Books
🌿🌻K is for Koala by DK Publishing (illustrated by Marc Pattenden)
This illustrated Animal Alphabet board book features alliterative facts about the koala, an Australian marsupial with a very special diet.
🌿🌻Q is for Quokka by DK Publishing (illustrated by Jean Claude)
This illustrated Animal Alphabet board book features alliterative facts about quokkas, small marsupials from the western coast of Australia.
🌿🌻Our World: Australia by Maree McCarthy Yoelu (illustrated by Sophie Beer)
This illustrated board book provides snapshots of a day in Australian life, including words and expressions, food, cultural references tucked into illustrations. A simple appendix provides explanations for words and references.
🌿🌻123 of Australian Animals by Bronwyn Bancroft
🌿🌻ABC of Australian Animals by Bronwyn Bancroft
🌿Over in Australia by Marianne Berkes
Like other titles in Berkes’ series, this book reimagines the song “Over in the Meadow” with ten Australian animals and their babies. Additional information about each animal can be found at the back of the book.
🌿The Wombat Said Come In by Carmen Agra Deedy
In this 2022 book, a wombat hosts a parade of animal guests in his burrow as they take refuge from a bushfire. This story is based on true observations of the 2020 Australian bushfires, where other animals were observed to survive the fires by sheltering in available wombat burrows.
🌿Kangaroo & Crocodile by Bronwyn Bancroft
Written and illustrated by an Aboriginal Australian artist, this vibrant book of Australian fauna depicted in a vibrant style. If you cannot find this title, Bancroft has written (and illustrated) many other books about Australian wildlife that are equally wonderful.
Don’t Hug the Quokka by Daniel Errico
This illustrated book describes how very cute the quokka is– and how the quokka’s extreme cuteness does not entitle us to hug it (unless the quokka says “yes”). This is a really cute book about bodily autonomy for kids (and adults).
The Koala Who Could by Rachel Bright
This illustrated book tells the tale of a hesitant koala who is so afraid of trying anything new that he decides time and again to stay in his tree. When his tree unexpectedly begins to fall, the other animals plead with him to let go.
Creative Art Opportunities
🐨Coral reef-inspired multi-layer collage with die-cut fish and brightly colored ripped paper
🐨Paint or draw on paper shaped like Australia
🐨Painting with rubber snakes or spiders
🐨Painting with string dipped in liquid watercolor paints
🐨Painting with giant feathers
Hands On Experiences
⛅️Stuffed animals of koala, kangaroo, platypus, etc.
⛅️Large feathers (emu)
⛅️Rubber snakes
⛅️Feel around in a sensory bin of dark murky water like a platypus (corns starch and food coloring)
⛅️Explore giant paper eggs (emu and cassowary)
🌿Go for a walk with a stuffed animal or baby doll in a “pouch” like a marsupial
🌿Play with a stuffed animal or doll riding on your back like a baby koala
🌿Dig a “burrow” in the earth for a wombat
Songs to Learn and Sing
“Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree“
Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree
Merry merry king of the bush is he
Laugh, Kookaburra, laugh, Kookaburra
Gay your life must be
“Waltzing Matilda”
Once a jolly swag man camped beside a billabong under the shade of a koolibah tree
And he sang as he sat and waited while his billy boiled, “You’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me”
“Waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda, You’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me”
And he sang as he sat and waited while his billy boiled, “You’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me”
Down came jumbuck to drink beside the billabong, up jumped the swag man and bagged him with glee
And he sang as he shoved that jumbuck in his tuckerbag, “You’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me”
“Waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda, You’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me”
And he sang as he sat and waited while his billy boiled, “You’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me”
Up road the squatter, mounted on his thoroughbred, down came the troopers, 1, 2, 3
“Where’s that jolly jumbuck you’ve got in your tuckerbag? You’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me”
“Waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda, You’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me”
And he sang as he sat and waited while his billy boiled, “You’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me”
Up jumped the swag man right into the billabong, “You’ll never catch me alive” said he
And his ghost may be heard as you ride beside the billabong, “You’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me”
“Waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda, You’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me”
And he sang as he sat and waited while his billy boiled, “You’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me”
[Notes: swag = traveling bag carried over your back; waltzing Matilda = traveling by foot; billabong = watering hole; jumbuck = male sheep; squatter = landowner; tuckerbag = oiled leather bag for carrying food; billy = metal bucket used for campfire cooking]
“Give Me a Home Among the Gum Trees“ – Wally Johnson & Bob Brown (covered here by ABC Kids)
I’ve been around the world a couple of times or maybe more
I’ve seen the sights I’ve had delights on every foreign shore
But when my friends all ask me the place that I adore
I tell them right away,
“Give me a home among the gum trees
With lots of plum trees
A sheep or two, a k-kangaroo
A clotheline out the back, veranda out the front
And an old rocking chair”
I’ll be standing in the kitchen, cooking up a roast
With vegemite on toast, Just me and you and a cup of tea
And after tea we’ll settle down behind the hitching post
And watch the wombats play
Give me a home among the gum trees
With lots of plum trees
A sheep or two, a k-kangaroo
A clotheline out the back, veranda out the front
And an old rocking chair
There’s a Safeway on the corner, and a Woolworth’s down the street
And a New World’s just been opened where they regulate the heat
But I’d trade them all tomorrow for a simple bush retreat
Where the kookaburras sing
Give me a home among the gum trees
With lots of plum trees
A sheep or two, a k-kangaroo
A clotheline out the back, veranda out the front
And an old rocking chair
Some people like their houses built with fences all around
Others live in mansions, and some beneath the ground
But I won’t be content until the day that I have found
The place I long to be
Give me a home among the gum trees
With lots of plum trees
A sheep or two, a k-kangaroo
A clotheline out the back, veranda out the front
And an old rocking chair
“Along the Road to Gundagai” – Jack O’Hagan, 1922 (Australian folk song covered here by ABC Kids)
There’s a seam that lingers in my memory
Of an old bush home and friends I long to see
That;s why I am yearning just to be returning
Along the road to Gundagai…
There’s a track winding back
To an old-fashioned shack
Along the road to Gundagai
Where the blue gums are growing
And the Murrumbidgee’s flowing
Beneath the sunny sky,
Where my daddy and mommy are waiting for me
And the friends of my childhood once more I will see.
Then no more will I roam when I’m heading right for home
Along the road to Gundagai.
NIYN -Australia on Spotify
All playlists are works in progress and are actively curated when I have a unit in play or preparation, so new songs may appear and old songs may be removed if they don’t suit my designs.
Nature In Your Nurture 