Follow along as we “row” classic children’s literature with Before Five in a Row. Learn more about BFIAR here.
Book Summary
“Katy No-Pocket” is a story about a kangaroo who does not have a pouch for her baby. She asks several other mama animals how they carry their babies, but nothing works for her. After a wise owl tells her to go find a pocket in the city, Katy Kangaroo meets a carpenter with an apron full of pockets for holding his tools. The nice man gives Katy his apron and then she has enough pockets to carry her own baby and many others.
Notes & Thoughts
This book is the longest book we have read so far and I wasn’t sure it would hold Gabriella’s attention, but she was intrigued by the illustrations and all of the animals. Although it seems like a silly premise, Katy’s lack of a pocket introduces some wonderful themes including overcoming challenges, embracing differences and kindness.
Activities
- Building with tools: Gabriella loves tools and enjoyed getting to build something with daddy. She searched the garage and picked out the building materials and helped build this “princess tower box” for her owl puppet to live in. Her favorite part was getting to swing the hammer…uh oh!
- Hopping like a kangaroo: We raced all over the house hopping like kangaroos. I was usually wearing Preston in a carrier so he bounced like a real baby kangaroo and thought it was big fun too.
- Letter K pocket: I printed and laminated letter K cards and the cute pocket from Homeschool Share.
- Pocket apron: Gabriella loves to wear aprons for cooking so I knew she would like making her own apron with pockets for holding her animal babies. We used a plain, child-sized apron, cut out various sizes of scrap fabric I had around the house and used stitch witchery to “sew” on the pockets. She picked out the fabric and decided how big to make the pockets. The apron and pockets were smaller than I imagined, so she wasn’t able to carry any stuffed animals in the pockets, but they were the perfect size for her animal finger puppets (ours are from IKEA, but you can find some on Amazon as well).
- Visiting downtown: The scene when Katy arrives in the city is filled with tall buildings, cars, buses, trucks and lots of people. We attended a festival downtown ad talked about all the differences between where we live in the suburbs and downtown in the city. We really wanted to ride a trolley, but unfortunately this mommy couldn’t figure out how so we did the river barge Riverwalk tour instead.
- Babywearing: Gabriella loves wearing her babies, especially “Jesus Bunny.” She enjoyed wearing her babies in her Boba mini to look for rolly pollys, ride her tricycle and eat dinner.
- Go-along book: Eric Carle’s “Does a Kangaroo Have a Mother, Too?” is the perfect book to read alongside “Katy No-Pocket” to see more animal mothers and babies. The end of the book has a page about the different names for animal babies like joey, calf, lamb, etc.
- Felt board story: This DIY felt board story to go along with “Does a Kangaroo Have a Mother, Too?” was perfect to use with this book.
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