Page 12 - Term 4 Music Song Bank

Home Among the Gum Trees
Verse D
I’ve been around the world,
Em A
A coupla times or maybe more.
Em A
I’ve seen the sights I’ve had delights,
D
On every foreign shore.
D Bm
But when my mates all ask me,
Em A
The place that I adore,
Em A D
I tell them right away.
Chorus
D EmA Give me a home among the gum trees,
Em A
With lots of plum trees,
DA
A sheep or two and a kangaroo,
D Bm
A clothesline out the back,
Em A
Veranda out the front and an,
EmA D
Old rocking chair.
NB: For simplified chords leave out Bm and stay on D.
F or G are better keys for young children as that way the chorus is mostly in their vocal range. However, that will make the verse too high for many teachers. So if you are singing the chorus acapella with the children, try to sing starting on the note F or G.
Activities for public classes with parents/carers
1. Tell the babies that they live in Australia and that you’re going to sing them a famous Australian song. Sing the whole song acapella, encouraging the adults to sing along during the chorus. Perform the actions with your big teddy, as shown in the VIDEO.
2. Repeat just the chorus two more times acapella to make sure the adults know the actions.
3. Perform the whole song two times, playing along on your melodic instrument.
Activities for ELCs and pre- schools Same as for public classes with parents/carers except there won’t be an adult per child to help with the actions. If the class is small, you and the other adults take turns doing the actions with different babies. If this is going to take too long, then do the actions for pre-schoolers (without big teddy) instead (except tap tummies for line 2 instead of ‘picking plums’). Alternatively, you can sing ‘The Flea’ instead.
Activities are the same as for pre- schoolers, only you may need to tell the toddlers the name of the country, animals and trees instead of asking them to tell you.
NB: You can sing this song or 'The Flea'. ‘Home Among the Gum Trees’ tends to work better for older toddlers and 'The Flea' tends to work better for younger toddlers.
1. Ask the children if they know which country they live in. Next, tell them that you are going to hum a very famous Australian song and that you’d like them to guess the song. Hum the chorus only. “That’s right, it’s ‘Home Among the Gum Trees’!”
2. Sing the chorus only with the children acapella two times. Everyone copies your actions (as shown in the VIDEO). If they already know the song they can sing along too.
3. Ask the children if they can remember the names of the two Australian animals in the song and then sing the chorus acapella two more times with actions. Encourage the children to all sing along.
4. Ask the children if they can name the two types of trees mentioned in the song.
5. “There’s more to this song and I’m going to sing it to you now. I’d like you to join in when I start singing the words you know.” Sing the verse and chorus with your melodic instrument. Ask an adult in the room to help the children with the actions during the chorus. Sway in time with the pulse as you sing the verse to encourage everyone else to do the same. Repeat at least once.
NB: If you know the whole song then sing all the verses, with the children joining in at each chorus.
F or G if singing chorus acapella only. F# if singing whole song from beginning with melodic instrument.
melodic instrument and big teddy (babies classes only)
© 2021 Lucy Sparkles LTD