RIC-6277 I can dance the Barramundi

WOMBAT
Preparation
• Collect pictures of wombats.
Presentation
• Share and discuss the wombat pictures with the class.
• 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
• Discuss why the wombat in the rhyme might
have lost its way.
• Role-play being a vet examining the wombat
before it is pronounced unhurt and healthy
enough to return to the forest.
• Share the following scenario with the class:
That night, the wombat decides to build a
burrow. Wombats build their burrows close
to each other with pathways in between to
make a kind of wombat village. The wombat
finds a place to build its burrow, loosens
the soil with its front paws, shoves the soil
backwards out of the burrow with its back
legs, lies on its side to scratch and scrape
at the walls and roof and compacts them
with its body. A burrow may be about 30
metres long. The wombat builds tunnels
and rooms to sleep in and a small room
inside the entrance. Here the wombat sits
in the evening and waits until dark before it
emerges to forage in the forest.
• The wombat spends most of its time
underground building and renovating its
burrow, except when it trundles along the
pathways to visit its wombat friends in their
burrows.
• When a baby wombat is born, it is the size
of a bean and weighs about one gram. It
crawls into its mother’s pouch, drinks its
mother’s milk and falls asleep. After seven
months, it leaves the pouch and stays at its
mother’s side for another seven months until
it is grown up and leaves home. By this time,
the baby wombat has grown to a length of
90 cm and weighs 35 kg. It has a bulky build
with short strong legs and powerful claws
for burrowing. It has small eyes and poor
eyesight, acute hearing and a strong sense
of smell. It is mainly nocturnal and forages at
night for grasses, rushes, fungi and roots of
shrubs and trees.
• Tell the class that a wombat’s burrow is like
its cubby house. Ask if they have ever built
a special place for themselves and their
special friends. Where? When? How? Who
visits? What happens?
©R.I.C. Publications
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Display Copy
Share the following rhyme:
Cubby
My cubby is my castle.
My cubby is my cave.
And when I am inside it
I’m safe and strong and brave.
I can dance the barramundi 18
R.I.C. Publications ® www.ricgroup.com.au
ISBN 978-1-74126-424-1