of the book talks about how zero is the shape of an egg.  On each page, there is something that is zero.  The are zero balls in the basket at recess, zero leaves on the tree in the fall, zero ducks on the winter pond.  Each page has easy to read words and great pictures.  My son read the book by himself and really enjoyed that he could read it by himself.  It was easy for him because of the easy words and not a lot of each page so it didn't get too overwhelming.

We went on a leaf hunt and my son picked out a bucket of the leaves from the yard before we even read the book.  He had a great time filling the bucket and picking out lots of different kinds of leaves.  Great time to talk about how all the leaves are on the ground and there are none or zero on the trees.  It is counting and science all in one!

So we decided to made leaf rubbings.  We did one at first and the paper moved so we got out our handy plastic place mat so that I could tape the paper to the top so that he could flip it up and put the leaves under the paper.  This was way more successful then our first picture and we did at least five pictures.  Then, my son got out the glue stick and glued a few to another picture that he made so that they looked like clothes on a person.

 At school, it was L week so they made an L with leaf stamps for their morning work which he also enjoyed.  I don't have the neat stamps or else I would have made this neat craft because it is super easy but can also be done less expensively at home for one or two kids with stickers instead.

We did a lot of other fall activities including cutting and putting together this book.  I found a website called, Serving Joyfully, that had lots of fun fall activities including this book (click here).  I printed it out and my son cut it and chose that we should have three staples on the side to put it together. 

After we put it together, my son read me the book and we did the activity page where he wrote the answers to the questions.  I was pretty excited because he wrote all the answers himself and looked in the book for the spelling so he was super happy and proud that he finished the whole thing by himself.

Serving Joyfully fall activities also had a memory match and domino game in their print out.  I cut up the memory pieces and we have played memory match a few times since then and he refers to all of the people in the picture by name so I know he remembers the story and is super proud of all of his cutting.  Make sure you check out the great website to get these activities and more!!

I hope that you check out this book and do a few of these fun activities!  I know that you will enjoy it because it will keep your kids entertained for at least a few days with all the different things to do.  I hope that you check it out the next time that you are at the library or bookstore.