Skip to main content

Feathers, Fur and Fins: A song about 'Aussie sharks'

Posted 
Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume.
A man feeds a small shark in an aquarium
Feathers, Fur and Fins: A song about 'Aussie sharks'

SUBJECTS:  English

YEARS:  F–2, 3–4


Listen to this song about sharks performed by Don Spencer.

Watch some sharks as they roam the ocean.


Things to think about

  1. 1.What do you know about sharks? If you were making a song about sharks which body parts would you sing about? Perhaps their sharp teeth? What else might be in a song about sharks?
  2. 2.Listen for groups of words in the song that end with the same sound like 'shark' and 'dark'. These words rhyme. Which lines of the song are repeated over and over? Why? Does what you see in the clip help you to understand or remember the song? Why or why not?
  3. 3.Who (what character) is singing the song? Which line tells you this? How does this make you feel about the song? The word 'crook' is an example of Australian slang. Can you guess what this means? Why was this word chosen? 'I'm a true blue pointer'. Can you explain why 'true' was added here? Hint: Find out what 'true blue' means.
  4. 4.Make a list of rhyming words you could use for a similar song about a different animal, such as 'I'm an Aussie Dog'. Use your rhyming words to write a chorus for your new song using the same beat and rhythm. Find out what it means to say 'his bark is worse than his bite'. Why was this saying altered (changed) for the song?



Date of broadcast: 19 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).

Posted