Pete the Cat Archives -Imaginations Running Wild-

Easter is almost here and there are so many adorable books to read! My son and I made a list of our favorite Easter picture books. These books are filled with bunnies, eggs, chocolate, and Easter fun that’s perfect for preschoolers. There are a mix of old and new favorites here. Visit your library and check for these fun titles.

Easter Books:

1. Pete the Cat’s Big Easter Adventure by James Dean —

The Easter Bunny calls on Pete the Cat to help deliver Easter eggs in this fun picture book. It’s up to Pete to get the eggs dyed and hidden for his friends to find. Along his way, Pete adds to his bunny costume. First the ears, then the nose and tail — a cat dressed like a bunny, that’s funny!

2. How to Catch the Easter Bunny by Adam Wallace —

The Easter Bunny has to keep its identity a secret because there are kids out there who want to catch it! E.B., as the bunny known, has gotten really good at avoiding traps when he delivers and hides the Easter eggs. This rhyming story shows just clever E.B. is. There are lots of traps made by kids; some are pretty clever. Will E.B. get caught this year? With a little bit of magic, he gets all of the eggs delivered and heads safely home.

3. Peter Easter Frog by Erin Dealy —

This is a funny story about a frog who thinks he could be the Easter Bunny too because frogs hop just like a rabbit. Along his way, he meets an assortment of other animals who all want to lend a hand and help Peter spread Easter cheer. Preschoolers will love this silly rhyming story. Just wait until Peter and friends meet the real Easter Bunny!

4. Happy Easter, Biscuit! by Alyssa Capucilli —

Meet Biscuit, a cute a little puppy, who is excited for Easter! It’s Biscuit’s first Easter and there are so many eggs to be found. Help Biscuit find all of the hidden eggs by lifting the flaps throughout the book. This sparsely worded, interactive book will be a hit with wiggly preschoolers!

5. Max Counts His Chickens by Rosemary Wells —

My son loves this story! I can’t even count how many times we have read this. In this Easter counting story, Max and his sister search their home for marshmallow chicks left by the Easter Bunny. Ruby is really good at finding at the hidden treats, while all Max manages to do is make a mess. Max looks in the toothpaste container, the cereal, and in the juice, but no chicks. Ruby finds all of the chicks and poor Max doesn’t have any treats. Grandma makes a quick phone call and the Easter Bunny comes back to give Max some marshmallow chicks of his own.

6. Mater and the Easter Buggy by Kirsten Larsen —

Welcome to Easter in Radiator Springs! The cars are busy decorating and preparing for the Easter Buggy to come. Mater is so excited! He plans to wait up and see the Easter Buggy this year. Lightning McQueen doesn’t believe in the Easter Buggy. However, not wanting his friend to be disappointed, Lightning decides to give Mater a basket of treats and pretend its from the Easter Buggy. While trying to be sneaky, Lighting makes a lot of noise and wakes up Mater! Now Lighting has to wait for Mater to fall asleep again, only this time, Lightning falls asleep too. When they awake, they both find the real Easter Buggy visited them after all.

7. Ollie’s Easter Eggs by Oliver Dunrea —

Gossie and her gosling friends are dying Eater eggs! Little Ollie wants some eggs too. He devised a plan to get his wings on the eggs by secretly taking them from his friends. Ollie, wearing cute bunny ears, then creates his own fun egg hunt for the goslings! Preschoolers will love the pictures and sympathize with Ollie’s impatience for the fun to begin.

8. Happy Easter, Curious George by RP Anderson —

George, a curious monkey, is enjoying an outdoor Easter celebration with his friend, the man in the yellow hat. Everything is so exciting. There’s a cute, fluffy bunny to pet, eggs to decorate, and fun to be had! While everyone is busy dying the eggs, the Easter bunny escapes from its pen. George see a man leaving a bunch of eggs in odd places. Thinking the man dropped the eggs on accident, George collects them all. Meanwhile, the kids notice that the bunny is missing. Oh-no! George sees a white egg under a bush and goes to grab it. That’s not an egg, but a bunny tail! With the Easter bunny safely returned to its pen, George re-hides the eggs for the kids to find!

9. Happy Easter, Pout-Pout Fish by Deborah Diesen —

This short Pout-Pout Fish board book is great for young children with short attention spans. The rhyming text and cute illustrations help keep preschoolers interested in this Easter story. Mr. Fish, donning a pair of bunny ears, brings Easter fun to all of his ocean friends. Each friend has a special egg to find. Can you help them find their eggs?

10. Berenstain Bears and the Real Easter Eggs by Stan and Jan Berenstain —

The Berenstain Bear family is excited for the town Easter egg hunt! The cubs are determined to find the most eggs and win the egg hunt. They get so wrapped up in the idea of winning that they are missing out in the joy and fun of spring. When the cubs find a nest with real eggs, they realize that stopping and enjoying the beauty of nature is more important than winning.

11. The Bunny Hop by Sarah Albee—

This book is perfect for little Elmo fans! On Easter morning Elmo and his friends find cute little bunnies all over Sesame Street. The bunnies are appearing in the most unusual places. Where did all of these bunnies come from? Elmo sets out to solve the mystery.

12. Max’s Chocolate Chicken by Rosemary Wells —

On Easter morning Max and his sister, Ruby, hunt for hidden eggs. The one to find the most eggs wins the chocolate chicken. Ruby is great at finding eggs while Max gets distracted by the great outdoors. Max find mud and makes mud pancakes while his sister collects eggs. Realizing Ruby us going to win the egg hunt, Max steals the chocolate chicken. While in his secret hiding spot, he eats all of the chocolate! Fortunately the Eater Bunny was watching and gives Ruby her own chocolate.

13. Count on the Easter Pups —

Preschoolers love Paw Patrol! My son was obsessed with Paw Patrol at ages 3-4, so we had to read about the pups saving Easter. Filled with Easter fun and my son’s favorite Paw Patrol friends, made this board book a fun read.

14. Happy Easter, Little Critter by Mercer Mayer —

My son loves Little Critter stories! In this story, Little Critter and Little Sister enjoy a fun Easter with their family and friends. They awake to Easter baskets filled with toys and yummy treats! Then they go to church, where after the service, they get to decorate Easter eggs. Now it’s time for the parents to hide all of the eggs for the kids to find. Your preschooler will have fun pointing all of the eggs!

Check your library for these and other Easter picture books. To help cover the costs of this site, I joined Amazon’s Affiliate program. If you buy a book through one of my links, then I get a small percentage of the sale (at no additional cost to you). Thank you for your support! Happy Reading 🙂

Letter S week was tons of fun! My son practiced his writing and “s” sounds and we read books together about things that started with letter S, made crafts, and sang songs. Here is what we did:

Uppercase S Download

Writing Practice: write uppercase letter S

Monday — S is for Snail

Book: We read Snail Crossing by Corey R. Tabor. This book is hilarious!!! And it is so darn cute. We love the snail’s determination and positive attitude. The message of helping others and working toward your goals makes this book a winner. We just keep rereading this one and we laugh every single time –seriously, it is a family favorite! My son even insisted that we buy copies for 2 of his cousins 🙂

You can buy a copy through Amazon here.

Craft: Paper Plate Snail— This snail craft is pretty easy, but a lot of fun because my son enjoyed using his paints. Best part was, I could pull the supplies together in a couple minutes so we could dive right into craft time!

Supplies needed are paper plate, construction paper, watercolor paints, paintbrush and water cup, scissors, glue and a marker.

To begin, draw a spiral shape on the paper plate (this will be the snail’s shell). Your child can start painting the plate while you are drawing the snail’s head. Cut out the head. Once the plate is dry, your child can glue the head onto shell.

Song: Preschoolers love to sing. So for letter S, we sang You are my Sunshine. If you don’t know this song, check out this YouTube video.

Tuesday —

STEM Activity: Sink or Float. We picked 5 items from our house to see if they would sink or float in a bowl full of water. (Pick a variety of weights so that some sink and some float.) Fill a bowl with water. Before putting an item in the water, ask you child to guess if it will sink or swim. Why do they think that? After trying each item in the water, count how many sank and how many floated.
Air Writing: Ask your child to hold up a hand and trace letter shapes with their finger in the air.
Math: look around and count how many things you can find that start with the letter s.

Wednesday — S is for Star

lowercase s Download

Writing Practice: write lowercase s

Book: We read Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star by Jane Cabrera. I love her take on nursery rhymes and my son and I are big fans of her artwork. Plus, I just like owls 🙂 If your local library doesn’t have this one, you can get it on Amazon here.

We also read James Dean’s Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star featuring Pete the Cat. Pete is one of my son’s favorite book characters, so we read a lot of Pete the Cat stories. This book is a replica of the song, including the second verse (which I can never remember when we sing the song), so it is really the cute pictures of Pete that make this book so enjoyable. Dean’s artistic interpretation of the lyrics and Pete’s iconic coolness make this book a fun read. You can get this board book on Amazon here.

Craft: Star Craft — This craft is great for fine motor skills. Kids get to paint and wrap yarn!

Supplies needed are a paper plate, watercolor paints, paint brush and water, scissors, yarn, and tape.

Start by drawing a star shape in the center of the plate and cutting it out. Kids can paint the plate with a variety of watercolors; be creative!

Let your plate dry.

Pick out yarn or string to wrap around your plate.

Tape one end of the yarn to the back of the plate and then let your child start wrapping. When you are finished wrapping yarn, cut the year an and tape the end to the back of the plate.

You can repeat this craft with other shapes and make a whole bunch 🙂

Song: I was sick of Twinkle Twinkle after reading 2 books about the song, so we sang Raffi’s Shake My Sillies Out. This song is so much fun to sing and has lots of great movements to do with it. If you don’t know this song, check out Raffi on YouTube.

Thursday —

Salt Tray Writing: cover the bottom of a shallow tray or pie tin with table salt. Your child can take one finger to trace letter shapes in the salt.

Worksheet:

Color all of the stars with the letter Ss Download

Friday — S is for Strawberry

Writing Practice: Uppercase and lower case S. I found a great worksheet on K5 Learning: https://www.k5learning.com/worksheets/kindergarten/tracing-letters-s.pdf

Book: We read The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear by Don and Audrey Wood. This is an older story, but still cute. Kids will be on the edge of their seats as they listen to the story about the mouse who has to protect its strawberry from a hungry bear. Reading this one together is great fun! Check your local library for this book, or you can get it on Amazon here.

Craft: Strawberry Craft–I love handprint crafts. They are like a time capsule for your little one. You can look back at them and see how small their hands were.

Supplies needed are red and green construction paper, brown markers, scissors, and glue.

I drew a strawberry shape and my son cut it out. He loves using scissors, so I try to find crafts and activities for him to work on his cutting skills.

Next, he added the seeds with a brown marker.

I traced his hands on green paper and then I cut out the hand prints.

He glued them on top of his strawberry, and ta-da, a cute strawberry craft to hang in his room!

Tag: Pete the Cat

Easter Picture Books