Here Comes Peter Cottontail…

This year has just flown by. It’s hard to believe Easter is this week, and school will be over for the year next month. Crazy!

Anyhow, speaking of spring, it is the perfect time to incorporate some Beatrix Potter works into your classroom! I absolutely adore her books. Not only are her illustrations easily identifiable, but she used vibrant and illustrative language in her books. More often that not, Beatrix connected the two, which make her books perfect for comprehension and word study. And that, my friends, means they are great texts to use to teach or review Common Core Standards.

Every year around Easter, I pull out several of her books to do an author study with. My go-to books are The Tale of Peter Rabbit, The Tale of Benjamin Bunny, The Tale of The Flopsy Bunnies, and The Tale of Jeremy Fisher. Another thing that I love about these books is that they are all connected in one way or another. The first three books listed contain familiar characters and settings, which is great for character comparisons, character progression, and author traits. I often do an in-depth study of the characters Peter Rabbit, Benjamin Bunny, and Mr. McGregor. Peter Rabbit in particular is a great character to study for how a character’s feelings impact their actions. He is also a character that is easy for students to connect and relate to. I really love to use Beatrix Potter’s books in the classroom. It’s somewhat rare to find such high-quality children’s literature today that can pretty much be adapted to fit any standard with ease.

The Tale of Jeremy Fisher is my go-to book for teaching visualizations and word meaning. It contains rich, descriptive vocabulary and provides great opportunities for students to use context clues and illustrations to determine meaning.

As I said, this book is great to use for several Standards. One of my favorites is this making visualizations activity. Since the book has such rich text, I read it first without showing the illustrations. The students are asked to picture the story in their heads and draw what they see. They get such a kick out of comparing their drawings to the illustrations later, and it really helps them pay attention to the story. Plus, students who struggle with comprehending their reading benefit from these types of activities.

We also knock out some additional practice of relating to text with this Peter Rabbit writing activity:

I’ve created an entire unit based on these Beatrix Potter works, along with some related spring activities. It meets many literacy standards (and other subject standards as well!) using her classic works and can honestly be used at any time during the school year, not just spring.

Here is what is included in the unit:

*Spring Comprehension Passage with Written Comprehension Questions
*Spring Color, Cut, and Paste ABC Order Activity
*Springtime Fill-in-the Blank Worksheet
*March Comprehension Passage with Written Comprehension Questions
*March Calendar and Written-Comprehension/Calendar Math Skills Questions
*Windy Making Words Worksheet
*Rainbow Making Words Worksheet
*Leprechaun Making Words Worksheet
*Spring Making Words Worksheet
*April Comprehension Passage with Written Comprehension Questions
*April Calendar and Written-Comprehension/Calendar Math Skills Questions
*Is April Really the Rainiest Month of the Year? Graphing Activity
*Legend of the Easter Egg Comprehension Passage with Written Comprehension Questions
*Rabbits Comprehension Passage with Written Comprehension Questions
*Chicks Comprehension Passage with Written Comprehension Questions
*How We Like Our Eggs Cooked Class Graphing Activity with Graphing Questions
*Jellybean Sorting Activity (includes estimation, sorting, counting, probability, fraction, and addition skills)
*Easter Egg Hunt Ideas
*Eggciting Ideas – Ideas for using plastic Easter Eggs
*Easter Bunny Application/Why I Would Make a Good Easter Bunny Writing Activity
*Easter Bunny Bubble Map
*Raw or Hard Boiled? Egg Experiment and Writing Activity
*Can You Break An Egg with One Hand? Egg Experiment and Writing Activity
*Fractional Egg Worksheet (Identifying Fractions)
*Fractional Egg Worksheet (Fractional Parts)
*Hatched! All About Oviparous Animals Student Reader
*Easter Making Words Worksheet
*Rabbit Making Words Worksheet
*Basket Making Words Worksheet
*May Comprehension Passage with Written Comprehension Questions
*May Calendar and Written-Comprehension/Calendar Math Skills Questions
*Mother Making Words Worksheet
*Memorial Making Words Worksheet
*June Comprehension Passage with Written Comprehension Questions
*June Calendar and Written-Comprehension/Calendar Math Skills Questions
*Summer Making Words Worksheet
*Flag Day Making Words Worksheet
*Father Making Words Worksheet
*The Tale of Peter Rabbit Teaching Guide with Vocabulary and Discussion Questions with Answers
*Beatrix Potter Comprehension Passage with Written Comprehension Questions
*The Tale of Peter Rabbit Written Comprehension Questions
*The Tale of Peter Rabbit Sequence Ordering Worksheet
*The Tale of Peter Rabbit Noticing Details (Character Changes Throughout Story and How Feelings Impact Actions)
*The Tale of Peter Rabbit Text, Self, and World Connections Worksheet
*Peter Rabbit Bubble Map
*Peter Rabbit and His Siblings Double Bubble Map
*Peter Rabbit and Mr. McGregor Double Bubble Map
*School Rules/Reasons For Rules Worksheet
*The Tale of Peter Rabbit Sequence Frame Worksheet
*The Tale of Peter Rabbit Somebody Wanted But So Then Worksheet
*Writing an Apology Letter to Mr. McGregor Writing Activity
*Peter Rabbit Character Traits/Changes Throughout Story Worksheet
*Water Color Art Activity
*Disobeying Bubble Map
*Being Sick Bubble Map
*When I’m Sick Writing Activity with Planning Guide and Student Booklet Template
*Peter Rabbit Craft (Patterns Included) and Writing Activity (A Time I Disobeyed My Parents) with Planning Guide
*Mr. McGregor’s Garden – Probability Worksheet
*Rabbit KWL Chart
*Rabbits Can, Have, Are Thinking Map
*Rabbit Research Report Planning Guide
*My Rabbit Report Writing Paper
*The Tale of Benjamin Bunny Teaching Guide with Vocabulary and Discussion Questions with Answers
*The Tale of Benjamin Bunny Written Comprehension Questions
*The Tale of Benjamin Bunny Sequencing Cut and Paste Activity Worksheet
*Benjamin Bunny Bubble Map
*Benjamin Bunny and Peter Rabbit Double Bubble Map
*The Tale of Benjamin Bunny Flow Chart Thinking Map
*The Tale of Jeremy Fisher Teaching Guide with Vocabulary and Discussion Questions with Answers
*The Tale of Jeremy Fisher Written Comprehension Questions
*Jeremy Fisher Bubble Map
*The Tale of Jeremy Fisher Making Visualizations Activity with Worksheet
*The Tale of Jeremy Fisher Using Illustrations to Determine Word Meaning Activity with Worksheet
*The Flopsy Bunnies Teaching Guide with Vocabulary and Discussion Questions with Answers
*The Flopsy Bunnies Written Comprehension Questions
*The Flopsy Bunnies Bubble Map
*Peter Rabbit Character Analysis (Comparing and Contrasting Peter Rabbit Throughout The Tale of Peter Rabbit, The Tale of Benjamin Bunny, and The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies)
*Mr. McGregor Character Analysis (Comparing and Contrasting Peter Rabbit Throughout The Tale of Peter Rabbit, The Tale of Benjamin Bunny, and The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies)
*The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies Story Map
*Beatrix Potter Stories Bubble Map
*Plants – Three Activities for Growing/Studying Plants in the Classroom (Colorful Carnations Experiment, Planting in Soil Experiment, and Planting with Paper Towel and Water Experiment)
*Colorful Carnations Experiment Documentation Sheet
*Charting My Plant’s Growth Observation Sheet
*Watch Me Grow! Student Booklet (Can be used as a whole-group activity or assessment)
*Parts of a Plant Poster
*Parts of a Flower Poster
*Book Suggestions
*Web Site Suggestions

If you’re interested, you can get these activities are more in my Spring Unit: