Every Easter time I read my kids THE most popular children’s Easter book in the world; Peter Rabbit. I remind the kids that the problem in the story was that Peter did not mind his mommy. And because he didn’t mind, he got himself in a heap of trouble. And I ask them to listen for the ending where his brothers and sisters get rewards for being good, and he loses his reward and has to go to bed with no dessert.
Now I happen to have 3 copies with 3 different illustrators of this delightful Beatrix Potter book. All 3 have the same text with very little variation, but the pictures are all very different. The oldest book I bought for my own children many years ago. It is very dog earred.. It was published in the early 60s. I think Ms. Potter is long gone now, but her books are absolutely timeless. I bought the whole gift boxed set of all of her little stories in little pastel 7 x 9 hardback size. They are super cute! The students love to look at the cute pastel pictures and they love the darling characters.
A flannel board story you can download at this link HERE at For Shared.com. It would be a cute addition to this activity.
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| I copy the cover on pink, green, yellow and blue construction paper for the kids to choose… |
So I have 2 kids in my class hold up the 2nd and 3rd books and I shoot my favorite one from the document camera to the wall and we compare the scenes that take place in Mr. McGregor’s Garden with the naughty little Peter Rabbit getting himself in trouble.
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| Mommy Bunny and Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail Bunny…and Peter…. |
After reading, the kids do a simple retell using pop up papers. It is easy if you can do the clip art in the background and just have 1 pop up per page. I used to do 3 pop ups on a page and I would tear my hair out trying to get around to help everybody as they glued backwards, sideways and upside down. I decided that wasn’t very much fun! for anybody! So this way everybody is successful. (It is still a hard project for first graders….but they are SO proud of it when it is done!)
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| Mr. McGregor’s Garden |
Page 1 retells the mommy’s warning to Peter before she goes to town. Page 2 tells about his obstacles in the garden where he meets up with Mr. MeGregor, the grumpy old farmer. Page 3 tells about the scarecrow McGregor makes from his little blue coat after Peter escapes. There really should be a page 4, for a great conclusion, but it’s taxing enough to do a 3 page pop up book.
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| Fun Language Art Activity for Peter Rabbit |
ThenThe pop up on each page is Peter dressed differently each time. The 2nd and 3rd bunny are just clip art. The kids color, cut out and glue the pop ups. Then we glue them all together. (very tricky!) we add a construction paper cover and color the cover. It’s such a fun activity for a favorite retell.
Then we put them up on our Spring bulletin board for a week.
SONG:
Where did you find the pop-up papers that the kids colored? I would love the link so that I can print them out and use them in my classroom to make this book.