fall books

BOOKS, OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES
Favorite Fall and Winter Books for Outdoor Adventures
- October 26, 2023
As the vibrant hues of autumn fade into the crisp, wintry landscapes, there’s a unique kind of magic that happens in the great outdoors. The fall and winter seasons offer a treasure trove of unique opportunities for kids to explore their world in a whole new way. With the right books in hand, children can embark on thrilling adventures that extend beyond the boundaries of their imaginations. Today, Emily Liebel, Utah mom of three and founder of @inclusivelibrary, will take you on a journey through the best nature-inspired fall and winter books for kids. So, let’s dive into a world where the changing seasons are an invitation to get outside and adventure together!

Fall and winter outside

Fall and winter stand in stark contrast to each other when it comes to outdoor adventuring. Fall-time is full of more adventures and activities than most of us have time for. There are farms to visit, hikes to enjoy, harvests to be fulfilled, and explosions of color everywhere. In winter, life slows down significantly. Our kids may want to stomp and play in the snow or cuddle up with warmth and rest during the darker months.

In both seasons, we want to help our kids have fun! For some of us, this could be easy, and for others, there is a struggle to find the right activities. This is where books can come into play (literally!). Books can help encourage our kids to get creative and explore new perspectives and aspects of outdoor adventuring.

Where to find these books

If you would like to buy these fall and winter books through the affiliate links provided, RWMC receives a tiny commission. Our small business appreciates your support! If you would like to support small and independent bookstores in your area, try bookshop. I will also always recommend frequenting your local libraries and checking the books out as well.

How to use these books

In my spring and summer books post, I detailed the ways to use these books before, during, and after your adventures. The same ideas apply to the fall and winter books I have curated here. Make sure to refresh yourself on the benefits and how-to of pairing books with adventures from that post!

All of our kids are unique and will connect to different aspects of outdoor adventuring. While reading books, we can parse out what our kids will be most excited to experience. We can prepare them for new adventures or refresh their knowledge of family favorite adventures. And we can help them awaken imaginative play in new ways.

Diversity in books and reading level

Children of all ages will be able to read and understand different things that will support their uniqueness and their personal interests. And for that purpose, I have made sure to include diverse books that will help all kids feel included and excited about outdoor adventuring.

Kids may not pick an activity or adventure for themselves if they do not first see themselves represented in that arena. There is also a range of reading levels represented in the books I chose for this post. And while some books are more advanced than others, the vast majority of them will work for all ages. Personally, I would have no issue reading picture books with my middle-schooler (or even high-school-aged kids). They can still get so much enjoyment from being read to and flipping through picture books. But, no matter what age your kids are, you will have multiple options here that best fit your family and kids’ interests.

Seasonal weather and using these fall and winter books

I have not met many people who do not enjoy some aspects of autumn. It can be a nice reprieve from hotter days, and there really are so many activities available to us that automatically get our families outdoors. More often, I meet people who do not slow down enough to find deep appreciation and enjoyment of fall because they are busy preparing for winter. I hope that the books I have chosen to include here will help you find ways to connect to the earth and all the awe this season has to offer.

Once wintertime is in full swing, I have met a lot more people who pull back on their outdoor adventuring in favor of hunkering down and staying inside. The books that I have included are meant to inspire us to fight that urge. Winter, while cold and dark in many areas of the world, can be a time to refocus our habits on what really matters to our families. There is plenty of family adventuring and play to be had outdoors in the winter. If we have resources like these books to show us the possibilities, we will be able to pass encouragement on to our children.

Favorite fall books for kids

Books about fall leaves and hikes
1. Forest Baby by Laura Elmquist
2. Hiking Day by Anne Rockwell
3. An Autumn Treasury by Angela Ferraro-Fanning
4. Fresh Fall Leaves by Betsy Franco
5. It’s Fall! by Renee Kruilla
6. Taking a Walk: Fall in the Country by Sue Tarsky
7. Thank Fall by Ciara L. Hill
8. Goodbye Summer, Hello Autumn by Kenard Pak
9. The Wilderness by Steve McCarthy
These books capture the wonder and awe of autumn colors. While the natural world is beginning to wind down, we get to enjoy the changes in real time! This can be fascinating to children if we are willing to slow down and examine it with them.

You may think ‘autumn leaves’ and immediately connect it to a walk or hike or jumping in leaf piles. These are brilliant options, but what about leaf crafts or forts as shown in An Autumn Treasury or Fresh Fall Leaves? What about connecting it to daily gratitude with Thank Fall? The Wilderness is simply gorgeous and centers on bravery, friendship, and exploration.

Each of these books will give you and your family new ideas about how to engage with leaves and colors all season.

Books about farm visits, harvest, and fall festivals
1. Harvest Days by Kate DePalma
2. Marya Khan and the Spectacular Fall Festival by Saadia Faruqi
3. Farm Boots by Lisa H. Detlefsen
4. Amara’s Farm by JaNay Brown-Wood
I am a top-tier fan of agro-tourism. I shamelessly seek out the local farms with pumpkins, apple cider donuts, games, tractor rides, animals, and corn pits and mazes. Behind these fun seasonal attractions is a lot of effort from the farmers and even the animals! These books will give your kids a window into that work. Amara’s Farm introduces foods that are harvested this time of year and helps kids find characterizations as they wander the farm. Marya Khan is a new release chapter book following a third-grade girl while preparing a fall festival.

Each of these fall books will excite kids to visit farms with you and instill an appreciation for harvest and gathering.

Best winter books for kids

Winter sports
1. Goodnight, Chairlift by Libby Ludlow
2. The Little Book of Skiing by Orange Hippo!
3. Goodnight, Snowboard by Kristen McCurry
A great way to get kids outside in the winter is by taking up a winter sport. You may already be a skiing family, or you may want to try it out for the first time. Either way, there is a lot of gear and mountain-side etiquette and safety involved. Even sledding, there are things for which to prepare your kids. The Little Book of Skiing is not strictly a picture or chapter book, but I have included it because there are pages with only one sentence, some with paragraphs and others with infographics. All of which add to a deeper understanding and appreciation of a very involved but exciting winter sport.

All of these books introduce the information to kids while also capturing the true spirit of adventure that is going fast down the snow!

Books about playing in the snow
1. Ten Ways to Hear Snow by Kathy Camper
2. Goodbye Autumn, Hello Winter by Kenard Pak
3. A Day So Gray by Marie Lamba
4. Over and Under the Snow by Kate Messner
5. First Snow by Nancy Viau
6. Walking in a Winter Wonderland by Peggy Lee and Tim Hopgood
If you and your family are not as enthusiastic about snow sports, you may be looking for ideas closer to home or slower-paced. Playing in the snow in your own backyard or local parks and fields can be exciting as well. I’m sure I’m not alone in wondering how to get our kids to play outside a little longer in the winter. Besides quality gear to keep them warm, we can encourage them by showing them the true beauty of winter, as in A Day So Gray. With books like Ten Ways to Hear Snow and Over and Under the Snow, building a snowman or throwing snowballs can be just the beginning of our kids’ snowy play.

These books are sure to help your kids find ways to extend their time in the snow and build imaginative winter worlds right outside their doors.

Books for enjoying fall and winter holidays outside
1. Pick a Pumpkin by Patricia Toht
2. Halloween in the Orchard by Phyllis Alsdurf
3. We’re Going on a Pumpkin Hunt by Goldie Hawk
4. Pick a Pine Tree by Patricia Toht
5. Thanksgiving in the Woods by Phyllis Alsdurf
6. Little Red Ruthie: A Hanukkah Tale by Gloria Koster
This time of year is often called the holiday season because there are at least a dozen cultural and religious holidays that take place. We may automatically think of Halloween as a largely “outdoors” holiday. But we may not think the same for Hanukkah or Chinese New Year. These books bring those holidays outside in both small and large ways.

Holidays are not the main focus of this post, but I do think it is important to consider them. We can use our cultural and religious celebrations as opportunities to get outside and create new and lasting adventures or experiences. We do have a nature-holiday post with more books if you are looking for other suggestions!

Nature books enhance our adventures

Books can bring wonder and learning to our lives. When we take time to read nature books to our kids, we are helping them gain more appreciation of what this earth has to offer, which can lead to life-long understanding and habits of adventure. We know the benefits of early literacy, and we know the benefits of nature play. We can overlap these two aspects of physical and mental growth/health in beautiful and meaningful ways that benefit the whole family.

How will you use these books to adventure in the fall and winter months?

About the author

Emily and her family have moved across the US multiple times, and the best things about each state have been the outdoor adventures and the public libraries! Now living in Utah, Emily has continued her love for both. She explores both mountain and city outdoor spaces weekly with her three kids and friends and attends library story times, as well as leads a local story time. Emily has a passion for children’s literature. She uses books to educate, promote inclusion, understanding, and justice, and inspire adventure and creativity. Emily loves how reading and being outdoors overlap in so many exciting ways!

You can find Emily online in the following locations:
Instagram: @inclusivelibrary
RWMC Posts: Emily Liebel
BOOKS, CRAFTS, FALL, NATURE SCHOOL, OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES, OUTDOORS INSIDE
5 Fantastic Fall Books and Activities for Kids
- October 7, 2019
Fall is definitely in the air! One of our favorite ways to usher in a new season is to read books about the changing weather and what we can look forward to. We’re always on the lookout for fun books and ways to make outdoor learning exciting, so today’s post is a win-win. We have the amazing Chelsea, Virginia photographer, former teacher, and adventure mom of two, here sharing her family’s 5 favorite fall books and activities for kids. Not only are each of these books beautiful and fun to read, but they’re paired with awesome nature-inspired crafts and activities that are guaranteed to keep your kids entertained, active, and learning!

Favorite fall books and activities for outdoor kids

Fall is starting to make an appearance here in southeastern Virginia and we couldn’t be more excited! In our house, we love to match the books we’re reading to the current season or approaching holidays. We recently took a trip to our local library to check out almost every book in the fall children’s book section to kick-start fall. Today, I’m sharing some of our favorite fall children’s books and providing a fun family activity to do with each book. Whether you’re a homeschooler, a parent of children not yet in school, or a parent of school-aged kids, these fall books and activities will be sure to enrich your child’s learning while fully embracing the beauty of the season!

Choosing the books

In order to choose the best books possible, I used a VERY official and scientific method of measurement. My kids. We checked out a dozen fall nature-inspired books from our local library and read them all. If they asked to read a book again the instant we finished, it passed the test. I kept the ones they wanted to read multiple times and returned the rest! Here are 5 of our favorite fall books and an activity to go with each one!

Book 1: Because of an Acorn by Adam and Lola M. Schaefer

Because of an Acorn is a wonderful fall book about how all living things are connected. You’ll love both the story and the illustrations! Children are often amazed that giant oak trees all start as tiny little acorns. The book does a great job of showing how every tree, plant and animal in the forest are connected and tied to each other.

Activity: Acorn characters

Once you’re finished reading the book, take a little nature walk to collect some acorns, caps and tiny sticks. While you’re out exploring, you can discuss what kind of trees produce acorns and how to identify them! My kids had fun looking up at the leaves on each tree to see which ones were oaks and then looking around on the ground below to see if any acorns had dropped.

Once you get home, use your treasures to make little characters! We used tacky glue but I’m sure many different kinds of glue will work. If you have very small children, you may want to have them lay out the character and then leave the gluing part to a grownup! Once your characters are dry, you can draw on eyes if you’d like and then head back out into the woods to create tiny houses for them! You can break this activity up into multiple days or take a whole afternoon for it! The kids will have so much fun creating little families and then using imaginative play to make them come to life. And the best part is all that wonderful fresh fall air you’ll get from the time spent outside!

Book 2: It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown by Charles M. Shultz

It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is a childhood classic! Linus, Charlie and the rest of the Peanuts gang await the arrival of the Great Pumpkin on Halloween night. I wasn’t surprised that my kids really loved this one, because they love any Peanuts book! This book’s been around so long that it’s not only a new favorite of theirs, but a classic favorite of mine from childhood. I love being able to share that with them.

Activity: Painted rocks

In the story, one of the Peanuts characters gets rocks instead of treats during trick-or-treating, so we decided to go collect some rocks to paint. Once the boys had found the perfect rocks, we took them home, rinsed them, and dried them. Then we used acrylic paints to decorate them like pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns. Once they were dry, we headed to a park nearby to hide the rocks in fun places to be discovered by others! My kids are always excited when they find painted rocks at our park so we decided to keep that ball of fun rolling by placing some of our own there for other kids to enjoy.

Book 3: Stumpkin by Lucy Ruth Cummins

Stumpkin is the cutest little book about a pumpkin with no stem that never gets picked to be purchased and brought home. My kids love wordplay and making up words by putting other words together, so they were already hooked by the title. They really loved the illustrations and asked to take extra time on each page to enjoy the pictures. This one was a big hit!

Activity: Jack-o-lantern volcanoes

Once you’re finished with Stumpkin, a fun activity to do with the kids is to carve small pumpkins and then make “volcanoes” out of them. If you’ve enjoy doing science/STEM experiments at home, you’ve probably already used baking soda and vinegar for other projects. But have you ever watched the chemical reaction take place inside a jack-o-lantern?! It’s so much fun! The kids will love watching the bubbles come out of all the holes. In addition to the baking soda and vinegar, we also used some dish soap because I had read that it bubbles up more and I do think it worked!

Book 4: Fall Leaves by Loretta Holland

Fall Leaves is a really gorgeous picture book about the beauty of this magical season. Part poetry and part silent pages, this book showcases just how pretty fall is when the leaves change color and the whole world turns red, orange and yellow.

Activity: Fall leaf art project

This activity is so much fun and goes perfectly with the beautiful artwork in the Fall Leaves book! It’s also really easy and the kids loved it. Head out on a nature hunt to find different colored fall leaves. Once you’ve collected some, head back home to make your art.

Leaf art supplies:
- water color paints
- paintbrushes
- water
- straws
- paper
- glue
- the leaves you’ve collected
Once you have the supplies, instruct the children to use the paintbrush to get lots of water and some paint on the brush. Then have them make a “puddle” of water on the bottom of their paper. Use the straw to blow the water upward and out to make the trunk and branches of a tree.

When they’re finished with the trunk and branches, have them pick their favorite leaves to glue onto the branches. This project is great for building and developing fine motor skills, so feel free to have them create more than one tree!

Book 5: Goodbye Summer, Hello Autumn by Kenard Pak

Goodbye Summer, Hello Autumn is another beautiful book about the changing seasons. In this book, a young girl takes a walk through forest and town, greeting all the signs of the coming autumn season. In a series of conversations with every flower and creature and gust of wind, she says good-bye to summer and welcomes autumn.

Activity: Fall leaf art with crayons

If you’re like us, you have all sorts of old, broken crayons hanging around the house! These projects are a great way to use up some of those crayons. They’re also perfect activities for families who live in areas that don’t have season changes! You don’t need to use any real fall leaves for these projects but can still make some art that celebrates the autumn season. Both of these actives are a throwback to my own childhood and were very nostalgic for me! It was fun doing some activities with the kids that I did when I was a kid!

Option 1 – melted crayon shaving leaves

For the first crayon art project, you’ll need:
- a cloth towel
- crayons
- a vegetable peeler or scissors
- wax paper
- an iron
- construction paper
Obviously, with that list of supplies, it’s important for an adult to be around to help out with the project! Depending on how old your kids are, you’ll either have them make crayon shavings using whatever tool you have around, or you’ll have them pick the colors and you can do the shavings for them. Put all the shavings in a pile and set aside.

Next, use construction paper to cut out the trunk and branches of a tree (or several!). You will use it to create a fall scene on the wax paper. You can do one tree with some construction paper grass, multiple trees, whatever you like! Once you have the parts of your scene cut out from construction paper, place them on a sheet of wax paper to begin creating your fall scene.

After the construction paper parts are in place, have your child take the crayon shavings and sprinkle them wherever they want fall leaves to be. Once everything is where you want it to be, place a second sheet of wax paper on top. Then place the towel on top of everything. Use a hot iron (job for a grownup!) to seal the two pieces of wax paper together. This will also create a beautiful effect with the crayon shavings because it will melt them together! So much fun!

Option 2 – leaf rubbings

The second fall art activity you could do with crayons is make leaf rubbings! My kids LOVE doing this. It’s such a simple, timeless activity. When the kids see the leaf prints starting to appear, they light up with joy! My kids could do a hundred leaf rubbings and still be excited every time they see the leaf print appearing on the paper.

If you’ve never done this before, you only need some paper (computer paper works great), crayons, and leaves! Any leaves will do – they don’t have to be fall-colored. Place the leaf underneath the sheet of paper, hold it down carefully, and rub the SIDE part of an unwrapped crayon back and forth on top of the paper. You’ll see the shape of the leaf appearing on the paper! Leave them on the larger sheets of paper or cut them out. As my kids would say- easy, peasy, lemon-squeezy!

Favorite fall books and activities for kids

And there you have it! 5 beautiful fall books and activities for kids. Not only will you and the kids love these beautiful books, but the accompanying activities are some that the whole family will enjoy! This should definitely keep your little ones active, inspired, and excited about reading and nature.

What’s your favorite fall book for kids?

About the author

Hi there, I’m Chelsea! I’m a photographer, mother of two busy boys, and sunshine and fresh air addict. We live in Virginia Beach, Virginia and spend as much time outdoors as we possibly can! We spend most of our time exploring the beach, inlets, and nature trails nearby. We love biking, hiking, paddleboarding, kayaking, building forts, and playing in the sand! During the warm months, you can find us enjoying the Chesapeake Bay almost every night until long after the sun goes down. We’re doing our best to reduce our carbon footprint and always try to leave every trail cleaner than it was when we arrived.

You can find Chelsea online in the following locations:
Instagram: @dimples.and.the.blonde
Client work: @chelsea.lyn.photography
Website: dimplesandtheblonde.com

More RWMC posts from Chelsea: