Beatrix Potter first wrote the story of Peter Rabbit in a letter to a little boy named Noel Moore. She illustrated each incident with beautifully detailed sketches. A few years later, in 1902, Peter Rabbit was published in book form. Since then the story has delighted countless children, for in it Beatrix Potter created a miniature world which children could readily enter.
Information provided on this page is for classroom use only; not for publication.
Bulletin Board: This board belongs to the K teacher next door. She created Peter on posterboard and then added the coloring using pastels. You can also use colored chalk; then you need to laminate to keep the project from smearing. You have to add color, then rub to get the lights and darks. The eggs contain books that they've read.
The Tale of Peter Rabbit (Little Golden Book) - Beatrix Potter
What Time Is It, Peter Rabbit? - Fredrick Warne
Dear Peter Rabbit - Alma Flor Ada
The Spring Rabbit - Joyce Dunbar
The Tale of Benjamin Bunny - Beatrix Potter
The Carrot Seed - Ruth Krauss
The Velveteen Rabbit - Margery Williams
Tops and Bottoms - Janet Stevens
The Bunny Book - Richard Scary
Thematic Word Wall: I use words such as these along with pictures in my pocketchart. I print the pictures onto cardstock using clipart from the 'net or scanned in graphics. Then I cut them out and add them to a sentence strip along with the word (cut off the excess sentence strip). I also print the word again on another sentence strip. Then not only can the words by used for the Word Wall, but it can also become an interactive activity or Center. The students match the pictureless word with the correct picture/word. This is a great activity for letter/word discrimination.
The Word Wall gets a lot of use during Writing Workshop. The students rely on it heavily to help create sentences. Having the words there for their use empowers them to write more complex sentences. Students who have difficulty copying from the wall can pick up the pictureless word card and carry it to their seat to copy. Once they're finished, it goes back in the pocketchart. The word with the picture stays in the pocketchart so that others may have access to them as well.
|Peter Rabbit||Mrs. Rabbit||Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cotton-tail||Mr. McGregor||tree||garden||gate||blackberries|
|flower pot||bird||cabbage||pie||basket||currant buns||parsley||potatoes|
|net||tool shed||window||door||pea||camomile tea|
These are pictures of my Thematic Word Wall. The pictures of the characters were scanned from the book and printed onto cardstock (except for Mr. McGregor as the pictures of him were too small). The other pictures all came from the 'net. This is a double wide pocketchart from Lakeshore, so it will hold LOTS of vocabulary words.
Word Families: In this picture you can also see our Word Family for the week "_ et". This is a purchased bulletin board set that I laminated to use as a Center activity. We do the Family together, adding to the list of words daily using a Vis-a-Via pen. Then at the end of the week, I clean the "chart" and add it to a Center. The children can then generate their own words with a Vis-a-Via pen. You could also provide them with word cards and let them sort the cards into the appropriate Word Family. The "_et" family is perfect for this book because of "wet" and "net"; both found in the book.
Build a Bunny: I copied the pattern for this activity from the Easter/St. Patrick's Day Thematic Unit listed below. Each student received a copy of the rabbit parts (head, 2 ears, eyes, nose/mouth, body, 2 hands, & 2 feet) copied onto a different color construction paper. They were instructed to cut out the parts and place them into a large envelope (old ones that had been donated to me) and then write their name on the envelope.
Later, when we got ready to play the game, they took their rabbit pieces out of the envelope and placed them into a paper plate in front of them. Then they had to push the plates back about a foot towards the middle of the table. They were now ready to play the game.
To play the game, I flashed each student in turn a sight word or letter card (depending on their functional level). If they could identify the word/letter, they got to get a piece of the rabbit from the plate and put it on the table in front of them. Whomever completed their bunny first, won the game. The kids love playing this game and ask to play it repeatedly.
Make a Word: Use the letters in "Peter Rabbit" to create new words. I do this in the pocketchart using my pocketchart letter tiles I made. I write the words "Peter Rabbit" on a sentence strip, then put the letter tiles underneath it to form the words. Then we work together as a group to create new words with the letters, moving around the letter tiles to form the words. I record the words on the board or a chart. Later, the students are given a sheet to create their own list of words. They write "Peter Rabbit" at the top, then start creating their own words on numbered lines.
Sequencing: Use pictures from Easter and St. Patrick's Day Thematic Unit to create sequencing cards for the pocketchart. Copy onto cardstock, color, and laminate. If you can't get your hands on the book, you can make your own pictures by reducing and printing the pictures from the book. The pictures are:
Mr. McGregor working in the garden
Peter caught in the gooseberry net
Peter in the watering can
The cat looking in the pond
Peter squeezing under the gate
Peter's coat and shoes as a scarecrow
Peter back home with his mom
Matching: For your readers, you can have them read sentences on sentence strips and match them to the correct picture (use pictures from sequencing activity above). You can also have them sequence the sentence strips and pictures in the pocketchart as well.
Days of the Week: For your emerging readers who are working on their days of the week, I created this book. The student cuts out the days of the week and glues them in the correct order beginning with Sunday. After they're proficient at reading the book, have them complete the Comprehension Check page of your choice (or both of them). Note: this is no longer a free book .. I had my sister redo the graphics and it's now at The Teacher's Bookbag.
ABC Order with a Crunch!: I borrowed Marcia's carrot pattern to create this ABC order activity for one of my new students. I printed them on cardstock and I'm going to have them laminated, then I'm going to hotglue a small craft stick to the back of each to give them a little more support. He can "plant" them in the sandtable in alphabetical order. He'll be tickled with this activity, because it's not too often that 2nd graders get to play in the sandtable.
Rabbits: One of my favorite books as a child was a book about different kinds of real rabbits with pictures to go along with each. Someone helped me find that book again a couple of years ago and it's The Bunny Book by Richard Scary. Use books such as this to introduce your students to facts about real rabbits as well as all the different kinds.
You could also use the carrots to create an interactive bulletin board activity. Staple a row or rows of brown dirt mounds about 3 1/2 inches tall, along the bottom and sides and intermittently across the top, leaving enough room to stick the carrots into the "dirt." The students "plant" the carrots in the row(s) in ABC order. If you want to make them self-checking, number the carrots in sequential ABC order on the back.
Five Little Rabbits
Five little rabbits (hold up five fingers)
Sitting by the door,
One hopped away, and then there were four. (bend down one finger)
Hop, hop, hop, hop, (clap on each hop)
See how they run!
Hop, hop, hop, hop, (clap on each hop)
They think it is great fun!
Four little rabbits (hold up four fingers)
Under a tree,
One hopped away, and then there were three. (bend down one finger)
Three little rabbits (hold up three fingers)
Looking at you,
One hopped away, and then there were two. (bend down one finger)
Two little rabbits (hold up two fingers)
Resting in the sun,
One hopped away, and there was one. (bend down one finger)
One little rabbit (hold up one finger)
Left all alone,
He hopped away, and there there were none. (put hand behind back)
Hop, hop, hop, hop! (clap on each hop)
All gone away!
Hop, hop, hop, hop! (clap on each hop)
They'll come back some day.
~ Author Unknown
Math Workjob: Find a cute rabbit notepad and program each page with a number 1 - 20, glue each page to a piece of construction paper and laminate. Students will then add the correct number of carrots according to the number on the rabbit. I found mini carrot erasers to use.
Mr. McGregor's Math Garden: Got vegetable stamps? Then make a vegetable garden. Provide each student with a page of a garden plot minus the vegetables. At the end of each row, make a sign with the appropriate vegetable stamp and a number (like those little plant stakes that tells you what you've got planted there). The rows could simply be squiggly lines across the page to differeniate between the rows. The students use the vegetable stamps to make the appropriate number of that vegetable on that row. For ex. 8 carrots They'd stamp 8 carrots on that row.
Math or Art Project?: This project can be a combination of both math and art! I do a similar project as part of my Spring Unit, and I love this bunny so much I turned him into Peter Rabbit and created the shape carrots to go with him. Use the carrots to reinforce or introduce triangle and rectangle, because that's what they're made of.
Good Bunny Snack: Serve your good little bunnies a snack of bread, blackberry jam, and milk just like Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cotton-tail.
Rabbit Fare: Have vegetable soup, a garden salad, carrot cake and strawberry Kool-Aid.
Easter & St. Patrick's Day Thematic Unit - Primary - Teacher Created Materials
The Tale of Peter Rabbit Literature Notes - FS2783
The Tale of Peter Rabbit - Teacher's Helper June/July 2001
The Tale of Peter Rabbit - Teacher's Helper Kindergarten Apr/May/June 1993
The Tale of Peter Rabbit - Literature Activities For Young Children, Book 7 1990TCM
The Tale of Peter Rabbit - Spring Has Sprung! Resource Packet by Victoria Smith
Rabbits - Teacher's Helper Apr/May 1999
The Tale of Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny - video
The Beatrix Potter Trails
Little Folks - The Tale of Peter Rabbit
Beatrix Potter - Biography and Works
Peter Rabbit & The Tortoise and the Hare Webquest
Thematic Study Units: Gardening
Peter Rabbit and Friends from Beatrix Potter
Peter Rabbit (text in book)
Kid's Corner - Featuring the Stories of Beatrix Potter and more!
Beatrix Potter Unit - Gr. 1
spring (picture of TLC Peter Rabbit)
Peter Rabbit coloring page
The Tale of Peter Rabbit Gr. 1
The World of Beatrix Potter (a virtual field trip)
Coloring Peter Rabbit
The Tale of Peter Rabbit
Garden Gate Shape Book Cover (printable)
Garden Gate Shape Book Page (printable
Origami Rabbit #1
Origami Rabbit #2
Beatrix Potter Society
National Museum of Natural History: Peter Rabbit's Garden
Garden Coloring Book (online)
Peter Rabbit printables
Beatrix Potter Unit
The Carrot Seed printables
You Tube: The Tale of Peter Rabbit
last updated 4.20.08