We all have times in our lives when we feel wronged by another party for a slight that we perceived to be malicious, but turned out to be an innocent misunderstanding. It can be difficult for children especially to look past themselves and consider the reasons behind the actions of another person. Today’s book deals with this type of situation in a fun and hilarious way, through the story of a potato who is looking to buy a pair of pants.

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Potato Pants! was written and illustrated by Laurie Keller. This story follows Potato, a very excited potato who is thrilled to find out that Lance Vance’s Fancy Pants Store will be selling potato pants for one day only. However, when he gets to the store, he is unhappy to find that the big eggplant who knocked him over the day before is standing in the middle of the store. He tries to find all kinds of ways to get potato pants besides going into the store, but when he hears that there is only one pair left, he races back to the store and learns an important lesson about misunderstandings, making mistakes, and forgiveness.

This story is full of ridiculousness that will have kids laughing along with the entertaining potato. The illustrations are bright and energetic, using colorful fonts and large speech bubbles to infuse the story with a sense of urgency. The text itself has lots of jokes, and the message of the story is one that kids can easily relate to and learn from.

Potato Stamps

Use cut potatoes to make your own stamps. Carefully cut a potato in half and carve a shape into the flat end. Dip the carved end into paint and let kids create their own potato masterpiece. We used our potato stamps to create our own pair of potato pants, while also working on patterns and color recognition. This free printable worksheet has a blank pants design for your kids to decorate.

First, I asked my daughter to call out shapes for me to carve out of our potatoes. Next, I filled a plate with different colored paints and we talked about the different colors and shapes. We started out by working on a pattern together along the top of the pants, with her providing the answer about which shape and color should come next. Then I let her go nuts with the different shapes and colors. She had a blast stamping all over the pants and creating her own masterpiece.

Talking About Emotions

Talk to your kids about a time in their lives when they were angry at someone else. Have them look at the situation from the other person’s perspective. Is it possible that they misunderstood what happened and got angry over nothing? Ask them how they would feel if they were in the same situation as Potato and Eggplant. Encourage them to look at both sides of a situation next time they are faced with a perceived slight.

Robot Dance Party

When Potato gets really excited, he does the Robot! Encourage kids to get in on the fun and teach them how to do the Robot too! Turn on some music and have your own dance party. We always take any opportunity to have a dance party, and my daughter loved mimicking the characters in the book. You could also play Freeze Dance and have kids do the robot, then have them freeze like broken robots when you stop the music.

Related Post: Check out this post for more fun dancing!

Fashion Designer Invitation to Play

Give kids an opportunity to design their own potato pants, just like the potato fashion designer in the book. Provide kids with a variety of art supplies and a mound of play dough. Encourage them to make a pair of pants shape out of the play dough. Then have them use their imagination to create different patterns and styles of pants using the materials provided. These could include buttons, feathers, string, pom poms, foam shapes, or even googly eyes!

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