I See a Kookaburra!

By Steve Jenkins and Robin Page

Learn how these animals and many others grow and thrive in very different environments.

Sketch a habitat you know about around you (e.g. Barwon River)
Camouflage – show a page of habitat and see if the kids can find the animals who are hiding (there is an ant hidden on each page).

Finding the verbs in one of the habitats (sipping, leaving, bounding, creeping, sniffing)
Acting out the verbs – using a double page (g. in the desert, I see…a long-nosed bat sipping nectar from a flower) – take a video of you acting out this verb.
Finding other words for the verbs – synonyms – (‘g. a secretary bird, who kills snakes by stomping on them with its feet…) – what other words can we use for ‘stomping’?
Exploring -Why did Steve use a cassowary with a “helmet” with apostrophes? What does this make us think as a reader?

Predicting: Show an image of the habitat and get students to predict who might live there?
Activating Prior Knowledge: Predict the animals you might see in each habitat – desert, tide pool (rock pool), jungle, savanna, forest, pond – what do we already know?
Gathering Up the Facts: As the students read, view or listen to the text they stop and record facts. They can write down and add to a paper bag or record themselves saying the facts. The students can revisit their paper bag of facts to inform their factual writing.
Questioning: Use ‘Question Key’. Provide the students with an answer and they formulate questions.

The answer is pond. The question could be – Where does the snapping turtle bury itself?

Writing like an expert – Steve uses precise language to inform. Make a list words as you plan your writing.

Mining Your Own Environment – What kind of habitat is near you? Identify an animal to research and inform your audience.

Researching the technique of collage. Robin Page uses this technique to create the illustrations. Can you use this technique to publish your own writing?

Looking at the jungle habitat. Count legs/arms (that have them) on the animals and create a table to show the difference between animals. E.g. A spider monkey has 4 legs and a harpy eagle has 2 legs

Adding the eyes (that you can see) together in each of the habits. Which habitat has the most eyes? How can you present your findings?

Selecting a habitat and survey your friends about their favourite animal from that habitat.

Finding out more! Pick an animal from the text and research a little more about them. What did you find out? There is also lots of information at the back of the text for each animal.
Exploring a habitat near you Choose a habitat near you (Barwon River, Bushland, beach) and draw/sketch what it might look like. Could you even be inspired by the illustrator (Robin) and use different materials to make this?
Viewing images and videos of different habitats. Create a habitat 3D
Investigating the globe to find the locations in the book.

Andrea Hillbrick