The Kookaburra

Just when I least expect it, an old childhood song pops into the forefront of my memory. While reading "Expedition Down Under" to Will this week, we came across the word Kookaburra. I remembered a song that we had sung in grade school about a Kookaburra "sitting in the old gum tree". I sang the song to Will and as we read on, lo and behold, Ms. Frizzle (of the Magic School Bus) sang that very song with her children during the trip to Australia. Well, all along, I had in my mind that a Kookaburra was a furry little bear, similar to the koala. At the end of the book, Ms. Frizzle's class finally sees a kookaburra and discovers that it is a BIRD! Even Will had "expected the kookaburra to be a small bear similar to the koala". Check out a picture, a sound clip and the complete words to my childhood song at: http://www.niehs.nih.gov/kids/lyrics/kookaburra.htm.