Kookaburra leaps, melts and sleeps in the music room!

In real life:  Use this with children ages 1-5 years.  

Do you know the Kookaburra song?

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree

Merry, merry king of the bush is he.

Laugh! Kookaburra. Laugh! Kookaburra

Gay your life must be.  Ha! Ha! Ha!

If I had more techie skills I would find a way to include audio in this post...oh well, some day...:)

We've been singing Kookaburra in my classes lately and laughing and calling like kookaburras.  "koo-koo-koo-koo-koo-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka!"

Kookaburras don't live in our part of the world, they live in Australia, so we look at pictures and meet my Kookaburra puppet while we're learning the song.

 He's fluffy for a bird!  

We play beats with the Orff Orchestra and ask the parents to sing in a round.  It's lovely.

some of the Orff instruments ready to play!

Oh...and in case you didn't know, kookaburras are members of the kingfisher family.  That's why they're called "king of the bush".   If you've ever heard the kookaburra call, it's kind of like a woodpecker.  Kookaburras sound like they are laughing.  I definitely wish I had audio to show you what we sound like when we laugh like kookaburras!

Kookaburra as a musical movement song.

We can also use this song to explore our list of movement words.

Kookaburra jumps in the old gum tree

Kookaburra jumps in the old gum tree

Jump, Kookaburra!  Jump, Kookaburra!

Jump in the old gum tree. Jump, jump, jump.

If we need to express energy or raise energy in the group then I use more words from the locomotor word list.  I use words like jump, run, roll, snake, fly. 

If I sense we need to move but keep things calm I use more words from non-locomotor word list.  I use words like twist, hug, sleep, wiggle, tickle.

Kookaburra hugs in the old gum tree

Kookaburra hugs in the old gum tree

Hug, Kookaburra!.  Hug, Kookaburra!

Hug in the old gum tree. Hug, hug, hug.

In almost every class I try to roll, snake, slide, crawl, stretch and hug. Those movement words seem to accomplish so much for the lower and mid-brain.

There are many musical movement songs...I'll post another tomorrow.