Play School - Season 16 (1980)

aka ep164.4 Noni and John mix dirty water to make mud. They sing 'Muck'. Through the windows children are playing with mud. John invites participation with sliding and sloshing action. Noni makes mud pies and cakes singing 'Pat-a-Cake', then they have a tea party with the toys. They wash up the dirty plates singing 'This is the Way'. The clock reads 10 o'clock. The story is 'Desmond the Pig'. Noni sings with mud-wallowing actions 'If I were a Little Pig'. John shows how to make an apple pig adding cheese and banana with toothpicks. 'This Little Pig Went to Market' is ...

OUTSIDE BROADCAST from country property aka ep164.5 Benita spends a day on a property shearing sheep. The family round up the sheep into the yards. Alister catches a sheep for a close look. We see the dogs working the sheep through the yards to the shearing shed. Benita chants a finger play 'Five Woolly Lambs'. In the shed Alister watches the shearing and attempting to 'throw' a fleece onto the wool table, we see sheep go down the chutes to underneath the shed. Benita watches the sheep come out of the shed and into the paddocks and sings 'Baa Baa Black Sheep'. There ...

aka ep165.1 Jan and Alister have created a river environment - the sandtray a garbage bag forms the river base and a 'finger puppet' farmer goes for a row in a foil pie dish boat and Jan rows and sings 'Row, row, row your boat'. Through the windows is the Murray River and a paddle steamer. Alister picks up wheel action and sings 'Round and Round'. Jan makes a butter container paddle steamer with yoghurt lid wheels and puts it in the river in the sandtray. Alister floods the river with a watering can. The animals and farmer flee to higher ground. He sings 'I hear ...

Noni and Alister dress as Jilleroo and Jackeroo ready for work in the country and they sing 'The Country Song' and gallop around mustering 'cattle'. Through the windows camels are mustered by a motor bike. Noni musters 'camels' on a bike singing 'Motorbike Song'. Alister gallops in and lassos buckeroo. The story is 'Cranky the Camel'. Noni does a camel walk, singing 'The Camel Song'. Alister uses cushions to make a camel lump on his back and takes the toys for a ride. Noni looks at a dingo photograph. Through the windows are animals in dry outback Australia. Noni ...

aka ep165.3 Noni and Alister have a picture of a rainforest with tree ferns and a waterfall. Glitter is sprinkled on for rain. There are animals in the rainforest including water snake, possums, tortoise and spider. Alister sings 'Eency Weency Spider'. Through the windows animals are seen in a rainforest. Alister looks at a tortoise and Noni moves like one. The clock says three thirty. The story is 'The Hare and the Tortoise'. Noni hops and sings 'The Hare'. Alister does a finger painting of hares and tortoises and uses a fern to 'paint' rainforest trees. Noni sings ...

aka ep165.4 Noni and Alister conjure up forms of transport in the country. Noni sets up a country shop, using bags, empty milk cartons, cardboard boxes and lots of newspapers. Alister brings in customers, Jemima who lives a long way out of town flies in, Big Ted comes in a truck and Humpty on a horse. They do their shopping. ALister gallops Humpty to his property and then gallops and sings 'Giddiap'. Through the windows there is the loading of cattle on to a truck. Noni sings with actions 'Squeaky Old Truck'. The clock shows 9 o'clock. The story is 'The Possum who ...

Noni and Alister make outback sheep station in the sandtray using twig bushes, a paddlepop windmill, a bowl dam, egg carton with cotton wool 'sheep'. Noni sings the 'Windmill Song' with actions. Alister experiments with water (coloured) using plastic hose and a pump then fills the sandtray 'dam' with water and Noni uses the pump like windmill to pump water into the soap container 'water troughs' for the animals. She sings with finger actions 'Kangaroo Brown'. Through the windows is a Kangaroo dance. Alister picks up dance actions from film inviting child to join in. ...

aka ep168.1 Noni and Mervyn create a block of flats out of cardboard boxes, a folded cardboard strip serves as stairs. Mervyn marches and sings 'Bananas in Pyjamas'. After calendar Mervyn shows us pictures of flats. A shoebox is made into a lift for the toys and Noni sings 'We're Going Up' with actions. Clock is 2:00. Story is 'The Lost Aeroplane'. Mervyn sings 'Up in the Air' zooming around as a plane. Looking at the top of objects, Noni plays a guessing game. The last object is a ball, Mervyn picks up the action and sings 'See, how I'm Jumping'. Through the windows ...

aka ep168.2 Noni and Mervyn are at the windows dressing up in snow clothes with scarves, jumpers, snow boots, beanies. On the calendar are pictures of snow over recital of poem. Through the windows a snow cat is followed through mountain village revealing people at work and play. 'A Squeaky Old Truck' becomes a rumbling snow cat rolling over snow as Mervyn does actions of snow cat for participation. Noni moves Big Ted in a cardboard box snow cat over the mountain. An old lounge chair and a sheet become a snowy mountain with broom trees. Mervyn creates snow with cut up...

Aka 168.3 ep#688 Benita and Tyler are cleaning the pets' homes. Benita sings 'Two Little Dicky-birds'. The visitor is a duck. Benita sings 'I'm a Quacker, I'm a Squaker'. The book 'The Story about Ping' by Marjorie Flack, is read. Benita sings 'Five Little Ducks'. Tyler makes ducks out of match boxes and pipe cleaners. Benita sings 'Follow Me to Waddling Land', and Tyler follows. Through the windows there are people living on a houseboat. Tyler sings 'Row, row, row your boat'. The presenters play a houseboat game with the toys. They sing 'One, Two, Three, Four, Five'.

aka ep168.4 Noni and Don use the water tray to make the sea. They have a rocky island and a harbour. Noni uses plastic vegetable boxes to make a container ship with smaller plastic 'containers'. Noni sings 'The Big Ship Sails Through the Alley, Alley O'. Don mimes being a crane. Noni rows Humpty to his island. She sings 'Row Row Row Your Boat'. Jemima's island has a farm. Cow is sent from Jemima's island to Humpty's in a bucket tied on to a rope. Clock is at 1 o'clock. The story is 'The Surprise' about a visit to an island. Noni jumps like a kangaroo, then Don sings '...

aka ep168.5 Benita and Philip make furniture for a dolls' house using cotton reels, bottle tops and play-dough. They play a game miming activities appropriate to different rooms in a house. They make cheese pastry biscuits in various shapes and Philip mimes being a dough ball being rolled out. He then sings 'Here's a house with a wall'. The story is 'We Were Tired of Living in a House'. Philip sings 'Mr Frog', 'Hairy Bear' and 'Fly fly fly if you feel you want to'. Through the windows kindergarten children play in a tree house. Benita and Philip make a tree-house for ...

aka ep169.1 Benita and Alister are spinning with hula hoops. They sing as they spin. Alister and several of the toys then try to jump through the hole in the hoop. Poem of the week is illustrated with items that emphasises the 'holes' theme e.g. a sock with a hole and a shoe with a hole in the sole. Benita tears holes in paper to make patterns and makes a paper dress for Jemima. Benita then mimes putting on various items of clothing. She ends with gumboots and stomps about. Clock shows 2 o'clock. Story is 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' by Eric Carle. Benita does ...

aka ep169.2 Jan and Don are making a wall out of cardboard boxes. Don, behind the wall, makes a hole for a window and Jan puts a tea towel curtain over the window. They sing "Who's that Tapping". Don forms his fingers into another window and sings "See My Fingers" with actions. The poem of the week is followed by a look at the items on calendar with holes in them - including a key hole and a plug hole. Jan has 'going out' clothes. She looks through the window to check weather. don as the weather is raining. Jan puts on raincoat and gumboots. Don sings action song "I ...

aka ep169.3 Benita and Alister use car tyres as swings and try different ways of swinging. They sing 'The daring young man on the flying trapeze'. Henrietta, one of the Play School mice, goes round in her mouse wheel. Alister says the action poem 'A Mouse Lived in a Little Hole'. The Poem of the Week is followed by a look at head holes i.e. ears, mouth, nose. Benita looks at caterpillars and the holes they've eaten on leaves then makes her hand into a caterpillar and sings 'How Does a Caterpillar Go?'. Clock shows 2 o'clock. The story 'Here's a House' is told with ...

aka ep169.4 Alister and Colin use a simple insert puzzle of a house. This is followed by the action game 'Build the House Up Very High'. After calendar, poem of the week. Alister mimes digging a hole with a pneumatic drill. He is joined by Colin and they sing 'Hole in the Road'. Clock shows 4 o'clock. Story is 'Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel'. Colin mimes being a big shovel and 'digs' a big hole to build a house. He sings 'Building up my House'. He then becomes a house and Alister enters and inspects 'house' with Little Ted. Little Ted climbs stairs then Colin ...

aka ep169.5 Don and Colin use plastic bottles and tubing in an experiment which shows how water flows from high to lower levels. After going through three bottles, the water turns a wheel which makes a bell ring. After calendar, poem of the week. Don plants lettuce in a tray of earth and shows how a carrot top will grow in a saucer of water and how onions and potatoes will grow, suspended over a jar of water. Colin does a digging mime. The activity song 'Do You Plant Your Cabbages' is sung using nose, elbow, tummy and feet. Clock shows 3 o'clock. The story is 'Such a ...

aka ep170.1 Jan and John finish the cat pictures around the calendar. We see an animation of a black cat and Jan sings 'The Black Cat' and mimes being a cat. John has made a large cardboard box cat with things from the Useful Box (tissues, newspaper scraps, glue, masking tape etc.) He finishes straw 'whiskers'. Jan enters and they say 'Rat-a-Tat-Tat'. A film then shows lots of real cats and kittens. John moves like a cat. The story is 'Buffy Visits the Vet'. John sings 'If You're Happy and You Know It' as a happy dog. Jan is a vet and she bandages Fido. John sings 'I ...

Lyn and John play a game matching drawings of animal bodies to their tails. They sing 'The Little Mouse Goes...'. At the end of the game Lyn sings 'If I Were a Little Pig'. John inspects the tails of various Play School toys including Slush and Diddle, who swishes her tail in anger. Lyn sings 'I'm Cross'. The story is 'The Teddy Who Wanted a Tail' starring Little Ted. John dresses up as a black cat complete with a tail made from a panty hose stuffed with newspaper. The Black Cat animation follows and Lyn mimes being a cat. The film shows animal tails and John sings '...

aka ep170.3 John tells the story of an old woman looking for firewood as he draws a picture of a cat (from the Useful Book). Lyn draws a cat in the air - a spotty cat. Lyn sings 'The Spot Song'. John shows some cat drawings that people have sent to Play School. The Black Cat animation is followed by a cat mime. There are real cats and kittens in Play School. John looks closely at them, pointing out their whiskers and paws, etc. he sings 'Warm Kitty, Soft Kitty'. Lyn brings food for the cats and kittens and she and John sing 'I Had a Cat'. The story is 'John Brown, ...

aka ep170.4 Benita and John make a cat mobile using black cardboard cut-outs, a coathanger and string. John sings 'The Black Cat' while we look at the Black Cat animation. Benita mimes being a black cat. John dresses as a witch with a newspaper witches' hat. Diddle the Cat is his helper. He mixes up a 'Magic Stew' and uses it to make spells on the toys. Benita, also a witch, enters on a broomstick and takes Diddle flying. Benita and John then use the broomstick to do a limbo dance. The broomstick becomes a horse as John 'gallops' and 'trots' and sings 'Gee Up Neddy'. ...

aka ep170.5 Lyn and Don are foot painting. Lyn makes footprints and toeprints. Don washes his feet and sings 'Jump, Jump, Jump'. Lyn looks at the footprints that some animals make (horse, seagull and cat). Don has traced the outline of his hand and draws on his finger nails. He sings 'One Day a Hand Went Walking'. Then he traces round a shell and a button. The story is 'Red Button'. Don sings 'The Spot Song'. Lyn and Don look for camouflaged animals in a jungle collage made from scraps of material. Don and Lyn say the poem 'Walking in the Jungle'. They mime being a ...

aka ep171.1 Lyn and Don are making things from items found in the Useful Box. Don, using a cake box on a string and packing material for 'hair', makes a bouncy 'Hairy Ug'. Lyn turns a plastic detergent bottle into 'the little girl who had a curl'. Calendar surround has various sorts of hair-dos. The poem of the week is sung by Lyn over an animation. Lyn pulls faces - inviting participation from the viewer, and sings 'Open, Shut Them'. Don tells the story, 'The Hair Book' which features all kinds of hair. He sings 'This is the Way We Comb Our Hair'. We play a guessing ...

aka ep171.2 Lyn and Don are making a face using a felt oval, and cardboard moustache, hair mouth etc. Both sing the 'Hair Song'. Song of the week is sung over the animation by Don. Lyn changes the felt face from a girl to a bearded bald man, then changes the expression. Don sings 'Changes'. Lyn changes Jemima by adding a wig, and sings 'I'm Goldilocks'. Jemima is to be Goldilocks in the story of 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears'. The story is sung, Big Ted being Father Bear, Little Ted is Mother Bear and Littlest Ted is Baby Bear. Don becomes a bear walking, and sings ...

aka ep171.3 OUTSIDE BROADCAST at TARONGA ZOO, Sydney. Jan, Elaine and Don look at various animals, e.g. giraffe, the hippopotamus, chimpanzees, the elephant and the spider monkeys. Some animals are kept at the zoo for school children to touch and the presenters look at these with the zoo's education officer. They tell a story about a fly's adventures at a zoo. Don helps a keeper feed the lions, and Elaine the seals. Jan shows the zoo's Animal Nursery where sick and baby animals are kept. Finally the presenters look at the animals in the zoo's Friendship Farm.

aka ep171.4 Lyn and Don make a 'dingly dangly jumping matchbox man' with elastic, a matchbox and tape. (It may jump better with dough or plasticine in the matchbox). They jump to the verse, 'Jumping Jeremiah'. Lyn gives the man wool hair, and sings 'There was a Little Girl'. The story is about a person visiting a country where they don't understand the language, who has to resort to mime - with amusing results. Lyn and Don sing 'Shake Yourself' then Don shows pictures of the Italian city of Venice and sings 'Row Row Row'. On film we see someone at home making ...

aka ep171.5 Jan and Don are curling hair - Jan has been curling her own hair, while Don puts curlers in a wig. After the Song of the Week, Jan brushes out her hair singing 'Brush Brush Brush'. Jan shows photographs of herself with different hairstyles and lengths, including one when she was a school girl. They sing 'When I Was a Schoolgirl/Big Girl/Baby', and Don photographs Jan pretending to be a baby. Don uses all sorts of hair accessories to make-up a story about a press photographer who tries to broach a well-defended castle to photograph the princess. Jan ...

aka ep172.1 Jan and Don look at different ways to do up clothes. Don has a 'whizzer' made with a button and string. He shows how it works and Jan whirls around like the whizzer. They play a game throwing buttons into an egg carton. Song of the week is 'Buttons and Bows' sung with clapping. Story is 'The Tale of Peter Rabbit' by Beatrix Potter. Don sings 'Dingle Dangle Scarecrow' with actions to scare away the rabbits. A glove is made into a rabbit puppet with button eyes and straw whiskers. Jan animates puppet to poem 'There Once Was a Rabbit'. Both sing with actions ...

aka ep172.2 Jan and Don dress the toys showing different ways to do up clothes. Song of the week 'Buttons and Bows'. Jan dresses up in a Japanese kimono and sandals. Jan shows us how Japanese women walk. Don invites child to mime walking in different shoes - running shoes, gum-boots, Japanese sandals, high heels. The story is 'The Kite' about Japanese children flying their kites. Don sings 'Skipping Game' song with actions. Don and Jan make a simple kite with a painting, two bits of wood and string. The child is invited to zoom around like a kite. Through the windows ...

aka ep172.3 Jan hammers some nails into a wooden frame. John sings along with Jan's hammering 'Johnny Works With One Hammer'. Jan winds string around the nails on the frame. Using raw wool they weave a picture (ribbons or paper can be used instead) as they sing 'Baa Baa Black Sheep'. A black sheep and her new baby, black lamb, are visitors in Play School. Jan looks at their wool while singing 'Baa Baa Black Sheep' (to them). Song of the week 'Buttons and Bows'. The story is 'The Red Button Story' told with simple button pictures. John walks to 'I Can Walk as Fast as ...

aka ep172.4 Jan and John use buttons and old bits of material and ribbons and a broken zipper to make a picture. Song of the Week is sung. Jan makes a tree on the picture into an apple tree while they sing 'Once There Was an Apple Tree'. A material car is made with buttons for wheels. Both presenters go for a ride, singing 'Take You Riding'. John acts out the story of 'Tiny Thomas', who is going on a holiday. As he doesn't have a suitcase he has to wear all his clothes - even to bed. Jan sings, with grooming actions, 'I Jump Out of Bed In The Morning'. We look at ...

aka ep172.5 Jan and John draw outlines of their feet. They later cut these out, add buttons, bows and wool to make puppets. John says 'This Little Pig Went to Market'. 'One Day a Hand Went Walking' is sung with puppets and as a finger play. Cut-out foot puppet becomes a clown introducing action song - 'Ha Ha This A-way'. The story is 'Wait For Williams'. Action song 'The Circus' gives opportunity for marching, elephants, horses and clown participation. John wears large clown shoes and Jan looks at babies' bootees with ribbons, sandals with buckles and shows how to tie...

aka ep173.1 Jan and John operate a clockwork cowboy. They pretend to be a clockwork toy, acting out being wound up, riding and gradually stopping. John looks at the size, face, hands, pendulum and winding mechanism of a grandfather clock. He sings the song 'The Clock'. Jan makes a cardboard box grandfather clock. The 'Hickory Dickory Dock' animation is shown. The story is about a boy who doesn't want to get up in the morning. The song 'I jump out of bed in the morning' is sung. Jan uses a wind-up alarm clock to wake John and the toys. Through the windows are farm ...

A clockwork mouse that runs and bows is wound up by John. Benita does 'Two Fat Gentlemen' fingerplay, which continues bowing and meeting theme. Another thing we do when we meet is shake hands. They sing 'How do you do and shake hands'. Shadow puppet 'Hickory Dickory' is viewed and hand actions follow. Story is a development of the song 'Two Fat Gentlemen'. There is skipping and bowing with the song, 'I Will Bow to You'. John makes a 'day clock', drawing round a clock face, things a child might do in a day. Then, with a hand pointing to drawings he develops opportunity...

Jan and John looks at the white mice, then sing with actions 'Hickory Dickory Dock'. Shadow puppet version is viewed. A cuckoo clock is seen and made to strike several times, giving the opportunity to count. This idea is developed with the song, 'Cuckoo Clock', making tick tocks and cuckoo sounds. Story 'Harry's Hiccups' is about a boy who can't get rid of his hiccups until he forgets them when eating. John sings 'I'm So Hungry' and Jan invites participation in miming eating bananas, ice-cream and spaghetti. John then sings 'The Spaghetti Song'. Spaghetti is messy to ...

Benita and John tidy up the bookshelves and look at nursery rhymes and the Useful Book. 'Hickory Dickory' is shown with shadow puppets then sung with hand actions. Benita and John use a bed as a source for dramatic play, a chair back gives an idea for a zoo, hiding under sheets the idea for a monster play, a pillow gives a hill for 'The Grand Old Duke of York', and wall for 'Humpty Dumpty', then becomes a horse to ride. Story is about a little girl who doesn't want to go to bed and is the last one awake in the house. Benita sings a lullabye 'All the Pretty Little ...

A tiny hurdy-gurdy is wound up to play 'Happy Birthday'. It can be made to play fast and slow. John moves like a robot at various speeds. Don sets a metronome at various speeds and develops participation with tick-tocks and counting to ten. They then have a game, each building a tower of boxes while the other counts to ten. Still counting with the metronome, they blink then stare. 'Listen' is a sound making song with actions introducing the idea of amount of noise. Story is 'Too Much Noise'. After, there is noise-making with the song 'Clap Your Hands'. John's voice is...

aka ep175.1 Benita and Don make a miniature garden in a foil pie plate with small plants and cuttings. Planting activity follows with song, 'Do You Plant Your Cabbages'. A coffee lid pond and a peg doll, 'Mary Mary Quite Contrary' are made for the garden. The calendar has a 'window box' full of flowers. Don makes a cardboard house for Mary, Mary then does actions to 'Build the House Up Very High'. The story is 'The Outside Cat'. The child is invited to purr and stretch like the cat in the story. Benita plays an inside-outside game with cutout objects that go inside ...

aka ep175.2 OUTSIDE BROADCAST. Noni and Don are out in a garden today. Don makes a garden for a Play School house made from twigs and grass. He plays his guitar and sings, 'Mary, Mary Quite Contrary'. Noni walks past pushing a lawn mower. Noni helps take in the family's washing. She matches up socks in pairs and mimes being a clothes-line. Don sings as he digs in the garden. Then Noni puts in some cabbage plants. She sings, 'Do You Plant Your Cabbages' then makes a mud pie for Don. Don finishes a bird table in the garden and puts meat, seeds and bread on it. Noni and ...

aka ep175.3 Noni and Don look at garden worms. Noni shows us how to make our hands into wriggly worms singing 'How does a caterpillar go?'. Egg cartons, feathers, and cotton wool are used to make a bird. Egg cartons and cotton wool are also used as pots for mustard seeds. Little mustard plants make it a 'hairy caterpillar'. They sing 'I'm not afraid'. Through the windows we see kookaburras being fed. Don invites flying participation and sings, 'Can You'. The story is 'Are You My Mother?'. After story, a finger play 'I have made a pretty nest'. Noni then makes a nest ...

aka ep175.4 Noni and Peter check the plants in the miniature garden. A cork and paddle pop sticks make a see-saw for Mary, Mary Quite Contrary and he dog. Noni invites action with 'See-Saw Marjorie Daw'. Then Peter makes a swing for the toys using a cardboard box, string and a broom handle. He swings Humpty singing 'Swinging'. The story is 'Sally's Secret'. This is followed by actions of some creatures found in the garden. Diddle has a tea party for the toys in a cubby-house built with a shower curtain and clothes rack. It's disturbed by lawn mowing. Peter then plays ...

aka ep175.5 Jan and Colin are planting radish seeds in a box. In other boxes are radishes at various stages of growth. Colin sings, 'I take my shovel and I dig dig dig'. Jan shows the miniature garden made on Monday. After the story, 'The Garden', Colin pretends to be a seed and Jan tries to make him grow as was done in the story. Jan has some household vegetables sprouting - a sweet potato, a carrot top, an onion and a potato. She then makes a 'Potato Toad'. Colin jumps around like a toad. Jan has a 'Carrot Mouse' who plays hiding 'Potato Toad'. Colin hides Little ...