Jo MacDonald Had a Garden by Mary Quattlebaum

As you can probably guess from the title and the cover, this book is Old MacDonald set to a "garden" theme.  Jo starts off with soil and soon there is worms, some patting the soil, sprinkling water, and on and on all under the sunshine.  Great introduction to kids that may have never been involved in planting a garden.  Great spring time read aloud which lends itself to a great flannel board for the kids.

Text:  5 Buckeye leaves
Illustrations:  4 Buckeye leaves

Wake Up, It's Spring! by Lisa Campbell Ernst

It is that time of year.....SPRING!! The snow is melting, the long cold (well, except this winter) is over and it is time for all things spring to arrive! Once the sun has warmed up, the earth wakes up and "nudges" the earthworm. The earthworm wakes up and "sang" to its neighbor the seed. This continues on and on. A great book for sequencing activities with young children as the storyline is fairly simple to follow. This book would also be a great book for a flannel board story - will put that on my "to do" list for the summer.....

Text: 4 Buckeye leaves

Illustrations: 5 Buckeye leaves (I always enjoy Ernst's illustrations!)

Kite Day by Will Hillenbrand

Friends Bear and Mole are back and this time they want to fly a kite. Working together the two friends create a kite and are ready to take off. Once the kite is up and flying a bad storm rolls in, causing the kite string to snap. Bear and Mole are disappointed until they realize that their kite served a new purpose for some baby birds. The simple storyline will allow even the youngest reader to understand the main events of the story with some additional explanation for the ending.

(Second book in the Mole and Bear series - first one was Spring Is Here!)

Text: 3 Buckeye leaves

Illustrations: 4 Buckeye leaves

Roly -Poly Egg by Kali Stileman (FINALLY!!)

I fell in love with this book on another book blog...and kept seeing it POP up on many of the book blogs I frequent. I simply HAD to get my hands on it! I tried our wonderful public library. Nope. I tried to win it. Nope. I tried Barnes and Noble store. Nope. Tried to get them to order it for me....well, he was not real nice about it telling me it would not be here in time for Easter because I was not a member of their "special" club....I only had the teacher card. FINALLY it came from Amazon - was ordered on Wednesday and arrived Saturday...Free shipping. So the 3 year old and I snuggled down to read it together at nap time....One day Splotch lays an egg. A small egg. A spotted egg. A perfect egg. But this small, spotted, perfect egg begins to roll and takes off on an adventure meeting many friends along the way - Jemima Giraffe, zebras, Christopher Crocodile, Emma Elephant, and Madison Monkey. Finally the egg returns to Splotch and begins to....crack!! And out comes.....

Adorable!! If I had been able to read this book prior to Easter, every kid on my Easter list would have gotten a copy. So cute. End pages, adorable! Splotch, adorable. And the grand finale, adorable. And throughout the journey of Splotch's egg, readers can trace the dotted line that the egg traveled. I am so excited to share this book with our kindergarten team that just finished (of course, too late for this year) their unit on EGGS!

Fletcher and the Springtime Blossoms by Julia Rawlinson

Fletcher and the Springtime Blossoms is not a new book, copyright 2009, but it was new to me. Fletcher the fox is enjoying spring when he comes upon SNOW!! It is much too late in spring for snow, isn't it? Fletcher runs off to warn his friends the birds which begins a change of events to warn other animals. As each animal is warned, a backwards lesson about hibernation unfolds. A great spring time story to share with children of varying ages.

And no worries, it was NOT snow Fletcher saw!

Story: 4 Buckeye Leaves
Illustrations: 4 Buckeye leaves

Looking for Easter by Dori Chaconas

Looking for Easter by Dori Chaconas is not a new book (2008) but it is new to me so I thought I would share it. This book takes the main idea of "Easter" and combines it to nature, and beautifully in my opinion. Little Bunny is looking for "Easter". Along the way he smells the sweet smells of spring. With each animal he meets, Little Bunny adds to "Easter" that he is carrying. At the end he has a basket with grass and berries. But Little Bunny still wonders what Easter is and gives his basket to Robin who is in need of a a new nest. Weeks pass and finally Little Bunny discovers what "Easter" truly is.

Story: 5 Buckeye leaves
illustrations: 4 Buckeye leaves

Spring Is Here by Will Hillenbrand

Mole smells it in the air...the smell of spring! Bear continues to sleep through it. When all his efforts to wake bear fails, Mole tries a different approach, which ultimately wakes Bear up but tires him out. Short and simple text, paired simple pictures, makes this a perfect book for little ones, Youngsters will enjoy the fun language such as tap, tap, tap and squish, squish, squish along with bear's snore. Lends itself nicely to student participation.

Story: 4 Buckeye leaves
Illustrations: 4 Buckeye leaves