Play School

- Season 21

(1986)

Philip, Jennifer and Merridy sing about Old MacDonald's Farm. John W tells the story of Harry the Dirty Dog. John and Noni perform the story of There was a Princess Long Ago. Philip finds a hole in his shoe. Don goes walking in the City. Merridy makes a splodge painting. Jennifer tells the story of Hole. Philip and Benita perform the story of Odd Job Jill. Noni sings If All the World Were Paper. The presenters sing Walking in the City.

Aka 207.1 ep#881 Merridy and Alister set up a country and city puppet theatre. They sing 'Looking at the Paper'. Merridy makes a photo box with photos of herself doing different activities. They plant flowers. Alister looks at a wooden tree puzzle to show different Australian animals, while singing 'Old MacDonald'. The story is 'Titch' by Pat Hutchins. Through the windows a baby gorilla called Mzuri has his first birthday party at Melbourne Zoo. Merridy gives a bouquet of flowers from the potter to Alister and they sing 'Happy Birthday to You'.

Aka 207.2 ep#882 An animation is watched on a video in the studio. Alister guesses its story by listening to the soundtrack. A large 'person' is drawn with a hole where the presenters put their faces. Merridy and Alister take turns in dressing the person up. A small soccer game is made. Through the windows different people are seen having fun. The story is 'Red is Best' by Kathy Stinson.

Aka 207.3 ep#883 Benita and Alister make a snow cave from a doona. A pillow polar bear is made. Jemima the scientist is taken on a journey. Alister draws animals on a jungle mural. Benita and Alister both build a jungle hut to hide from the hairy scary hen, the whirly curly cow and terribly tigerish ted. Through the windows there are polar bears at the zoo. The story is 'Ambo and the Little Elephant' by Bunshy Iguchi.

Aka 207.4 ep#884 Benita and Alister build a shopping centre from wooden blocks. There is a restaurant, jeans shop, bakery and supermarket with a park outside. The green block person buys a hat from the jeans shop and the yellow block person uses the shopping centre toilets, then visits the bakery. Alister builds a wooden block of flats next to the shopping centre, then sings 'Here's a House'. Benita mimes being a house and Alister moves her legs and arms to make modifications to the house. Behind the rocket clock is a block city. Benita and Alister tell two different ...

Aka 207.5 ep#885 Benita and Alister make carrot cakes. Alister pretends to be a lump of clay, which Benita moulds into a statue. Funny sock feet are made by stuffing newspaper into socks. Benita and Alister do funny exercises. Through the windows a group of children attend a kindy gym class. The rocket clock shows half past five, with Benita telling a story about 'Eileen the Chook' starring Alister as the chook.

Aka 208.1 ep#886 Every day this week the poem 'All Kinds of Hair' is recited. Noni and Philip make people from small boxes with hair of different kinds and colour using wool and cloth. They sing 'Four Hairy People (Ten Green Bottles)'. A hairdressing game is played with the people. Open sandwiches are made with cheese, fruit and vegetables to look like Jemima and the presenters' faces. Through the windows a Sikh boy has his hair done ready for school. The story is 'Alex and Roy' by Mary Dickson.

Aka 208.2 ep#887 Noni and Philip make a forest landscape from play dough and hair care things: brushes, combs, curlers, hairnets etc. They dress up hair using these items. Wigs are used for dressing up with a home made beard. Bubbles are blown. Through the windows two sisters wash their hair. The story is 'Libby, Oscar and Me' by Bob Graham.

Aka 208.3 ep#888 Noni and Philip watch a guinea pig family and look at their hair. They make a black and white collage picture, then use it to tell a cut-out puppet story. Gingerbread men are decorated with icing giving them different kinds of hair. The guinea pigs have their hair brushed. Through the windows there is a giant panda in its Chinese environment. The story of 'The Gingerbread Man' is performed.

Aka 208.4 ep#889 Noni and Philip dress Little Ted, Jemima and Hamble as pop stars with zany hair. A box aeroplane is made to carry the toys to a pop concert. The song 'Hair' from the musical is sung. Moustaches are discussed. A wagon is made from a box to carry Henny Penny and William the Goat, while singing 'I've a wagon full of chickens'. Goat hair is dyed and used to decorate the face on the calendar. Through the windows there are Angora goats. The story is 'My Daddy's Moustache' by Naomi Panush.

Aka 208.5 ep#890 A rhythm game is played clapping hands and knees. Improvisation is done with household objects as instruments on a sound mobile. A comb and paper are used to make an instrument. A horse is made from a cardboard carton with a newspaper tail. 'Horsey horsey' is sung. Through the windows a violin maker puts horse hair on a bow. The story is 'Suhe's Horse', told with music. Noni, Philip and Michael wear hats and sunglasses joining Warren at the piano to sing a rock and roll version of 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star'.

Aka 209.1 ep#891 Every day this week the song 'Walking in the City' is sung. Merridy and Don make a box city - painting windows and doors. A pedestrian crossing is added. City transport is added including: car, fire engine, bike and bus. They make lifts for the tall buildings. Shopping is done in the city. Through the windows there is a montage of things going up and down such as a helicopter, lifts and escalators. The story of 'The Country Mouse and the City Mouse' is performed.

Aka 209.2 ep#892 Merridy and Don create train travel under the city. There are birds in the city and tall buildings for living. Home play is done with cut-out dolls in a block of flats. Through the windows is a city train trip. The story is 'Home in the Sky' by Jeannie Baker.

Aka 209.3 ep#893 Merridy and Don play a game of snap with animal pictures. They look at how animals move, singing 'How Does a Caterpillar Go' and games to play in the park and songs to sing. Through the windows there is a water clock. The story of 'Holly Loses Teddy' is told.

Aka 209.4 ep#894 Merridy and Don eat in a 'restaurant' playing a memory game. Fruit and vegetables are moved from the country to the city. Hamburgers are made with Vegemite, herbs, bread crumbs and minced beef. Through the windows is a fruit and vegetable market. The story is 'The Tiger Who Came to Tea' by Judith Kerr.

Aka 209.5 ep#895 Merridy and Don make a clock and relate time of night and day to day activities. The city at night is explored with a dark sky, lights in buildings and street lights. They look at transport at night and garbage collection. The song 'I am the Garbage Man' is sung. Through the windows a city is cleaned at night. The story is 'The Summer Night' by Charlotte Zolotov.

Aka 210.1 ep#896 Each day this week puppets are used to perform the poem 'Out in the Country'. Merridy and Don set up a country scene with a farm in it using pillows, blankets, cardboard boxes etc. They put a horse, cow, goat and pigs into their yards. They make pinwheel scones with currants and cheese. Through the windows the mail is collected on a large wheat farming property. The story of 'The Little Red Hen' is told.

Aka 210.2 ep#897 Merridy and Don draw different faces to match different sounds. A silly face is drawn. A picture letter is made. A country town is added to the country scene made on Monday. The country puppets go shopping. Through the windows a puppy is taken for a walk. The story is 'New Blue Shoes' by Eve Rice.

Aka 210.3 ep#898 Merridy and Don make small hens and ducks from moulding wax. Round sandwiches are made with French bread. Cheese worms are made. A dam and chicken coop are added to the farm. Benita is on location at a farm looking at horses, cows, pigs, hens, ducks, dogs and a cat. The story is 'King's Breakfast' by A.A. Milne.

Aka 210.4 ep#899 Merridy and Don use blue cellophane to change the picture around the calendar to night time. They change the country scene into night; make a moon out of a lamp; and play with shadows. The toys jump over the moon. A frog and an owl are made from pillows. Through the windows there are various frogs shown. The story is 'I Dance In My Red Pyjamas' by Edith Thacher Hurd and Emily Arnold McCully.

Aka 210.5 ep#900 Merridy and Don make apple trees with tissue paper apples and put them in a farm. A fruit whip drink is made with lots of different fruit. A spatter painting is made using fruit peel. Twigs are irrigated using a plastic hose with holes in it that has a water bottle attached to one end a cork in the other. The story is 'Is Anyone Home' by Ron Maris. Benita is on location at a fruit farm, where she picks pears, looks at different fruit and looks at trees being irrigated.

Aka 211.1 ep#901 The song of the week is 'Changes'. Jenny and Don make masks by tearing paper. They mime feelings expressed by faces: happy, sad, hot, cold, grumpy and friendly. A sheet of newspaper is changed into a hat, a boat, a bird, an ice-cream cone, an ear trumpet and a megaphone. It is also used as a fly swat when Don sings 'Little Peter Rabbit'. A dog's face is made from brown paper and a pop-up game is played. The story of 'The Tiger's Holiday' is told and a storybook about 'A Big Kiss For a Small Dog' is told from old magazine pictures. An animation from ...

Aka 211.2 ep#902 Jenny and Philip make outlines with a length of wool: a fish, a butterfly, a snail and a face. They play a game with a length of wool tied between two chairs as a tight-rope, and with Jemima dressed in strands of wool as a tight-rope walker. Tight-rope walking is mimed. Dressing up as a clown with a false nose, woollen hair and an old hat. Balls of wool are juggled. The animation 'One Grey Elephant Balancing' is shown. Through the windows there are seals performing at the zoo. The story is 'Circus' by Dick Bruna.

Aka 211.3 ep#903 Jenny and Don play a game with two paper plates and a large cardboard box. The plates become parts of a canoe, a plane and a police car. The paper plates are made into the Sun and the Moon by covering them with gold and silver paper. A poem is acted out with boxes under which is discovered a cotton-wool mouse. The presenters look at Henry and Henrietta, the mice. Through the windows there are nocturnal and diurnal creatures. The story is 'Good Night Owl!' by Pat Hutchins.

Aka 211.4 ep#904 Jenny and Don change a ball of plasticine into different shapes: a teapot, an elephant, a spider, a birthday cake, a face and a clock. They make pictures in wet sand using fingers, pop sticks and biscuit cutters. The sand pictures include a boat, an octopus, a submarine and a starfish. Don tells the story of 'The Hole' using a whiteboard marker. Jenny sings 'Turn on the Tap'. Through the windows children make pictures with a stick in the sand at the beach. Jenny and Don sing 'Rolling All Around' after flooding their sand drawings with water.

Aka 211.5 ep#905 Jenny and Philip make different colours by combining red, yellow and blue cellophane in different combinations. A black wax crayon outline of Big Ted is painted over with yellow water-based paint. Instructions are followed from green, yellow and red road signs. Paper butterflies are made by mixing paint on folded paper. Through the windows children at a kindergarten are painting with fingers, feet and brushes. The story is 'The Animals Who Changed Their Colours' by Pascale Allamand.

Aka 212.1 ep#906 The song of the week is sung about the machine of the day, using the tune 'Oats and Beans and Barley Grow'. Jenny and Don make gloop mixing sand etc. to make a road. Rubber stamps are used to tell a nonsense story. A photocopier is used. A 'snow plough' is made to clear 'snow' from the road. Through the windows there is a snow plough being used in Canada. The story is 'First There was Frances' by Bob Graham.

Aka 212.2 ep#907 Jenny and Don make an escalator from tubes and cardboard. They make other machines from boxes for a model airport terminal (clock, indicator board, carousel, etc.) The 'Hickory Dickory Dock' animation is shown. Through the windows various machines are used at an airport terminal. The story is 'I Hear' by Rachel Isadora.

Aka 212.3 ep#908 Jenny and Philip press flowers and use them to make cards. A vacuum cleaner is used. A butterfly mobile is made. Through the windows there is a rotolactor, which is a milking carousel on a dairy farm. The story is 'A Walk in the Bush' by Noella.

Aka 212.4 ep#909 Jenny and Philip set up rooms of a doll's house. A polaroid camera is used to take pictures for telling a story. The animation of a mouse looking for a house, is shown. They make a noisy 'clash bang' machine from household items. Through the windows Michael Atherton shows pre-school children his drum and plays for their dancing. The story is 'Rhoda the Robot' told with photographs.

Aka 212.5 ep#910 Jenny and Philip set up a computer and use a pointer to draw pictures. A treasure cupboard is made from a cardboard box, decorated and filled with 'treasures': shells, lace etc. Through the windows robot machines are making cars and packing. The story is 'Happy Birthday, Sam' by Pat Hutchins.

Aka 213.1 ep#911 Jenny and Philip make hobby horses with brooms, gumboots, string and crepe paper. One of the hobby horses is converted into a scarecrow and dressed. Pictures in the Play School 'Yellow Book' are looked at. A streamer is made by stapling ribbons and paper to the outside of a cardboard tube to sing 'Here is a streamer' (Trumpet Song). Through the windows a Clydesdale horse is washed, groomed and decorated for show. The story 'Dilly the Scarecrow' is performed.

Aka 213.2 ep#912 Jenny and Philip see how many old clothes and things they can put on before the count of ten. They look at children dressing up in the Breughel painting 'Children's Games'. Philip dons gloves, bow-tie and top hat for the acted out story 'Percival the Singer'. Jenny and Philip make an island from play dough and decorate it with drinking straw 'palm trees', paper cup 'lighthouse' and make boats from preserve can lids and plastic fruit juice bottles. Through the windows there is a swimming class for babies and toddlers being held at Forbes Carlysle Pool ...

Aka 213.3 ep#913 Jenny and Philip put together a wooden tree puzzle with Australian animals. A box puzzle is made with a kangaroo on one side and an emu on the other. Vegetables are stir fried in a wok. A guessing game is played with three kitchen bowls and a toy duck. Through the windows there are emus at Taronga Zoo and through another window there is Yum Cha being served at a Chinese restaurant. The story is 'Having a Picnic' by Sara Garland.

Aka 213.4 ep#914 Jenny draws around kitchen utensils and makes shapes that Philip has to match to the real objects. Then they draw faces on the shapes. Jenny makes up a story using fridge magnets. They look at children playing leap frog with hoops on Breughel's painting 'Children's Games'. Jenny shows various games to play with a hula hoop. Philip makes a tandem bicycle with two kitchen chairs. Jenny provides ice-cream container hats and they sing 'Push Bike Song'. Through the windows two children take their bikes to the park. The story is 'Lucy and Tom's Day' by ...

Aka 213.5 ep#915 Jenny and Philip play a game of skittles with plastic bottles. The bottle skittles are ten blown over while singing 'Ten Green Bottles'. Balloons are drawn on, then blown up. Different musical instruments are played. Sand and pebble shakers are made using the plastic bottles. Through the windows the jazz band Galapagos Duck perform an outside concert. The story is 'The Winter Bear' by Ruth Craft, with illustrations by Eric Blegvad.

Aka 214.1 ep#916 The animation 'Baa Baa Black Sheep' is shown each day of the week and the rolling ball calendar is used. George and Philip make a large collage mural with bits and piece. A wheelbarrow full of sand is used for a play beach with bits of shells, wood and feathers. A big picture book of Nursery Rhymes is looked at. Through the windows a tugboat cake is made in a shop. The story is 'Lucy and Tom at the Seaside' by Shirley Hughes.

Aka 214.2 ep#917 Benita and George turn a felt square, triangle and circle into figures on a felt board and decorate them with bits and pieces. An anklet and necklace are made from bits and pieces for Little Ted and Lisa. A belt is made from bits and pieces for Little Ted. Through the windows sheep are mustered and wool examined before shearing and spinning on a spinning wheel. The story is 'Playmates' by Janet and Allan Ahlberg.

Aka 214.3 ep#918 John feeds Bit and Bot the fish. Merridy and Warren sing 'All the Fish'. Merridy and John feed Jack and Jill, the guinea pigs. Merridy hangs different types of chimes on a tree branch: bamboo, chalk, macaroni and bells. John joins in with a bell to sing 'Shake Your Bells'. It's six o'clock on the rocket clock, when Merridy tells a story about 'Jack the Musician'. John play the role of Jack, who is a musician who becomes a one man band for the one hundredth birthday parade for his town. Merridy glues black and white wool on cardboard sheep, and makes a...

Aka 214.4 ep#919 Merridy and John look at fabric with different patterns. They sing 'Spot Song' then play a matching game with the fabric material. John tries to cheat, but Merridy is onto him. Merridy makes a purple fabric dress for Lisa, green felt shoes, and a pink scarf. John sings 'Come Along Now'. It's four o'clock on the rocket clock with streamers behind. Merridy tells the story of the 'Present Tree' using Lisa as the main character. Merridy and John sing 'The Green Grass Grew All Around'. A box bed is made for Little Diddle, while Merridy knits a blanket. ...

Aka 214.5 ep#920 Jenny and George draw pictures on fabric with fabric crayons. Fabric and a broom pole are used to make a puppet theatre between two chairs. An old sock, glove and mitten are used to make hand puppets. Bits of wood are decorated with bits and pieces. Through the windows is a market in Tibet. The story is 'Momoko's Birthday' with illustrations by Chihiro Iwasaki.

Aka 215.1 ep#921 Merridy and Lloyd cover boxes with wallpaper and material, then decorate with seashells. Lloyd mimes shopping in a supermarket, then visits Merridy's Marvellous Gift Shop to select a present from a wide range of homemade jewellery. Merridy mimes collecting luggage at an airport and then sings about the 'interesting' places she'd been to visit. Lloyd makes a feely box out of a shirt box. Inside he glues a piece of cork, sandpaper, sponge and some shells glued inside.

Aka 215.2 ep#922 Benita uses a carrot to make triangle stamps with red paint, while singing 'I can stamp as fast as you'. John is running a post office. Benita looks at the calendar box. She recites the poem of the week. Inside the box is a letter for Jemima. Benita mime's the actions for writing, addressing and posting a letter while singing to the tune of 'She'll be Coming Round the Mountain'. John is putting postage stamps featuring Big Ted onto mail, and weighing various packages and letters in the post office. Benita brings the letter for Jemima to the post ...

Aka 215.3 ep#923 Two Australian long necked turtles visit the studio from Taronga Park Zoo. Benita and John look at them and try to feed them with earthworms. It's two o'clock on the rocket clock, with a seagull, sand and shells behind. Benita reads 'The Smallest Turtle' by Lynley Dodd. John mimes retrieving his fishing pots rowing around to check. He collects a doorstop eel and pillow fish, but decides to leave the colander crab and 'Benita sea thing' jellyfish behind. John draws a fish in clay and gives it a red button eye and stripes on the tail. He draws a picture...

Aka 215.4 ep#924 George uses a milk carton and sultana box to create variously a tug boat, hippopotamus hand puppet and a clock with mouse. Jenny and George mime 'Hickory Dickory Dock' taking turns to be the clock. Jenny makes a big box jigsaw out of five large boxes. Through the windows is a specialist clock shop with clock repairers at work and various clocks including cuckoo,grandfather and a robot alarm clock. They sing 'Clocks'. The story is 'Angelina Ballerina' by Katherine Holabird.

Aka 215.5 ep#925 Jenny and George look at various music boxes then the hurdy gurdy mechanism that makes the music. George finds a bell box in the calendar box. Jenny and George make some musical instruments: a tissue box zither with rubber bands, a cake box drum and a cardboard roll trumpet. George makes a sculpture from boxes and streamers. He takes Jemima to the Play School market stall and helps her choose a shell pendant. The objects on sale are those made on Play School throughout the week. George wants to buy the sculpture and have it put in a box. Through the ...

Benita and John perform in a Play School concert accompanied by Warren. The audience joins in with the words and actions of popular Play School songs, among them 'I'm a Little Teapot' and 'Bananas in Pyjamas'.