Play School - Season 25 (1990)

aka ep20.4 Benita and Simon use wool and pipecleaners to make a small dog. They prepare party food using paper, cardboard, cotton wool, etc. for sandwiches, fruit salad and cakes. Jemima has a birthday party. They take a photo. Through the windows is a biscuit factory. The story is 'Hugo at the Window' by Anna Rockwell.

aka ep20.5 Benita and Simon dress Hamble as a baby and a bed is made from her from a clothes basket. Paper birds are used to make a baby's mobile. The bears go for a ride in a laundry trolley and meet some friends. Through the windows children are shown being carried in different ways - on back, on shoulders, in strollers etc. The story is 'Dad's Back' by Jan Ormerod.

aka ep21.1 The animation 'Jump or Jiggle' is shown each day this week. Benita and Simon make puppets move: a Balinese stick puppet and a marionette on strings. They make and dress a large cardboard cut-out puppet with jointed arms and legs. The presenters paint a mural of a rainy day scene and a snow scene. They mime a melting snowman and ice skating. Through the windows there is ice skating. The story is 'Alfie's Feet' by Shirley Hughes.

aka ep21.2 Benita and George create a feely foot walk: guessing what surfaces bare feet are walking on without looking. They make foot faces by drawing on the soles of their feet. George walks in different ways. They dress up as a giant creepy-crawly and sing 'How does a caterpillar go?'. Through the windows there are Ants, a ladybird and caterpillar. Benita and George perform the story of 'Tippy Tap Shoes' with socks and shoes on their hands against a black backdrop.

aka ep21.3 Benita and George look at the Play School mice Henry and Henrietta move around their house and wheel. They make a mouse house with a shoebox and mice with paper. They make a vacuum cleaner into a Super Slurper Sucker Upper. There is a game miming a washing machine and a tumble dryer. Through the windows is a laundromat. The story is 'All My Little Ducklings' by Monica Wellington.

aka ep21.4 Trisha and George make a weather window - painting rain, sun, and wind on a perspex screen. They dress up in rain, sun and windy weather clothes. They play a knocking and tapping game: guessing the visiting animals. Through the windows is ballet dancing. The story is 'Come by Chance' by Madeleine Wincy.

aka ep21.5 Benita and George make a cardboard slope and winch the toys up in a box. They make the box into a wagon for Slush the pig to ride in. They mime a machine that starts and stops and moves different parts. The story is 'I'm Going for a Walk' by Shigeo Watanabe. 'Moving' by Bob Graham is also read. Through the windows is the Power House Museum.

The song of the week is 'The Wheels of the Bus' acted out and sung by children at the Northside Theatre Company, Killara in New South Wales. Benita and George make socks and glove puppets - crocodile, rabbit and spider. Benita pretends to drive a bus and George is the passenger. Doorbell sound effects are made with a glass and spoon. The puppets are used in a box puppet theatre to act out a version of Little Miss Muffet. The story is 'Aunt Nina's Visit' by Franz Brandenberg. Through the windows is a busker making music with a glass harp.

aka ep22.2 Benita and George make doll's furniture from boxes and use it to act out the story of the Three Bears, with Big Ted, Little Ted, Maurice and Jemima. They make a simple revolving stage on a table. The presenters listen to different kinds of rhythm. They mime animals at a billabong. Through the windows David Gulpilil is dancing in the Australian bush.

aka ep22.3 Trish and George make clown face sandwiches. George does some clowning. They make a circus big top with streamers and a hat stand. The toys do circus acts. Through the windows is the Flying Fruit Fly Circus. The story is 'Hairy Maclary's Rumpus at the Vet' by Lynley Dodd.

aka ep22.4 Monica and George make a cardboard cut out rabbit with moving eyes who reacts to a fly, a bird and a crocodile. They turn blot paintings into various animals. They play silly musical instruments e.g. a racquet, a bicycle pump and an egg beater. Through the windows are mechanical musical monkeys. Jean-Paul mimes the story 'The Painted Bench'.

aka ep22.5 Noni and George make a paper dolly chain and dance them to music on a stage. They turn a perspex screen into a TV screen and give weather and sport broadcasts. They use the toys to perform a rock music TV show performing 'Shout' and 'Rock Around the Clock'. Richard performs the story of 'The Broken Bridge' with his shadow puppets. Through the windows is a soccer game.

aka ep23.1 Benita and George make a scrap book to decorate the cover with scraps of coloured paper, wool, material etc, while singing 'A Little Bit of This'. They stick Play School stickers inside and make a picture from torn up pieces of paper. The calendar has mixed up letters, which are arranged to form the name of the day. Scrap is introduced to Play School. Through the windows are library activities. The story is 'Tom and Pippo Read a Story' by Helen Oxenbury.

aka ep23.2 Benita and George make a train with blocks to take the bears to the mountains for a long walk. They follow a map with arrows and landmarks. After their bushwalk, the map is stuck on the next page of the scrap book, made on Monday. George mimes being a scrap book and Benita 'pastes' pictures in him. Through the windows is a puffing billy. The story is 'Too Many Books' by Caroline Feller Bauer.

aka ep23.3 Noni and Geoff blow bubbles - through pipe cleaners, a key, twist tie and vine. Geoff uses ping pong balls as special new bubble bath for dogs and gives Scrap a bath. They make the product 'Splosh Wash' and make posters to advertise it using a stencil. They play a game of Stop and Go signs. Through the windows the 'Bananas in Pyjamas' book is bought from a shop. The story is 'Guthrie Comes Clean' by Jonathan Allen.

aka ep23.4 Noni and George copy actions of stick figures drawn on cards (stamping, clapping, etc). Newspaper people are made using picture instructions. Benita uses a computer to show 'Eency Weency Spider' graphics and later uses the computer to tell the story of 'The Old Woman and the Firewood' drawing a picture of a cat. Benita prints the picture from the computer and sticks it in the scrap book used this week. Through the windows are computer games.

aka ep23.30 Trish and Simon paste different shapes into the scrapbook. A large shape is formed on the magnet print calendar. The presenters role-play a scene in a service station with petrol pump and car made from cardboard boxes. Through the windows is a teddy bear's picnic. The story is 'Bananas in Pyjamas Bedtime Book' by Katrina van Gendt.

Every day this week the presenters play a noisy calendar game. They listen to sounds from a cassette player and match the sounds to the pictures around the calendar. aka ep24.1 Noni and George make and decorate a cardboard megaphone. They play 'Simon Says' with 'Simon' using the megaphone. There are mechanical sounds on the calendar. Through the windows, rowing is shown with a megaphone being used to direct rowers. The story is 'Harry and the Lady Next Door' by Gene Zion.

aka ep24.2 Noni and Simon dress up Jemima as Little Miss Muffet and Miss Polly. They make a sock spider with pipe cleaner legs. Miss Polly's dolly is made from a sock. There are vocal sounds on the calendar. They make paper cut-out soldiers and paint them. These are used in the story written by Noni, 'Humpty Dumpty - the Opera' performed by Noni, Simon and Warren. Through the windows are soldiers in the opera 'Daughter of the Regiment'.

aka ep24.3 Trish and Simon look at golden retriever puppies. They guess animal sounds on the calendar. They make finger ducks from egg carton cups. They play a dog trainer obedience game. Through the windows is dog obedience school. The story is 'Old MacDonald Had a Farm' illustrated by Carol Jones.

aka ep24.4 Monica and Simon play 'Where is Thumbkin', drawing faces on their fingers and singing in different voices for each finger. They make 'Pita People' faces from Pita bread and vegetables. They make a 'house' for them from a tray with a folded serviette roof. Noises from around the house are guessed on the calendar. They perform a concert for the toys with Warren. Through the windows Mic Conway performs 'Jollity Farm' at a concert. The story of 'Sarah's Cubby' written by Noni Hazlehurst is performed with a table.

aka ep24.5 Monica and George record and replay songs with a cassette player. They make a 'Jack in the Box' with a wooden spoon and a cardboard cone. They make different sounds using their mouths. Different sounds from across the week are replayed on the calendar. They put Maurice in a basket bed and sing 'Fa La Nana' to him. They pretend the lullaby is on a box radio and 'play' music to send Maurice to sleep. Through the windows Trish is putting her baby daughter Billie Dee to bed with a lullaby on the radio. The story is 'Somebody's Sleepy' by Paul Rogers and ...

aka ep25.1 Benita and Simon make farm animals using juice containers, paddle pop sticks, cotton wool, etc. The container sheep are fed by a farmer in a cardboard tractor. The calendar has woolly sheep on it and a graphic illustrating 'Baa Baa Black Sheep'. Benita plays a guessing game feeling three different types of bags to discover their contents. Through the windows are sheep and lambs. The story is 'Sheep Chase' by Paul Rogers.

aka ep25.2 Benita and Geoff play a game to see who can put on the most woolly clothes. Geoff sings 'Do you Like to be Funny?'. The nursery rhyme on the calendar is 'Little Boy Blue'. A bed is made on the floor with cushions and a blanket. A patchwork quilt is made for Little Ted's bed. Throug the windows is a sock factory. The story is 'Winifred's New Bed' by Lyn and Richard Howell.

aka ep25.3 Benita and Simon make a large picture with knitting wool stuck on paper with sloppy paste. The nursery rhyme on the calendar is 'Little Bo Peep'. Two white lambs visit Play School and are fed with bottles of milk. Benita plays a game matching baby animals to their mothers. The story of 'Little Bo Peep' by Jennie Mackenzie is performed. Through the windows a child makes a Vegemite sandwich for her baby sister.

aka ep25.4 Benita and George dress up some of the toys as characters from nursery rhymes. George does some Mexican weaving (God's Eye) with different coloured wools. The nursery rhyme on the calendar is 'Mary had a Little Lamb'. Scrap the dog rounds up balls of wool and herds them into a box. Through the windows an Australian sheep dog is working with sheep. George reads the story of 'A Pile of Clothes' by Joan Ward, which is acted out by Benita.

aka ep25.5 Trish combs some raw fleece to get the dirt out, then spins it onto a spindle. George makes a 'busy bits and pieces bag' to hold scissors, glue, cards, crayons, stapler, etc - good for someone who has to stay in bed. The calendar has nursery rhymes from the four previous days. Through the windows there are sheep being shorn in the shearing shed and also a child in hospital with a play therapist. The story is 'Mr Nick's Knitting' by Margaret Wild and Dee Huxley.

Trish and Simon blow up balloons and make a Thingummy, a free structure of different shaped balloons stuck together with sticky tape. A balloon dog, using a round balloon for the head, oval for the ears and a deflated long balloon for the tail. David visits to play his trumpet. Through the windows is Brass Band of HMAS Stalwart. The story is 'Birthday Party' by Angela Royston.

aka ep26.2 Benita and Geoff make various kinds of boat: a cork-hulled boat with pipecleaner mast and square paper sail; a boat out of an empty toothpaste tube with a pipecleaner wound round the cap and bent up for the mast. The rudder is made out of a squashed milk bottle top, held on with a rubber band. A liner from a large cardboard box worn over the shoulders with photographs of people drawn in the portholes is sailed. A tug is made to sing 'The Tugboat' and is made similar to the liner but with a cushion buffer on the front. A small wooden boat with a propeller ...

aka ep26.3 Trisha and George look at wind chimes made from shells and driftwood, and one made from saucepan lids and spoons. A blow painting is made using very wet paint, non absorbent paper and rolled paper tubes through which to blow. A picture is made in the sand tray with seaweed and shells laid on the sand. Through the windows are whales. The 'Hats' animation is shown. The story is 'When the Wind Blew' by Pat Hutchins.

aka ep26.4 Benita and George wash Jemima and Hamble's clothes and hang the clothes out to dry. They make handkerchief puppets using three pipe cleaners and a small handkerchief. Benita hangs scarves on her arms to make floaty patterns in the air. Flautist Jane Rutter visits and performs with her violin. The story is 'Mrs Mopple's Washing Line' by Anita Hewett. Through the windows are Scottish dancers.

aka ep26.5 Noni and Philip pump up the tyres of a bike and ride it. Large puddles of different coloured paint are on sheets of paper on the floor. The presenters roll wheels through the paint, mixing the colours and leaving tracks. Noni makes a balloon rocket launch. She ties a string vertically, then rolls a light paper tube around the string for the balloon to be attached to. Philip plays a hose-a-phone (a funnel secured to a length of hose). The story is 'Who Said Red?' by Mary Serfozo and illustrated by Keiko Narahashi. Through the windows is the Small Change ...