Writing Bird Sounds

Learning Sequence:

1. Use recordings from On-Country Learning or go outside in the school yard to listen carefully to the different birds. See if you can match the sound to the bird’s name.

2. Try to mimic the birds calls (kaaa kaaa, waaaarr, djiti djiti). Match the bird sounds to their Noongar names. Guess which bird is called Kaa-kaa, djiti djiti, Wardung, Koolbardi.

3. Make up your own names for other birds or creatures that you can hear. How would you write them down? Practice writing the sounds in the sand using the English alphabet. Discuss how different letter combinations can be used to make similar sounds (e.g. aa / ar / aw), and choose which one seems most accurate.

4. Have students label the plants and other animals in the Habitat Model in Noongar language. If possible, get an elder to pronounce the Noongar names, and have students try their best to write down the sounds in English. Explain to the students that this is how Aboriginal languages were recorded in writing, and that this is one of the reasons we see different spellings for Noongar words.