Easter Books for Kindergarten
One of my favorite Easter books for kindergarten is The Easter Bunny’s Assistant by Jan Thomas. It is hilarious.
As read alouds go, it is a must-read at Easter time. The simple text makes it a great addition to your interactive read aloud lesson plans for kindergarten or first grade students. The Easter Bunny is getting his Easter eggs ready and his assistant, Skunk, is SOOO EXCITED! When Skunk gets excited, stinky trouble happens. With my class, this book ranks high on the all-time favorite books list.
We have found that interactive read alouds that use engaging picture books are the best way to strengthen young children’s listening comprehension skills. In addition to instilling the love of reading, recent research confirms that listening comprehension and reading comprehension both take place in the same part of the brain. In order to have great conversations, you must start with great books.
The Easter Bunny’s Assistant Lesson Plans
Here are a few of the Easter Bunny’s Assistant lesson plans we do with this sweet story.
The Easter Bunny’s Assistant Day 1 Making Predictions
Students will predict whether the Easter Bunny will let Skunk help him with the Easter Eggs.
The Easter Bunny’s Assistant Day 2 Cause and Effect
Students will discuss the cause and effect that Skunk’s excitement.
The Easter Bunny’s Assistant Day 3 Connections
Students write their own experience with dying eggs and retell how the Easter Bunny did the same with a “how-to” dye colorful eggs response page.
The Easter Bunny’s Assistant Day 4 Character Analysis
Students will examine the character of Skunk and discuss how he feels at the beginning of the book and the end of the book. This is a great lesson to use when you want to focus on the importance of character expressions.
The Easter Bunny’s Assistant Craft and Sentence Study
We love to combine a craft with our interactive read aloud lessons. In this example, we added the student version of the cause and effect response page with the sentence study.
The Easter Bunny’s Assistant Day 5 Opinion Writing
Students are asked if they think they would be a good assistant to the Easter Bunny.
You can find all of these classroom activities for The Easter Bunny’s Assistant as part of our March Read Aloud Lesson:
The Easter Bunny’s Assistant Video
It is imperative that a book is used during an interactive read aloud, but since we read this book each day, it is nice to have a different model of reading fluency. A video works perfectly for this.
Other Favorite Easter Books for Kindergarten
Here are a few of my other favorite Easter books. I hope you will find a few new books to add to your collection.
How to Catch the Easter Bunny by Adam Wallace
This is a great book that is part of a series. The Easter Bunny talks about all the ways he has escaped traps. This is a fun Easter book you can use as a launch for STEAM activities.
We also have created a few activities to go with this fun Easter book.
I’ve always loved picture books by Jan Brett and this book is also special. Hoppi is trying to make the best Easter egg and help the Easter Rabbit deliver the eggs on Easter morning. He has a hard time and goes into the woods to think. There he discovers a blue robin’s egg that had tumbled out of its nest. Sweet Hoppi takes care of it and keeps it warm until the bird hatches. I love the colorful illustrations and the message of kindness.
Little Critter Books by Mercer Mayer
This is a classic book with egg dying and other Easter themes and traditions.
Just an Easter Egg Little Critter
When Little Critter goes on an Easter egg hunt with his friends, he finds a very special egg.
There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Chick by Lucille Colandro
This is a funny story about an old lady who swallows a chick, some straw, an egg, some candy, a basket, and a bow! Then she meets the Easter Bunny! This book has a rhyming text and your students will want to join in as you read! So fun! PLUS it is part of a series.
I have a few activities that go with this series that you can see here:
The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter
The Tale of Peter Rabbit is the original classic by Beatrix Potter. I distinctly remember being in grade school and going to the school library to check these books out.
The books were so small they felt like little treasures. The beautiful illustrations make this one of the most beloved children’s books that Beatrix Potter ever had published.
The Biggest Easter Basket Ever by Steven Kroll
Don’t you just love Clayton and Desmond? We loved THE BIGGEST PUMPKIN EVER so the Easter version is a must-read. Town mouse Clayton and country mouse Desmond continue to teach the benefits of collaboration and friendship in another sweet story centered around this joyful holiday.
Here Comes the Easter Cat by Deborah Underwood
This book is a series book also. Cat wants to know why only the Easter Bunny gets all the love. So he dresses up, jumps on his motorcycle, and he sets out for an Easter adventure. He soon realizes that Easter activities are exhausting. The Easter Bunny comes to his rescue! This is really a sweet book.
Non Easter Books for Kindergarten
Perhaps you are needing a few books that you can use around the spring, that does not mention Easter. Here are a few that your kindergarten or first grade students are sure to love.
The Wonderful Habits of Rabbits by Douglas Florian
This is beautifully written. This sweet, lyrical story by Douglas Florian follows a family of rabbits as they have fun doing everyday things like digging holes, building snow rabbits, thumping their feet, and more. But as the day comes to an end, their favorite thing to do is say “goodnight” with a hug and a kiss.
Duck! Rabbit! by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
This is a simple book that asks students for their perspectives. Even though it is fun, it also offers a great opportunity to teach lessons on right versus wrong and differing points of view
Informational Books You Can Read Around Easter
Rabbits, Rabbits & More Rabbits by Gail Gibbons
Gail Gibbons is a non-fiction legend and she has created this great expository text that teaches young children all about rabbits. This would make a great book to incorporate in a spring writing unit of study.
An Egg is Quiet by Dianna Hutts Aston
This picture book is beautifully illustrated! The entire book is about animals that lay eggs. I have read this with my kindergarten class, but it is also great for older kids too.
Chickens Aren’t the Only Ones by Ruth Heller
This is a classic book about the animals that lay eggs. You can read a blog post about it by clicking:
Interactive Read Aloud Activities
Are looking for more interactive read-aloud activities for your classroom? You may want to browse a few similar blog posts:
If you’d like to learn about the power of interactive read-aloud lessons, you can check this blog post out:
FREE Easter CVC Game Activity
Simply add your name to the box below and this activity will be sent to your email inbox.
Happy Easter!
10 Responses
Hi Deedee,
I love your products! Do you by chance have an editable version of your lesson plans? I would be very interested. I’m looking to move away from the paper pencil planner.
Thanks so much,
Kristine Brown
Kindergarten Teacher
Olympia, WA
Yes! You can find it in the blog post I’m going to link below:
Lesson Plans
Hi Deedee,
The video links were not in the link you posted. Is there another way to find them? Sorry for being such a nuisance. 🙂
~Kris
Not a nuisance at all, but I’m not sure what you mean about video links… HELP!
Hello, I clicked on the link and they were no videos. It was just large white areas where the video boxes should be. Does that help?
~Kris Brown
GOT it! You are talking about the visual lesson plans. My life is a bit like the movie, 50 First Dates. After I go to bed, the memory is swiped clean from the previous day. I forgot you were talking about the visual lesson plans. SHOOT! I made those videos a long time ago. I guess the video support is gone. WAH!!!!!!! I have no idea how to get them back!
please help I can’t seem to be able to find the link to print the free Easter Bunny’s Assistant lesson
Hi there!
The free file is the Easter CVC game at the bottom of the post. Just scroll to the bottom and put your email in. It will be sent to your email inbox. I hope your class loves it!
When I click on The Easter Free file and The Easter dough free file; it doesn’t take me to them. Any idea what I could be doing wrong?
So Sorry! If you click on the words, the file will open and start downloading.
The images are acting wonky. OY