Katy No Pocket

Homeschooling was really fun this week and we now have a new favorite book in Katy No Pocket. Katy No Pocket is illustrated by the same illustrator of Curious George and is about a mother kangaroo that does not have a pocket to carry her baby, Freddy. She seeks the help of other animals and eventually makes her way to the city where a generous man gives her an apron full of pockets. She now can hold many animals that need it, not just Freddy and she is the happiest kangaroo.

On Monday, we read our story and watched an animated version of it too. Both of the boys really liked the story. After we watched you tube videos of kangaroos and learned many things like they can jump over 30 feet in one jump and they enjoy kickboxing. 

Next, we colored and cut out a kangaroos with its baby, the Joey. Ezra also made his very own kangaroo. 

 

After this, we went outside to measure 30 feet but our measuring tape only went as far as 12.5 feet. So we said it was two times the tape measure and that was amazing to us. We jumped as far as we could and Silas can jump 3 feet in one jump and Ezra likes to hop. We worked more on color by numbers book and practiced writing 7's when we came in.

Tuesday morning started a bit differently because the night before it rained really hard and our playroom flooded in the middle of the night. Luckily, daddy woke and saved our school books that were sitting in a puddle. We are so lucky to have the daddy that we have! We went to bible study in the morning and we went outside to do our schoolwork after lunch. It was such a beautiful day! We practiced writing K’s for Kangaroos. 

Then we read our story. After that we talked about generosity and how the man with the apron was so kind and generous and how God likes us to have generous hearts. Then we thought of how we carry babies. Mommy carries Ruby in her arms like Jocko the monkey’s mommy. She also carries her in a wrap and that is kind of like a kangaroo. Pup pup is Silas’ most favorite toy that goes everywhere and Silas usually carries Pup pup by the leg or under his arm like a football. We decided to try to carry Pup pup like a kangaroo so we used Silas’ backpack. It didn’t go so well for Pup pup but it sure was funny! 

After that, we looked at how far Australia is to the United States on a map! We wondered how different the people are there. We learned about the people who were native to Australia are called Aboriginals, and they have their own style of living and art and music. We listened to some aboriginal music and made a Didgeridoo, an aboriginal instrument. Then we looked at aboriginal art, and made our own aboriginal style kick boxing kangaroo.  We finished the day by working on 8’s and we finished our color by numbers book!

 

Wednesday, we continued to do our school time outside because it felt amazing, and our floor cushions needed even more time to dry. We practiced tracing the sentences, “A kangaroo can jump 30 feet. Silas can jump 3 feet.” Then we colored some Australian animals and trees around our work.  

 

We read our story and ate popsicles.  We noticed the differences between the city and the forest and then drew pictures of the differences. We worked on making 9’s and then did a kangaroo craft where we made a mommy and baby kangaroo out of a Dixie cup. 

Since we are learning about Australia, we had an afternoon treat of “fairy bread”, something that kids in Australia eat...it is basically buttered toast with sprinkles. Silas listened to the poem “Fairy Bread” by Robert Louis Stevenson. We talked about how poems are short writings that make us think and sometimes paint a beautiful picture in his head. I had him listen while I read and after I asked him what he thought of. He said, “hmmm….ummm….I thought of…..nothing.” haha We may have to keep exploring poetry!

Come up here, O dusty feet!

Here is fairy ready to eat.

Here in my retiring room,

Children ,you may dine

On the golden smell of broom

And the shade of pine;

And when you have eaten well,

Fairy stories hear and tell.

On Thursday, we started our day using our foam shapes to make patterns. We first made shape patterns, and then we made color patterns.

We pointed out the colors to Ezra too. We were really excited to read Katy No Pocket because it just might be the most favorite book of all. (Except I’m wondering if Caps For Sale, or We’re Going On a Bear Hunt were really our MOST favorite. Katy may be one of my new one’s and Corduroy is definitely a favorite of mommy’s!) We read the story and followed along to the animated version twice…it’s that good. 

Next, we talked about how Katy was a problem solver and asked others for help. We also thought it was great that Katy was different and that differences make people interesting. We talked about differences in people we know and then drew a picture of Silas and then Ezra to show the differences in the brothers.

Silas then worked on his Katy Kangaroo and did the best coloring job with colored pencils that he has ever done. I may just save it forever! We pasted pockets on Katy’s apron and put all the little animals inside. 

 

We thought we had a 10’s page to do but we realized they were only 0-9’s and we were a little sad that we were finished with those worksheets, but we were also proud. We did some simple addition and used our frogs on a log as counters (thanks, Aunt Sis!) 

 

Since we were finished with writing numbers, we worked on building numbers with our pattern pieces and then played magnatiles. 

I’m so thankful we were able to play outside so much this week.  It really kept everyone’s moods in the right place and made bedtime way easier! I also think it enhanced our learning experiences and made everything feel more rich. Thank you God, for all that vitamin D and weather in the 70’s! Thank you for letting us do school and that this week makes 72 days of school for us! I think that’s pretty good for having a baby in the mix :).