The Easter Story

Image Source: Collins Dictionary

The Christmas story from the Bible is a fairly easy one to share through a picture book for young children but Easter is more complex.

The author needs to include:

• Passover
• The Last Supper with the disciples
• The betrayal by Judas
• The Crucifixion
• The resurrection
• The Ascension to heaven 

Here are three books you could share with a child. Each contains bright illustrations - Brian Wildsmith; Christina Balit; and Sophie Allsopp. 

Here are a set of teaching ideas to use with The Easter Story by Brian Wildsmith.

Taking a closer look at these three books. I have included text quotes to give you an idea of the level and style of the writing:

Opening lines: "Once, a long time ago, a little donkey was brought to Jesus. The little donkey had never been ridden before, bu Jesus spoke gently to him, and soon he stopped being afraid."

Closing lines: "But Jesus knew it was time for him to leave this earth. As the sun rose one morning, he went up to his father in Heaven. The next day Jesus' friends took the little donkey back to his home. And the little donkey stayed there for the rest of his life, remembering the kind and good man he had carried on his back to Jerusalem."

Review: Publishers Weekly

Recommended for ages 8+  You can view the whole book here. 

Opening lines: "One springtime, long ago, everyone was talking about Jesus of Nazareth. 'He is a wonderful storyteller,' said the children. 'He welcomes everybody,' said the outcasts. 'We believe he can work miracles,' added those who were sick. 'But how can the son of a carpenter be a teacher?' asked the religious leaders. 'Who is this Jesus? Who can he be?"

Closing lines: "We are the followers of Jesus - the one who was crucified and who I declare has been raised from the dead. He is the Messiah, the one sent by God to save us. ... In this way Peter began the work of spreading the message of Jesus: the message to bring people into God's everlasting kingdom."

Recommended for ages 10+

Opening lines: "Long ago there lived a man named Jesus. He was a storyteller and a miracle worker and a preacher. 'And he tells us the good news,' said the children, 'that God loves us."

Closing lines: "One day when Jesus's followers were together, they heard a noise like blowing wind. They saw flames of bright fire blazing above them. They felt brave and strong as never before. That very day they began to spread the good news about Jesus. The news about God's love: the love that will last for ever."

Recommended for ages 5+

Pancake Tuesday

Grab a book, grab a frying pan and enjoy!

 Image source Food Network

Read more about Pancake or Shrove Tuesday on the National Geographic Kids site. Discover how we know it is only 47 days until Easter!

The most wonderful egg in the world by Helme Heine

When my friend from Kinderbookwitheverything and I talk about picture books we often exclaim about particular authors and illustrators. One of these is Helme Heine. A book we both love is The most wonderful egg in the world or Das schonete Ei der Welt in German.  This book is not on my Tuesday Treasure list but it is truly a treasure. I just made an exciting discovery.  If the Wikipedia is up to date the entry on Helme Heine (born in Germany) says he now lives in New Zealand.  In 1982 his book Superhare was an IBBY Honour book.

"What you can do is more important that what you look like,' 

said the King. 'Whichever one of you lays the most wonderful egg 

I will make a princess."

I love the words - what you can do is more important than what you look like!

Once upon a time three hens called Dotty, Stalky and Plumy, were quarreling about which of them was the most beautiful. They decide to ask the King to settle the matter. Dotty lays a perfect egg, shimmering and polished like marble. Stalky lays an enormous egg, one of the biggest the King has ever seen but it is Plumy who astonishes everyone. The King is unable to choose a winner and so he declares all three hens should be made princesses.

Something to notice - the chickens have walked across the front end papers and the king's foot prints walk along side the chickens on the back end papers. You can almost hear the quarrel from the way their prints are bunched together.

Here is a set of discussion questions for The Most Wonderful egg in the world.

Here are some books by Helme Heine. Nearly all are sadly out of print but you might be lucky and find one or two in a school library. The Pigs Wedding and The Pearl were part of a book series called Pocket Puffins.  You might also find the Weston Woods videos of The Pigs Wedding and of The most wonderful egg in the world. Here are the teaching notes which can be used with the animated film.

It's time for the Sydney Royal Easter show - read a book!

Image source: https://mudgeehaycompany.com.au/easter-show/

I adore going to the Sydney Royal Easter show. I like to see the farm animals, the dog judging and of course the wood chop!  Visiting the library of my friend at Kinderbookswitheverything I spied three terrific books about visiting a country or city agricultural show.  In Sydney we have The Royal Easter Show, in Brisbane they have the Ekka and Melbourne also have a Royal Show. Many small rural communities also have terrific events to showcase rural life and produce and these are often even better than the huge city events.

Here are three picture books to share with your family or class:

Look in your school library for other terrific books by Nan Hunt such as Whistle up the Chimney and A Rabbit named Harris (I hope to talk about this one here soon if I can find a copy somewhere).

Gwyn Perkins book A Walk in the Bush won the CBCA Picture book of the Year award in 2018.

Take a look at this review for all the story details. You could pair this book with another title by Penny Matthews and Andrew McLean - A Year on our Farm.

Two little beginning chapter books you might find in a library on this topic are Boris on Show by Andrew Joyner and Showtime by Wendy Harmer.

Easter books to share

I have four books I love to share with different grades at Easter.

 

With the older students a very special book to read aloud is The talking Eggs by Robert D San Souci. While I am sure my Southern American accent is quite hopeless it feels impossible to read this Cinderella style folktale without an attempt sounding like someone from the south. Click on this link to hear a better reading. Rose and Blanche are sisters - one is good and sweet and kind the other is mean and lazy and cruel. Blanche helps an old lady and in return for her patience and care she is rewarded with riches, but when Rose tries to obtain some of these riches for herself all the nasty aspects of her personality mean she receives hideous frightening and poisonous animals. The illustrations by Jerry Pinkney are beautiful and the message of this book is timeless and important.

For my youngest students my Easter pick is Max's chocolate Chicken by Rosemary Wells. There is so much going on in this story in the text and especially in the illustrations. Ruby sets a challenge for Max to find the most hidden Easter eggs to obtain the prize of a large chocolate chicken. Max does not find any eggs but he loves that chicken so much he runs off with it, hides and then one nibble at a time he eats it!

Max's Chocolate Chicken from Weston Woods on Vimeo.

My third pick for Easter is Hopper's Easter Surprise by Kathrin Siegenthaler illustrated by Marcus Pfister. This is a story about dreams and perseverance as Hopper, a hare, hears about the marvellous Easter bunny and along with a new friend he tries to emulate his new hero. When reading this book we talked about the differences between hares and rabbits and about camouflage used by arctic hares along with ideas for decorating eggs ourselves.

My final pick is Rechenka's Eggs by Patricia Polacco which is another timeless folktale with a powerful message about kindness and the magic of life. Babushka makes exquisite painted eggs all through the harsh Russian winter to sell at the Easter market. One day a goose is shot near her home. She nurses it back to health but in a terrible accident all her precious eggs are smashed. Babushka then discovers a wonderful treasure in Rechenka's basket each morning for the next twelve days. I read this book to over 100 children this week and all were totally still and silent as the magic of this story entranced them.

Poetry

Over the last term the teachers at school have been sharing lovely poems with their classes. Here is one I especially like for Easter :

Patience by Bobbi Katz

Chocolate Easter bunny
In a jelly bean nest,
I'm saving you for very last
Because I love you best.
I'll only take a nibble
From the tip of your ear
And one bite from the other side
So that you won't look queer.
Yum, your'e so delicious!
I didn't mean to eat
Your chocolate tail till Tuesday.
Ooops! There go your feet!
I wonder how your back tastes
With all that chocolate hair.
I never thought your tummy
Was only filled with air!
Chocolate Easter bunny
In a jelly bean nest,
I'm saving you for very last
Because I love you best.

Here are some more Easter poems
http://www.canteach.ca/elementary/songspoems15.html

At the top of this page is a lovely flickr picture I found on the topic of poetry. We have so many wonderful poetry books in our school library. Go to 821 and check one out today.