RIC-6277 I can dance the Barramundi

KARRI
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
• Read the story below and discuss the
student’s opinions on what happened.
The story could be used as a script for an
assembly item.
HARRY THE KARRI
The karri forest has always been beautiful and peaceful.
Every day the branches of the karri trees whisper the
news of the forest to each other. Early one morning,
Harry the karri, the oldest, wisest and tallest karri tree
in the forest, heard some dreadful news.
‘If this is true,’ he thought, ‘it will change our forest
forever’.
So he sent for Mopoke, the boobook owl.
‘Gather the forest creatures together, Mopoke,’ said
Harry the karri, ‘and bring them to me’.
‘Mopoke! Mopoke! Mopoke!’ echoed Mopoke’s call through
the karri trees as she gathered the forest creatures to
her.
Fairy wrens, honeyeaters, cockatoos and parrots,
mopokes and robins, barking owls and a noisy scrub bird
followed Mopoke and settled in the branches of Harry
the karri.
Possums and quokkas, echidnas and numbats,
bandicoots and wallabies, dingos and bats and rats
followed Mopoke and gathered about the great trunk of
Harry the karri.
Tiger snakes curled up on warm rocks and skinks rested
in the cool grasses. Dragonfl ies hovered and beetles
scuttled under leaves. Frogs sat quietly on lily pads.
Marron in a nearby stream poked their whiskers out of
the water to listen.
When everyone was assembled, Harry the karri spoke to
them.
‘Friends of the forest,’ he said, ‘I welcome you all here
this morning. I have something to tell you’.
Then Harry the karri announced the news he had heard
that morning.
‘People from local timber mills are coming here today to
inspect our forest to decide which karri trees they will
cut down and carry away to their timber mills.’
The forest creatures could not believe their ears. Silence
fell in the forest.
The dragonfl ies and beetles trembled. The skinks and
tiger snakes slithered quietly away.
But the other birds and animals were FURIOUS!
‘CUT DOWN OUR TREES?’ bellowed a possum.
‘DESTROY OUR FOREST?’ squeaked an echidna.
‘TURN OUR TREES INTO LOGS?’ howled a bandicoot.
‘AND WOODCHIPS?’ shrieked a noisy scrub bird.
‘This way, Joe’, said a voice. ‘Over here.’
Timber mill people could be seen through the trees. They
stopped and stared in silence at Harry the karri and the
forest creatures gathered about him.
‘I’ve worked in this forest for many years’, said one of
the timber mill people. ‘It’s like home to me.’
‘If we chop everything down it’s gone forever’, said
another.
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‘But I need a job. I’ve got a wife and family’, said a third.
‘Bushwalkers come to this forest all the time’, said a
fourth timber mill person. ‘They love it here. Why don’t we
talk to the tourist people to see if they can arrange jobs
for us?’
The timber mill people nodded their heads and stood
talking together for some time, then they turned back
and disappeared through the trees.
The forest creatures were ECSTATIC! Harry the karri and
the other karri trees waved their branches with delight
and all the birds and animals jumped with joy.
‘Friends of the forest,’ said Harry the karri at last, ‘I
think we all agree that this karri forest is kept as an
old growth forest to be protected and never felled for
timber’.
• What do YOU think?
I can dance the barramundi
58 R.I.C. Publications ® www.ricgroup.com.au
ISBN 978-1-74126-424-1