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Feathers, Fur and Fins: A song about kangaroos

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A kangaroo
Feathers, Fur and Fins: A song about kangaroos

SUBJECTS:  English

YEARS:  F–2


This is a song about an Australian animal, the kangaroo.

Don Spencer sings lyrics about how people from all over the world come to see the kangaroo.

Listen to the rhythm. It is like the hopping of a kangaroo.


Things to think about

  1. 1.Kangaroos belong to a special group of animals called marsupials. What does a kangaroo look like and how does it move? How would you describe a kangaroo to someone who has never seen one before?
  2. 2.Words can be broken into parts. Words like 'Par-is' and 'Per-u' have two parts. The word 'kan-gar-oo' has three parts and 'mar-su-pi-al' has four. Listen to the lyrics (words) of the song. Clap each part of each word as Don sings it.
  3. 3.The rhythm of the song's chorus really does hop like a kangaroo. Here are the chorus words broken up into their parts, or beats: 'Kan-ga-roo, kan-ga-roo; there's noth-ing quite like a kan-gar-oo. Kangaroo, kangaroo; the su-per mar-su-pi-al kan-ga-roo.' Use your fingers or feet to tap out each part (beat) of these words. Tap harder on the strong beats. You have found the rhythm.
  4. 4.Why do you think that the songwriter calls the kangaroo a 'super marsupial'? Draw a picture of a kangaroo and write some words that you would use to describe it. Use one of your words to replace 'super' in the chorus of the song. Make sure that the rhythm stays the same.



Date of broadcast: 4 Sep 1986


Copyright

Metadata © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia Ltd 2012 (except where otherwise indicated). Digital content © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). Video © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). All images copyright their respective owners. Text © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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