Library Lady’s K-12 Edition is a mostly weekly newsletter for K-12 school librarians. Today’s topic is — Celebrating Fall in the School Library
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Celebrating Fall in the School Library
There’s something about fall that seems made for libraries.
Changing leaves, cooler weather, shorter days, and a return to familiar routines all lend themselves to slowing down and picking up a good book. Fall also offers plenty of opportunities for library programming that don’t require an elaborate event—or hours of preparation.
Whether you work with kindergarteners, high school seniors, or everyone in between, here are some simple ways to celebrate the season in your school library.
Create a “Fall Into a Good Book” Display
This one may be familiar, but it works for a reason.
Pull together books with colorful autumn covers, stories set during the fall, books about changing seasons, and nonfiction about leaves, trees, migration, weather, harvest, and animal adaptations.
Don’t limit yourself to books that actually have “fall” or “autumn” in the title.
For older students especially, broaden the display to include books with cozy settings, outdoor adventures, nature writing, survival stories, mysteries, and books about change.
A few display signs could include:
- Fall Into a Good Book
- Turn Over a New Leaf—Try Something New
- Autumn Adventures Await
- Cozy Up With a Good Book
- Falling for Books
Better yet, leave some empty spaces in the display as books are checked out. An increasingly empty display is a good problem to have!
Bring Fall Into Storytime
For younger students, fall provides plenty of natural storytime themes.
Read books about leaves, apples, pumpkins, squirrels, bears, migration, weather, forests, farms, and changing seasons.
Then add one simple interactive element.
Students could act out leaves blowing in the wind, predict what an animal will do to prepare for winter, identify colors in the illustrations, or tell you something they’ve noticed changing outside.
You don’t need an elaborate craft after every story. Sometimes a good book followed by a five-minute conversation is enough.
Add a Little Fall Science
Fall is full of questions.
- Why do leaves change color?
- Why do some trees lose their leaves?
- Where do birds go?
- Why are the days getting shorter?
- What are animals doing to prepare for winter?
That makes autumn a wonderful time to highlight nonfiction.
Create a small “Why Does Fall Do That?” display featuring books that answer seasonal science questions.
For elementary students, you might even post one fall question each week and challenge students to find the answer in a library book or database.
For older students, extend the idea to ecology, climate, agriculture, migration, forestry, or environmental science.
Try a Fall Reading Challenge
Keep this one simple.
Instead of creating a complicated challenge with prizes and tracking sheets, give students a handful of autumn-inspired reading prompts.
For example:
Read a book…
- With red, orange, or yellow on the cover.
- Set outdoors.
- About an animal.
- With a character experiencing a change.
- About nature.
- That takes place somewhere you’ve never been.
- That teaches you something new.
- You can finish on a cozy afternoon.
- Recommended by someone else.
Older students could complete the same challenge—the books they choose will simply be different.
You could put the prompts on bookmarks, display them on a bulletin board, or post one challenge each week.
Let Students Recommend Their “Cozy Reads”
What makes a book feel cozy?
Ask your students.
Put out paper leaves and invite students to write the title of a book they’d recommend for curling up with on a cool fall day.
Add the leaves to a bulletin board or library wall.
Your display grows throughout the season, and students get book recommendations from the people whose opinions often matter most to them: other students.
For older students, you could skip the leaves and create a simple “What Are You Reading This Fall?” recommendation board.
Take the Library Outside
If your campus and weather allow it, fall is a wonderful time to connect library activities with the outdoors.
Take younger students on a short observation walk before reading a book about seasonal changes.
Ask students to notice:
- What colors do they see?
- What do they hear?
- What has changed since the beginning of the school year?
Older students could take photographs, make observations for nature writing, or gather inspiration for poetry.
The library doesn’t always have to stay inside.
Celebrate Autumn Through Poetry
Fall has inspired poets for generations, which gives you another easy cross-curricular connection.
Display autumn poems alongside poetry collections. Share a short poem during library time or morning announcements. Invite students to write a haiku inspired by something they notice outdoors.
You might create a “Poetry in the Leaves” display and add student poems throughout the season.
This can work surprisingly well across grade levels. A kindergarten class and an AP English class may approach autumn poetry very differently, but both can participate.
Explore Fall Around the Country—and the World
Autumn doesn’t look the same everywhere.
Students who live in an area without dramatic leaf color may encounter the classic red-and-gold New England version of fall much more often in books than outside their windows.
That raises an interesting question: What does fall look like where we live?
Compare seasonal changes in different regions. Explore how harvest traditions vary. Look at what happens during September, October, and November in the Northern Hemisphere—and what season people in the Southern Hemisphere are experiencing instead.
It’s an easy way to turn a familiar seasonal theme into geography and cultural exploration.
Make Fall a Time to Try Something New
Fall can also represent change.
- New school year.
- New classes.
- New routines.
- New books.
Use the season as an invitation for students to branch out from their usual reading choices.
Try a display called “Turn Over a New Leaf.”
Encourage students to:
- Try a new genre.
- Read a nonfiction book.
- Choose a book from a different section of the library.
- Try an audiobook or graphic novel.
- Read an author they’ve never read before.
- Ask someone else to choose their next book.
You could even participate and tell students what you’re trying for the first time.
Keep It Simple
Celebrating fall in the library doesn’t have to mean transforming the room from floor to ceiling.
Put up a small display.
Read a seasonal book.
Ask a question.
Share a poem.
Add some paper leaves to a bulletin board.
Invite students to recommend a cozy read.
Choose one idea that fits your students, your schedule, and the amount of energy you have available.
The best seasonal library activities aren’t necessarily the most elaborate.
They’re the ones that help students notice, wonder, explore—and find another reason to pick up a book.
This Week on Library Lady
Looking for more ideas for your library? This week’s Library Lady resources include:
Puppets That Make Storytime More Interactive https://library-lady.blog/puppets-make-storytime-more-interactive
Discover simple ways to use puppets to encourage questions, predictions, participation, and plenty of storytime fun. You don’t have to be a puppeteer!
Talk Like a Pirate Day Books for K–12 Libraries https://library-lady.blog/talk-like-a-pirate-day-books
Ahoy, readers! Explore pirate-themed picture books, elementary reads, middle and high school selections, including both fiction and nonfiction.
What Teachers Need to Watch for in the Age of AI https://library-lady.blog/what-teachers-need-to-watch-for-ai/
AI in education goes far beyond cheating concerns. Explore fabricated sources, hallucinations, privacy, bias, student thinking, and why sometimes the assignment itself may need to change.
Fall Books for K–12 School Libraries https://library-lady.blog/fall-books-k-12-school-libraries
Find fiction and nonfiction for picture books through high school readers, with autumn stories, nature, science, seasonal changes, and plenty of books perfect for a fall display.
Until next time,
September Celebrations
September 11 books for kids and teens
Tomie dePaolo
Constitution Day & Citizenship Day Books for K–12 Students
Talk Like a Pirate Day Books for K–12 Libraries
This coming week, look for these posts
Fall Into Reading: Easy October Reading Promotions
| Need to raise funds for your library? Here are some posts on my blog that describe my fundraising camps. |
September Birthdays
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Here are some posts you may want to check out.
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What Teachers Need to Watch for in the Age of AI
What happens in October – a roundup post of Library Lady posts about October
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Adult Review – Delaware Keepers – non-fiction
Recent YA Book Reviews
YA Review – For This Very Purpose – young adult Biblical Fiction
Recent MS Book Reviews
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Recent Kid Book Reviews
Kid Review – Miya’s Mooncakes – picture book
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Cute animals with books – stickers, shirts and more in my Redbubble Shop
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Some things that might interest you
📚 Tools for School Librarians 📚
As librarians, we’re always looking for creative ways to engage students and enhance programming. These tools are easy to use. Explore them today and see how they might fit into your toolkit.
K-2 Back to School – I promoted this earlier, and it looks like you can still get it at the launch price. I have personally used this to create library printables. If you purchase through my link, you will receive a booklet titled Your First Hour with Educational GPTs to walk you through using educational GPTs. You can purchase a K-2 version, a 3-6 version, or the full K-6 bundle (which I recommend). The sales page the link takes you to is for the K-2 edition. If you scroll down, you’ll see a header that says Need Grades 3-6? Click on that link, and on that page you can choose either 3-6 or K-6. If you need help, please let me know. Sharon does a great job of walking you through using the product.
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I’d like to add a couple of features to my blog in the coming months and would appreciate your help. I am looking for school librarians interested in being interviewed on the blog. I am also looking for librarians and children’s or young adult authors to do guest posts on the blog. Click on the links below to fill out a survey.
How can I help? Drop a note in the comments or email me. I’d love to help.
See you next week.
Jane (Library Lady)
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Parts of this email were written with help from AI.
