Free Autumn Decomposer Detectives printables
The leaves have fallen. The mystery is just beginning.
Choose the version that fits your child today. Start with coloring, share an early activity, or settle into a bigger investigation. Every complete pack is free in US Letter and A4.
Age ranges are a starting point. Follow your child’s interests and comfort, and explore together. No account or email form is needed.
Little Autumn Coloring
Eight coloring-only pages with bold outlines, roomy shapes and a friendly theme character. Drawings are simplified pictures and pretend characters, not scientific diagrams.
8 printable pages · 8 coloring pages
Offer one page at a time and follow the child's interest. Stop whenever they are ready.
A hedgehog and a leaf
A real page from the coloring-only pack.
A big fallen leaf
A real page from the coloring-only pack.
Ready to print and color
Print any page in portrait on the matching paper size. Coloring only: there are no puzzles, tracing tasks, cutting pieces or expected answers. Scribbling and coloring outside the lines are welcome.
What you’ll need
- The printed pages
- Chunky crayons
- A grown-up nearby
All 8 pages, in print order
- A hedgehog and a leaf
- A big fallen leaf
- An acorn
- A woodland mushroom
- An autumn tree
- A wiggly worm
- A watering can
- A little hedgehog
Little Autumn Explorers
Sixteen big-picture autumn activities explore falling leaves, forest-floor layers, fungi, and small leaf-litter animals through matching, wide tracing paths, counting to five, and drawing.
18 printable pages · 16 activities + 2 grown-up support pages
Choose 2-4 activities at a time and return over several days.
Hello, autumn detectives!
A real page from the read-aloud activity pack.
Fungus threads
A real page from the read-aloud activity pack.
Ready to print and explore
Print at 100% or Actual Size. A grown-up reads the prompts; children can point, trace, and draw. No collecting, cutting, or glue is required.
What you’ll need
- The printed pages
- Crayons or colored pencils
- A pencil
- A grown-up to read and talk together
All 18 pages, in print order
- Hello, autumn detectives!
- Leaves float down
- Leaf veins
- Whole or pieces?
- Leaf piles
- Look under the leaves
- Who is in the leaf litter?
- A small litter muncher
- Shade and rain
- An autumn pattern
- A leaf changes
- Fungus threads
- Find the forest pairs
- The leaf-litter trail
- The forest-floor audience
- Make a leaf-litter home
- Grown-up guideGrown-up support page
- Answer and conversation notesGrown-up support page
Autumn Decomposer Detectives: ages 6–9
The leaves have fallen. The mystery is just beginning.
The hedgehog detective has a missing-leaf mystery. Match leaf clues, meet the forest-floor recycling teams, read pretend field notes and build a simple food web. Then cut and assemble a forest-floor model with liftable flaps and resident cards, and fold your own leaf-recycling story. Everything can be explored with the printed pictures.
20 activity pages + 4 guide, answer and reference pages.
The complete bundle. Completely free.
US Letter (8.5 × 11 inches) is ready for your home printer. A4 is also available. No email form. No separate MomoMango account.
Just the coloring sheet (PNG)Choose another age
little people, wonderfully big ideas ♡A few pages from the bundle.
Open the forest-floor case
Color the story picture, find a leaf and a mushroom, then draw or write something you notice and something you wonder.
Follow the forest food
Draw five arrows from foods to their users or eaters to build a simplified forest food web.
Build a forest-floor lift-the-flaps
Cut three strips, fold their tabs and glue them to a spare sheet. The next page supplies resident cards to place under the flaps.
A whole bundle of things to try.
Choose one investigation, or return to the mystery over several sessions. Print the pages you need, and follow the numbered sequence for activities that build on earlier results.
Print single-sided. Pages 15–16 make the forest-floor model; page 20 folds into a leaf-recycling story. Keep two spare sheets ready for the paper build.
Gather a few simple things.
- The printed pack
- Pencils or crayons
- Child-safe scissors and a glue stick
- 2 spare sheets of paper
- Optional: a ruler
- A grown-up to help with reading and cutting
All 24 pages, in print order
- Autumn Decomposer DetectivesSupport page
- Open the forest-floor case
- Four leaf clues
- Alive, once alive, never alive
- Meet the recycling teams
- Fungus or green plant?
- The hidden thread network
- Put the leaf story in order
- Plan a fair comparison
- Evidence or a guess?
- Read the pretend field notes
- Make the results visible
- Follow the forest food
- Repair the detective report
- Build a forest-floor lift-the-flaps
- Move the residents in
- Design a small habitat patch
- A detective field notebook
- The calendar is not a stopwatch
- Fold a leaf-recycling story
- Close the case. Open a question.
- For the grown-upSupport page
- Answers and discussion cluesSupport page
- More answers and sourcesSupport page
A few little ways
to play.
Start with the printable. See where their imagination takes it.
Start with what you notice
Choose a page and describe the clues before trying to explain them. A child can point, draw or dictate an observation. Keep their questions alongside their answers.
Build a forest you can lift open
Use pages 15–16 to make the flap model and add its resident cards. Talk about why an animal or fungal thread might belong in more than one place. Real forest floors vary.
Tell the recycling story
Fill the four panels on page 20, cut the outside edge and fold a concertina. Invite your child to explain how the processes in the pictures can overlap.
Easy on your printer. Ready for their crayons.
Use the PDF that matches your paper, print in portrait, and check the preview before you start. Choose “Fit to printable area” if your printer clips the edges. Read our printing guide.
This theme has separate packs for ages 2–4, 4–6 and 6–9. Choose the pages that suit your child. Find a comfortable level.
What if your child led an autumn detective adventure?
Take this interest into a personalized coloring storybook starring your child and their people. Your story idea will be waiting in the studio. The free activity bundle stays available here whenever you need it.
Start their coloring storybookThe studio currently uses sample artwork. Live personalization and print ordering are coming with connected services.A few things you
might be wondering.
Which age version should I choose?
The ages 2–4 pack contains eight coloring pages only. The ages 4–6 pack has sixteen early activities and two grown-up support pages. The ages 6–9 investigation has twenty activities and four support pages. Preview each version above and choose what fits your child's interests and comfort today.
What is included in the autumn bundle?
The full PDF contains 20 activities plus 4 guide, answer and reference pages. It includes leaf clues, decomposer and detritivore comparisons, pretend field data, a food web, a forest-floor flap model and a foldout story. The complete inventory lists every page in print order.
Do we need a microscope or a science kit?
No. Use the printed pages, pencils or crayons, child-safe scissors, a glue stick and two spare sheets of paper. A ruler is optional. Every activity can use the printed pictures. The notebook also offers optional looking from a path with a grown-up; collecting leaves, soil or fungi is not required.
Can this become a story starring my child?
The separate studio can start a personalized coloring storybook about your child and their chosen characters investigating an autumn mystery. The free science activities remain ready-made and do not change into a personalized curriculum.
What am I allowed to do with these free printables?
Print and enjoy them with your family, your classroom, or at a non-commercial event. You may not resell the artwork or redistribute the files as your own. Share this page’s link so other families can download their own copy.
Do I need to upload a photo or enter my email?
You do not need to upload photos or complete an email form for these packs. They download directly from this page. The separate book studio saves your family profiles and stories.
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