Kangaroos

Today was all about kangaroos, wallabies, and wallaroos! After teaching about them, we listened to the book Marsupial Sue by John Lithgow.

I said listened to because the book comes with a CD of John Lithgow singing the story. The kids really enjoyed it, and it provided a wonderful lesson for them: Always be true to who you are. (Thanks for letting me borrow the book, mom!)
And then after the story, the little girl whose grandma lives in Australia (I mentioned her in yesterday's post) had more surprises for us! She brought in Australian money and a real kangaroo hide!

I have no idea how her grandmother got this, but it was very cool to see. All the kids had a turn at touching the soft furry side and the smooth leathery side.
OK, now on to the art project. I found a coloring sheet of a kangaroo and joey.

I cut out the mama and baby so the kids could color them.

And then instead of using a paper pouch, I cut them out of felt and let the kids decorate them with glitter glue and sequins.

I would have used all different colors of felt, but brown was the only color I had on hand. One girl made her initial (E) on the pouch. How clever!
When they dried, the pouch was glued onto the mommy kangaroo, making sure to glue only the sides of it and not the top. That way the joey could fit right inside.

As a special surprise, when I put these in the kids' mailboxes at the end of the day, I added a sucker to the pouch!

Fun Fact: A kangaroo cannot run or walk on land because its back legs do not move separately. It can only hop. However, if the kangaroo is swimming, the legs can move independently!