Leaf Thief Adventures: Building Speech and Language Skills Through Stories and Crafts

In Jefferson Primary’s speech class, the teacher and students read The Leaf Thief by Alice Hemming, a story about Squirrel, who wonders where the leaves on his tree have gone. They followed this story up with a fun and sensory based leaf print craft by pressing a real leaf into clay, letting it dry, and painting the finished print. These activities gave students a fun way to practice their individual speech and language goals.

As they read the story, the students practiced answering comprehension questions and looking and listening for clues in the story and pictures to help them make predictions and thoughtful guesses, such as what might happen next or why the leaves are disappearing. They talked about Squirrel's emotions as the story changes, such as being worried, confused, suspicious, surprised, and relieved, and they looked for evidence to support this in his actions, words, and the pictures. Additionally, the students practiced spatial concepts by describing the illustrations and formulating complete sentences using these terms.

During the craft, students chose a leaf, flattened the clay, pressed and rolled the leaf into it, waited for the clay to dry, and finally painted the print. The steps of the craft were displayed visually to support students in identifying the materials needed and following the directions in order. We also practiced explaining the steps with sequence words such as “first,” “next,” “then,” and “last.” The students were all very excited to bring their craft home to show their families.