Katy No-Pocket is a Before Five in a Row book and a good launching pad for exploring the 'land down under'. We used many of the lessons from the manual, but since they are geared towards younger children I added in a few additional lessons for my older son. As I shared before I wasn't planning on using BFIAR this year but after looking through all the manuals I felt like my kids were right in the middle of BFIAR and FIAR. Plus, there are so many wonderful books they I don't wont them to miss out on.
Marsupials:
In the book Katy No-Pocket, there are several different animals mentioned and drawn through out the story. The manual has a lesson on classifying all the animals but I chose to focus on marsupials. My children LOVE the Ranger Rick Jr. Magazines. They have had subscriptions to two other magazines and these are the only ones they want to read and re-read over and over again. They are informative with fun facts, amazing photos, and a story told in a 'living book' kind of way. We read through the articles about marsupials and went into depth about kangaroos.
They learned that a male kangaroo is called a 'Boomer', a female is called a 'flier', and the baby is called a 'joey'. Gabriel thought the two kangaroos boxing in the photo below was hilarious! After our first week of school I learned quickly that a book or magazine is sometimes all we need for a lesson and that not everything has to include a project. We mainly read and talked about the animals. They asked questions and I answered them. Simple.
Math/Geography:
This was a very fun activity and probably the most memorable thing we did.
Katy travels to the city to find a pocket and meets a man with an apron full of pockets. His apron is filled with tools so we pulled out Gabriel's tool bag and he explained to me how they all work and what they are used for. He was excited to use his tape measure to measure see how far a kangaroo can hop.
The kids drew a starting line and then I helped them measure 25 feet.
They were shocked that a kangaroo could hop that far!
Then we measured the distance of their hop: Gabriel-3ft 3in and Gracie-preferred to hop like a bunny so her distance measured a whopping 6in!
I asked them how many hops they thought it would take for a kangaroo to get to the end of the sidewalk.
This was their first lesson in measuring distance. We stood at the starting line and counted how many steps it took to reach 25 ft, the length of the kangaroo's hop. He took smaller steps than normal but he counted 26. To find out how many hops it would take a kangaroo to reach the street we counted 26 steps and made a mark on the sidewalk representing each hop. In the end it was a total of 11 hops.
Australia:
We read Are We There Yet as a go along book for the week. It is about a family from Australia who travels around the whole country exploring the different regions.
I wanted so badly to love this book. While there were lots of interesting facts, my children were not very engaged in the story.
The book did provide us with lots of information and we all learned new things about Australia so not a total loss!
The illustration of Australia in the top right corner mapped their journey through the book. The kids enjoyed following along.
Here is an example of Aboriginal art found in caves and on rock walls. The kids made their own 'aboriginal art'.
Meat pies and Pavlova and Anzac Biscuits, Oh My!
I could have easily made a meat pie and pavlova at home, but when there is an Australian bakery not too far??
You go to the bakery!
The people there were so friendly and excited to hear that they kids were learning about Australia. My kids may have giggled a little when they were welcomed with a "G'day Mate!"
The food was amazing and we regretted only buying one of each. Gabriel was hesitant to try the meat pie but I can't really blame him. When I think of pie I too think about a fruit or cream pie. Meat? Not so much. He finally tried it and gave it a huge thumbs up. On the way home he asked when I could make one for dinner. :)
We listened to a recording of a didgeridoo and at the bakery the kids were able to see one up close!
City vs Forest
Most of the story Katy No-Pocket takes place in the forest with all the animals but when Katy travels to the city, there is a clear distinction between the forest and the city. We compared the two as well as the different regions visited by the family in Are We There Yet.
Koalas and Eucalyptus:
My children could have looked at pictures online of Koalas all day long. They asked numerous times when we could have one as a pet. :)
I found this simple guide to drawing a koala online. Both Gabriel and Gracie drew several of them throughout the week and they glued dried eucalyptus leaves on the tree.
I use many herbs and herbal remedies in our home so I was excited to share with them one of my favorite herbs for colds, eucalyptus. They thought it was fascinating that I had 'koala food' in the pantry!
Dried Eucalyptus leaves
Eucalyptus essential oil
(This is a milder oil and one of the safer ones to use with and around small children)
Smelling the dried leaves and comparing it with the essential oil.
We looked through several of my herb books and learned about the medicinal properties of the plant. For teatime the kids tasted eucalyptus tea but preferred chamomile with honey.
Generosity:
The Bible lesson from the BFIAR manual uses two verses to discuss generosity: Deuteronomy 15:8 and 1 Timothy 6:18.
The man with the apron freely and cheerfully gave his apron to Katy when he saw that she had a need. At the end of the story, Katy shows generosity by sharing her apron full of pockets with all the other small animals.
This was a simple but deep lesson to learn. My children had many opportunities to practice generosity and sharing with each other. We will be able to come back to this story and example of giving to those in need. This lesson alone is one of the many reasons why I don't want to skip the Before Five in a Row books with my kids. Beautiful truths that will last them a lifetime can be found in some of these books.
Sheep Shearing:
We didn't spend a lot of time on sheep and how their wool is used but just touched on this topic briefly. In the spring we will go to a 'sheep to shawl' event and watch a live sheep shearing. They watched a short video on Youtube explaining the whole process.
Fairy Bread?:
Buttered white bread covered in colorful sprinkles. What kid wouldn't love this Australian treat?
Even Robert Louis Stevenson wrote a poem titled Fairy Bread
Other Resources:
These are a few of the other books that we read during our trip to Australia.
Katy No-Pocket is a fun book with many possibilities for rabbit trails. I am sure we will 're-row' this books in the future!
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