Play School - Season 22 (1987)

Aka 216.3 ep#928 Benita, Anna-Maria and Philip make a mural of a park scene with cut-out paper chains of people and animals. They make panini: bread rolls stuffed with lettuce, carrot, tomato, onions and capsicum. Through the windows animals are being fed at the zoo. Philip sings 'I like dogs'. It's seven o'clock on the flower clock, with flowers underneath. Anna-Maria reads the book 'Spotty va a Spasso': the Italian translation of 'Spot's First Walk' by Eric Hill. Philip adds some flying elephants to the park mural and goes for a walk, singing 'Everybody Do This'. ...

Aka 216.4 ep#929 Benita and John make hats from paper and plastic containers. They improvise an Italian festa with mock spaghetti, pizza and gelato. Through the windows there is an Italian festa. The story is an animated version of the book 'Strega Nonna: an old tale' retold and illustrated by Tomie dePaola.

Aka 216.5 ep#930 John presses some bottle tops to make coins. He sings 'We are all Shopping (Stamping)' as he visits a variety of shops run by Benita: a newsagent, a delicatessen, a bookshop and a florist. Fruit juice is made in a blender: watermelon juice and rock melon juice. A huge gelato is made with tissue paper of different colours. Through the windows orange gelato is made at an Italian gelateria. The story is 'Mr Patelli's Shop' by Ann Reay, with fold out illustrations from the BBC book 'Play School Stories'.

Aka 217.1 ep#931 The poem of the week is 'There are Rocks That are Big' by Robin McKellar. Benita and Philip put rocks in plastic containers to make shakers. They sing 'Jump, jump, jump'. A rock people picture is made in a dirt tray. A train is made from an egg carton with plastic punnet and foil box carriages. Gravel and plastic animals are loaded into the train, with 'I'm a Train' and 'Train is a-coming' sung. Train 'bits' are then made into a digging machine to construct a gravel road. Through the windows digging machines are at work at Darling Harbour in Sydney. ...

Aka 217.2 ep#932 Benita and Philip play a guessing game with the toys dressed up for various outings, guessing what clothing is inappropriate. Pasta jewellery is dyed and made. River rocks are put in water to see how they change colour and texture. Special rocks are chosen. Through the windows there is a gemstone cutter. The story is 'Acorns and Stew' by Ruth Orbach.

Aka 217.3 ep#933 Benita and Philip use rock paint powder made from sandstone rocks. Hills are painted in a collage of an outback scene with dried gum leaves, clover flowers and twigs. There is an echidna visiting the studio. The presenters look at its nose, claws and watch the echidna burrow in a dirt tray. Bubble blowing is done with a straw and a bubble pipe. Through the windows there is a platypus burrowing, swimming and eating. The story of the 'The Drought' is told.

Aka 217.4 ep#934 Merridy and Alister set up a miniature Japanese garden in a baking dish using sand, twigs, leaves etc. An arched bridge is made from a long leaf. Patterns are made in paint from different shaped leaves and rocks. Merridy and Alister show what is in their pockets. Through the windows a mother and baby walk about in a garden. The story is 'Scruff' by Gerald Rose.

Aka 217.5 ep#935 Merridy and Alister pull carrots from the soil in a planter box. The carrots are cut into different shapes, as well as other vegetables. Worms are added to the moist soil. They mime planting a tree. The story 'Springtime on the Farm' is told. Through the windows a tractor is at work on a small farm.

Aka 218.1 ep#936 Benita and John spin hoops. Holes are torn in folded paper to make multiple holes. Paper t-shirts are made by tearing holes in newspaper. Through the windows milk is bottled in a dairy. The story is 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' by Eric Carle.

Aka 218.2 ep#937 Benita and John build a wall with cardboard boxes and leave a hole for a window. A finger play is done with holes. The holes on the calendar are looked at. They dress up in clothes to match the weather. A guessing game is played using cut out figures from nursery rhymes and holes for the presenters' heads. Through the windows is a school fete. The story of 'Herbert Humpletoff's Party' is performed.

Aka 218.3 ep#938 Musician Haruko visits and plays a Japanese Koto. Jenny and Philip play a shadow guessing game by putting objects behind a rice paper screen. A wombat and a wombat burrow hole are made from clay. Wooden animals are put behind the shadow screen. Through the windows a glassmaker makes a glass fish. The story is 'One Egg, Two Eggs' by Yoshiko Yokochi.

Aka 218.4 ep#939 Benita and John put together a wooden puzzle of a house. The doors on the calendar are opened. John pretends to be a house for Little Ted. Honeycomb is looked at and put on bread. Through the windows there are bees and honeycomb. The story is 'Mike Mulligan and His SteamShovel' by Virginia Lee Burton.

Aka 218.5 ep#940 Jenny and Philip make a collage from various paper bits, and a paper tiger chase takes place. They choose objects to make a cup of tea. The toys have a tea party with paper 'milkshakes'. Through the windows a shadow play is performed using an overhead projector. The story is 'Hairy MacLary Scattercat' by Lynley Dodd.

Aka 219.1 ep#941 The door animation is shown each day this week. Benita and George make refrigerator cookies. A wooden box becomes 'Dora' with doorknockers and a doorbell. They play 'Knock-knock. Who's There?'. Faces are put on the biscuits. A pillow becomes a grandmother. Through the windows there is a grandmother and a baby. The story is 'The Doorbell Rang' by Pat Hutchins.

Aka 219.2 ep#942 Benita and George open the windows of a house to reveal a baby picture. Benita makes a peg and handkerchief baby. The toys go camping in the Outback with a hammock and tent. Painting is done on perspex and colours mixed to make new ones. Through the windows there is Irish dancing. The story is 'Jane's Quest'.

Aka 219.3 ep#943 Merridy and Alister look at frogs in a tank. They make clay animals for a game of matching homes. A cupboard house, with plaster of Paris roof, is painted. A garden is made for the house. The house becomes a farm house beside the clay animals. Through the windows is a city garden. The story is 'The Garden' by Arnold Lobel.

Aka 919.4 ep#944 Benita and George play games with a door. George sings 'Johnny works with One Hammer'. Pictures of doors are opened to reveal likely and unlikely things. There is a collage picture of a farm and farm animals. Through the windows there are farmers using gates. The story of 'The Quiet Day' is performed.

Aka 219.5 ep#945 Merridy and George use paper puppets to act out and sing 'Jack and Jill' in French. The toys are in hospital. George makes a get-well card for the toys. Paris is built using blocks and boxes, and stained glass windows are added to Notre Dame. Through the windows someone is shopping using French language. The story is 'Madeline' by Ludwig Bemelmans.

Aka 220.1 ep#946 The song of the week is 'If All the World Were Paper'. Noni and Philip make a house with paper walls for Big Ted and Maurice. Chairs are made with shoe boxes. The house is painted with stripes then decorated with coloured streamers. Streamers are thrown over the calendar. Rainbows are painted on t-shirts in fabric paint. Through the windows children are at home painting. The story is 'The Kinder Hat' by Morag Loh.

Aka 220.2 ep#947 Merridy and George tear holes in newspaper to make simple jigsaw puzzles. Torn strips of newspaper are used as a wig for Little Ted, and a doily dress is made for Ted to become a princess. The story of 'There was a Princess Long Ago' is performed and sung. Through the windows a family is having breakfast. A 'newspaper' is made from pictures torn from old newspapers and the presenters sing 'Looking in the Paper'.

Aka 220.3 ep#948 Merridy and George play pin the tail on the donkey. A newspaper hat is made for Humpty, and a tissue paper hat for Hamble. A wedding is held with Jemima as bride and Little Ted as groom. The presenters mime taking photos. Through the windows is the wedding of Prince Andrew and Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson. The story is 'When Willy Went to the Wedding' by Judith Kerr.

Aka 220.4 ep#949 Alister and George join Warren at the piano to sing 'There's a Bear in There'. They sing more songs using different instruments. They make a paper trumpet, pot-lid cymbals, paper and comb mouth organ, and biscuit tin drum. A small present is given which has a Jack-in-the-box inside. George uses his tap shoes to sing 'Walking in the City'. The story is 'Mr Magnolia' by Quentin Blake.

Aka 220.5 ep#950 Noni and Philip make a 'pig'-sun using circles of different types and sizes of paper. A mobile with a circle caterpillar is made. A bear and cat are hung up for decoration. A control panel is made with paper cups, plates, streamers and ribbons. The story is 'Teddy's Ear' by Niki Daly.

Aka 221.1 ep#951 Benita and Philip make half-mask paper plate faces with different expressions. They mime different activities. Maurice the bear is introduced. A monkey and baby are made from an old pair of socks. Through the windows a baby has a bath. The story is 'Caps for Sale' by Esphyr Slobodkina.

Aka 221.2 ep#952 Benita and Philip play a name-the-missing-toy game. Philip mimes being a vacuum cleaner, a television and a washing machine. Benita makes paper washing for a small clothes line. Through the windows a car is washed. The story is 'Are You My Mother?' by P.D. Eastman.

Aka 221.3 ep#953 Benita and John make a 'feely' book with textural materials: tree bark, grass and raw wool. They make another book with folded and stapled paper, sketching bees on each page. They act out nursery rhymes within the covers of a book made from a large cardboard box. They mime activities in a library. Through the windows there is a library and through another window a zoo. The story of 'The Lion Who Forgot How to Roar' is acted out.

Aka 221.4 ep#954 Benita makes a dice from a box, and she recites the poem 'One Two Buckle My Shoe'. Benita and Alister roll the dice in a plastic container to play a board game with different modes of transport on the board. They sing 'Alley Alley O'. The toys go on a bus journey. Lisa receives a letter. The story is 'A Letter to Amy' by Ezra Jack Keats. Through the windows people take a ferry and bus trip. The 'Hats' animation is shown. They make party hats out of a cardboard cone and a saucepan, singing 'Where Did You Get That Hat?'. Lisa celebrates her birthday ...

Aka 221.5 ep#955 Benita and John record their voices on a tape recorder, changing the speed for different effect. The calendar reveals a drawing of Warren. Benita and John join Warren at the piano to sing 'If You're Happy and You Know It', while recording the song onto the tape recorder. The story is told using felt pieces about a cat at night, and 'Sailor Sue'. They make a boat out of a baby bath, and an island for the toys. Through the windows people are at the beach. Benita and John pretend to make sandcastles at the beach.

Aka 222.1 ep#956 'The Black Cat' animation is shown each day this week. Philip and George use a large cardboard box to make a robot. A smaller box is added as a hat. Then the hat is made into a caterpillar and the robot is changed into a dancing cat. An old straw hat and blanket are used for a bed for Diddle. A story is told by drawing a continuous line which ends up looking like a cat. Through the windows is the Victorian Art Gallery. The story is 'Fur' by Jan Mark.

Aka 222.2 ep#957 Philip and George make a vegetable jelly. A black cardboard cat is attached to some string, and is animated on the pages of a simply made book called 'The Adventures of a Cat'. Through the windows are fairy penguins. The story is 'When We Went to the Park' by Shirley Hughes.

Aka 222.3 ep#958 Benita and George make bunk beds out of shoe boxes and cardboard rolls. Calico covers for the beds are decorated with painted stripes. Burmese cats and kittens visit. The toys are put to bed in the bunk beds, with stripey covers. Through the windows children visit the dentist. Benita sings 'Brush, Brush, Brush'. The story is 'John Brown, Rose and the Midnight Cat' by Jenny Wagner.

Aka 222.4 ep#959 Noni and George paint patterns on a mural and use them for jungle cats: a tiger, a leopard and a panther. They blow up balloons, singing 'Blow up a Balloon' and draw a cat's face on a balloon. The story is 'From Gran' by Rod Campbell.

Aka 222.5 ep#960 Noni and George make mosaics using white and brown clay. A clay family is made adding wood shavings, feathers and pieces of pine cones for features. The McClay family then go fishing. Dog, cat and baby paper plate faces are pegged on a line for game, 'Which One is Missing?'. Through the windows Philip has his make-up done. The story of 'Sing a Song of Sixpence' is told.

Aka ep1.1 Noni and John make a vegetable soup with potatoes, capsicum, carrot and celery. John sings 'One Potato, Two Potato', then Noni boils the water and adds the vegetables. John uses the vegetable scraps to print red and green paint onto paper. An animation is shown of a person watching a bear on television. Noni sings 'On TV'. John explores different shot sizes with the studio camera, first showing his feet and then having the camera operator Bronwyn zoom out. John and Brownwyn play a game where Brownyn has to find John with the camera while he moves in and out ...

Aka ep1.2 Noni and John animate 'Jack and Jill' figures up and down a slit hill. 'Five Little Ducks' is shown as a pull-through story in a shoe box. John watches himself on a VCR. Noni makes-up John as a scarecrow. She then 'makes-up' paper plate face. Through the windows is the Glenelg tram ride. The story is 'Two Shoes, New Shoes' by Shirley Hughes.

Aka ep1.3 Benita and George look at Bit and Bot the fish. Benita puts paper scales on a paper fish, staples two fish together and stuffs to make a two dimensional image. George adds scales to a clay fish. Benita cuts out a folded paper bear to make five bears. Through the windows an 'E-flex' vision mixer flips, squeezes and multiplies an image of Big Ted. The story of 'Alexandra's Day' is told. With the aid of Warren, Benita and the toys, George comperes a Play School Talent Quest.

Aka 1.4 Benita covers familiar objects and Philip identifies them. Benita uses them to make noises. Benita acts out a television play, using a bicycle bell, spoons, papers, a hooter and a thunder board. Through the windows a potter throws a vase. The story is 'Noisy' by Shirley Hughes.

Aka 1.5 Jenny and Alister make a 'Whirler'. Alister is a gondolier in an upturned table. Venice is recreated using egg cartons and macaroni over a water tray. Toothpaste box gondolas float up and down the canals. Through the windows there is footage of Venice. The story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears is acted out.