This is my second year as a preschool teacher and I have been creating all brand new lessons. Last year’s Letter A is for Ant was replaced by Letter A is for Alligator. B is for Butterfly became B is for Bear and so on. But when it came to the letter K, I just had to repeat K is for Kangaroo. We had so much fun – especially with this hopping game I invented – that I couldn’t wait a whole year to repeat it. Plus, the pouches needed improvement. I wanted to see if my my idea would work!

So, for our Letter K lesson we first learned about Kangaroos. I read them the book “Kangaroos” and we discussed it page by page. Then we imagined what it was to live as a baby kangaroo with the story “Pouch!” Finally, we saw a short video about Kangaroos. Enough sitting. It was time to get on the move!

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Kangaroo Hopping Hunt Game

Kids love to hop! When you play this game, you’ll see that it just comes naturally. One mention of hopping and they just HOP!

How To Play The Kangaroo Hopping Game

First “hide” many laminated K and kangaroo images all over the room, in plain sight.
Tie the pouch/pocket around each child’s waist, as you would an apron.

Have the kids hop around and collect them.

Let them empty their pouches and count how many they found.

How To Make The Kangaroo Pouches

Supplies

Colored copy paper

Elmer’s Glue

Glue-sticks

Crayons

Scissors

Single-hole punch

Yarn

Printed coloring picture of mommy and baby kangaroo

Laminated letter K’s and joeys

Part 2 of Making The Kangaroo Pouchs – What the Kids Do

Kangaroo Day arrives! The morning began with having the students make their own kangaroo pouches. Since my students are very young, 3 and 4 years old, I pre-cut the pouches at home and glued them together, using Elmer’s glue.

The top should not be glued.

Leave it open like a pocket.

The top piece is cut just a bit shorter than the back. As you see in the picture, I used a hole punch to punch 6 holes across the back of the pouch. The students laced a long string of yarn through it [also pre-cut.]

Fixing the Design: last year the holes pulled out too easily. Their pouches became a ripped up mess from their exuberant hopping. This year, I girded the end holes with a piece of scotch tape on the front and back of the top edge, reinforcing it. When I punched the holes, the ones on each end were punched right through the tape. It worked beautifully. No tearing!

The children glue-sticked the drawing of the mommy kangaroo and joey on the front of their pouches, colored them and laced the yarn through the holes. We marked their name on them and put them aside for our midday “motion” time. They had so much fun hopping and collecting joeys and K’s. I think it was the best part of the day!

FREE PRINTABLE: Letter K’s and Joeys To Laminate, Cut and Hide for the Game

Two great book resources to compliment your lesson.

Sweet little video to show your preschoolers with momma kangaroo calling her joey back into the pouch.

Craft: Kangaroo and Joey Craft to make for K is for Kangaroo

Last year’s craft and lesson was so cute. This year, I added the feature of making our kids the joeys. I printed a small photo of each child that they could glue onto the face of the joey after they colored and cut it out, adding a nice personal touch.