RIC-6277 I can dance the Barramundi

GUM TREE
Presentation
• Say the rhyme with the actions for the class.
• The class claps the beat while saying the rhyme.
• The class says the rhyme with the actions.
Additional activities/information
• Gum trees of different kinds grow in various
parts of Australia; for example, the sugar
gum in South Australia, gum-topped
ironbark in Queensland, blue mountain
mallee in New South Wales, Tasmanian
snow gum in Tasmania, Grampians gum
in Victoria, jarrah in Western Australia and
weeping box in the Northern Territory.
• Discuss what sort of gum trees grow in the
local area.
• Read the following story to the class. If
possible, the students could sit under a gum
tree while they are listening.
GERTIE AND JACK
Gertie Gum and Jack Jarrah grew in the forest
with lots of other gum trees. Gertie and Jack had
grown up together. Their leaves often whispered to
each other. The bush creatures who lived in their
branches, trunks and roots were neighbours and
the humans who worked in the forest were their
friends and cared for them.
One day, some other humans with notebooks
arrived. They pointed to Jack Jarrah. They
walked around him and said such words as ‘good
specimen’, ‘dining table’ and ‘fl oorboards’ and went
away. Some time later, a big truck pulled up along
the bush track nearby. Men with axes and chain
saws got out. They chopped and sawed at Jack
until he crashed down. They cut off Jack’s top
branches, leaving him lying there as a big bare log.
Then they carted him away on the back of the big
truck.
• Discuss the issues in the story above; e.g.
‘Who do gum trees belong to?’
• Visit a gum tree in the school grounds or in
a nearby park or street. Share, view, smell
and stroke its leaves. Suggest words which
describe how the leaves look, smell, feel and
sound.
• Create a gum tree out of paper and
cardboard and make it ‘grow’ right up the
classroom wall. Give the gum tree lots of
branches. These can be filled with a variety
of Australian birds and animals that call a
gum tree home.
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I can dance the barramundi 14
R.I.C. Publications ® www.ricgroup.com.au
ISBN 978-1-74126-424-1