Easter time is upon us and books are a lovely way to get into the Easter spirit! To give you a head start on your shopping for Easter this year, my recommendations are all at Aldi Australia at the moment so Aussie parents, head there quick smart!

As always, I will provide ideas for crafts or follow up activities. This time I didn’t suggest the most obvious, dying or decorating Easter eggs or going on your own Easter egg hunt. That’s because I’m sure those ideas are in your fabulous minds already! I tried to suggest things that you may not have thought of instead. Hope you can get some clever ideas guys! Enjoy!

Peter Rabbit’s Easter Surprise

This super simple story is designed for the little ones under the age of 5.

Really beautiful pictures and simple language will engage the youngest of readers. Peter Rabbit hurries along all of his friends on Easter morning to see a very cute Easter surprise. On each page there is a different animal. A great way to engage your little reader would be to ask which animal they think would be on the next page. But, before you even start the book, why don’t you ask your child to predict what the big Easter surprise could be!

A nice follow up for your early reader could be to draw a picture of their favourite page!

 

Egg Hunting We Will Go

Egg Hunting We Will Go is a story about a group of friends searching for Easter eggs. They go on a hunt through the fields and come across lots of little creatures. These cute little guys join them in the hunt for tasty Easter Eggs. I wonder what, or WHO they’ll find in the end.

The pictures in this book are so sweet and child like, and the language is rhythmic… almost like a little song. I would share this with children under 12.

A follow up activity for this could be a timeline, almost like a comic style. See if your little reader can create a timeline of the animals they find along the way, including the special surprise at the end.

They could make puppets of the animals and the human characters and create a puppet play of the story too!!

 

Aussie Easter Hat Parade

Aussie Easter Hat Parade is a story about Aussie animals out in the bush who make Easter hats and take part in their very own Easter Hat Parade. I like this book because not only does it celebrate Easter, but it gives kids a snapshot of some Aussie animals. These gorgeous animals all make their own hats using bits and bobs found in the bush. The language is rhyming (and you know how much I love a good rhyme) and the pictures are bright and colourful. Just right for attracting the eye of a young reader!

The other reason why I like this book so much is because of the way it links so easily to a craft activity. Blind Man Freddie can guess what I am about to suggest… Yep! You guessed it. Making your own Easter hat! But I’d really love for you to find your bits and bobs out in the garden, or the park, rather than heading to the shops to buy things. Get the little ones to make the most natural, and earthy hat they can, just like the animals in the story! I might just make one too!!

 

My Easter Egg Hunt

Another super simple but effective story sits behind this beautiful purple cover. My Easter Egg Hunt is about animals searching for their Easter eggs. However, the text is so minimal, with only a few words on each page, this book will be a quick read!

What I love most about this text is the positional language that is used. Over, under, through and inside are some of the words you will find. Exposing children to language like this is so valuable to developing their vocab. Its makes it so much easier for them to follow instructions, find things and understand the world around them.

A lovely follow up activity for this (kids under 7) would be to make your own Easter Egg Hunt book. I’d encourage the children to draw the eggs in all sorts of places and write the word that best describes where is it. Is it under the table? Inside the box? Beside the boy? See how many words they can use!

 

There was an old Bloke who swallowed a Bunny

As you can probably gather, this old bloke eats a bunch of animals, starting with a bunny! These books are hilarious to little kids! Firstly, the whole idea of a human eating that many animals is nuts!! But little readers love it! Secondly, the language is always rhyming and lyrical, it’s almost like you can sing along. The pictures are bright and funny, and you will find not only your little ones have a giggle… but you will too! It’s link to Easter…? Ok so there isn’t really any link. But there’s a bunny in it, does that count? ? Trust me, your kids will love it so much they won’t care that there is no link to Easter.

See if your little ones can write their own swallow story like this! Maybe they can write it about themselves. “There was a little boy who swallowed his sister!” That could be fun! If your child is not writing yet, don’t despair. Just carve out half an hour so you can type or write up his/her story for them as they dictate it to you! They will feel so proud to have made their own story.

 

Fair Dinkum Aussie Easter

This book is a little bit different. It’s actually filled with 8 short stories about Easter time in Australia. The stories are written like poems, or even songs, so they are a bit of fun to read with the little ones!

The bright purple end papers had yellow stars printed through it, they had me staring for ages! So crisp and engaging! The pictures throughout the book are bright and colourful and they really illustrate each story so well. I would read this book with any child that loves a little song, or poem.

This book is certainly a bit of fun and perhaps you can assist your little reader to write their own poem about Easter time!

 

Happy Reading little Readers!!

A x