Play School - Season 31 (1996)

Making a moving picture background for a Play School bus story. Playing the cubby house game: May I Come Over to Your House. Listening to a variety of sounds produced by John Morrison on his drum kit and various parts of the studio set (e.g. the floor, the cubby house, the carpet). Toys tap dance to the song "I'm tapping in the city".

Making a city night scene. To the sky is added tinsel stars and a foil moon. Using a stencil, Philip roller paints yellow windows onto the buildings. On the computer using the mouse Benita draws a house with a door and windows. Benita and Philip build cardboard box towers. An attic room is made with a lift for the cubby house. Benita and Philip tell knock knock jokes.

Making a sea collage, using an assortment of fabrics and materials. Coloured paper bag fish, stuffed with newspaper and added to create an underwater scene. Making a shaggy, baggy dog with newspaper and a large brown paper bag. Playing a 'dog out/cat in' game with the calendar of the week. Dramatic play: a fish shop and a pet shop.

Dressing up as a frog and cow. Miming having a shower. Playing a sheep round-up game. Using a balloon as the sheep dog and ping pong balls as the sheep. Making a spotty drawing to use in a spotty animal game.

Bunk beds are made out of shoe boxes and cardboard rolls for the toys Lisa and Kim. Noni and George play a cat and mouse game. Noni makes a bed for Scrap the dog as Diddle doesn't need one, because cats sleep anywhere.

Max brings his pet Schnauzer dogs to visit Play School and go for a walk around the studio. Max and Colin play a body percussion and instrument game to words of Nick Nack Paddy Whack. Noni mimes dog actions (running, digging, washing and eating). Dog biscuit container is decorated. A hiding game is played; Doggle, Doggle where's your bone?

Dressing up balloons as nursery rhyme characters. Taking a pretend dog for a walk. Making sock puppet dogs. Socker Spaniels. Painting patterns on a mural that are transformed with an outline into jungle cats (tiger, cheetah).

Aka ep73.1 Furnishing the Play School dolls' house with milk carton furniture. Building a water storage tank (ice cream container) for the dolls' house and installing water pipes (cardboard tubes from the useful box). Miming water going down the plug hole. Investigating a fromicarium (ant house). Playing a magnet game; 'The ant race'. Making an egg carton ant.

Building a city and an underground car park with ramps using boxes, planks and cardboard tubes. A mixed up dress up game. Dramatic play: a butcher's shop. Playing a hiding game 'Doggie, Doggie, where's your bone? An obstacle course is made from accessible items. The presenters crawl through the boxes over the pillows between the blocks and under the table.

A bush land scene is created and clay bush creatures are included. Painting on clear perspex to music. Making road signs for a singing game. Dramatic play: the wombat who couldn't sleep. Pauline tells the story of "Dingo and Chicken Play in the Bush".

Making a sea diorama. Making peg sea creatures stingray, shark, crab to add to the diorama. Fishing game.

Gardening in a large garden box. Watering the grass and pulling up vegetables (radishes, carrots). Looking for snails and looking at snails. Sifting the soil to find worms. Making garden creatures (a snail, a worm and caterpillar) out of clay. Making a wrist butterfly. Pulling up potatoes from the from the vegetable patch in the garden box. Looking at insects and bugs through a magnifying glass. Dressing up as a jitterbug.

Aka ep74.1 Joy and George make music and sing songs with the toys. They do the action rap and play stop and go games. Joy wakes George up with an alarm clock. (This ep was later replaced with Repeats of PLAY SCHOOL MEETS THE ORCHESTRA)

Carpentry sounds ( sawing, sanding ) are explored as presenters make tapping sticks from wooden dowel. A dress-up guessing game is played: ' Who am I and what's my song? Big Ted and Banana play a chasing game using cardboard boxes as various forms of transportation. Dramatic play as construction site workers.

Joy and George perform a concert with the Play School toys. A sound story is developed. A game - 'Guess what's in the box' - is played. An animal mime game using a picture abacus is played. A parade with the Play School toys and animals plus a kitchen drum kit.

George and Benita blow up and deflate balloons experimenting with various noises produced. George draws a bear on Benita's balloon and observes the size change of the bear as the balloon deflates. Percussionist Alison demonstrates different types of percussion instruments. A hiding game with sound clues is played using Little Ted and Banana. Benita demonstrates how to conduct.

Making music with home made shakers. A listening game: a sound pattern is made that requires a movement to match. A variety of food objects have been suspended from a large frame. Presenters experiment with making sounds and sound combinations. A freeze game is played using the sound frame objects as the sound source.

Aka ep75.1 Making pigs to go on the Play School pig farm. Making a footprint trail using paint. Making farm animal tracks for a hiding game. Presenter roll in shredded paper mud.

Monica and Colin trace around each others' feet. The outlines are used to create funny foot creatures. A picnic lunch is made for the toys. Monica and Colin go on a 'pignic' with the toys and make a pinata.

Benita sets up a toy shoe shop. David and Meeka are her customers. Benita creates a finger show dance. Dramatic play: David cares for the feet for various animals. Piglet visit Play School. The visiting piglets are fed.

Trisha and Colin explore the properties of mud using their hands and feet. Playing a magnet game. Metal objects are hidden in the confetti mud and with magnets attached to their noses the pigs must find a missing ring. Dramatic play: jumping waves at the beach.

Making a spiral pig tails out of paper. Playing with cylinders and exploring what can be done with them. Changing a sheet of newspaper into - a hat, a boat, a bird, an ice-cream and a telescope. Making a cardboard box wagon, woolly spider and the animals. Making a tractor.

Aka ep76.1 Playing a peek-a-boo game. Exploring what materials light can travel through. Tracing shadows. It is nine o'clock on the rocket clock, and behind the clock an owl sitting in a tree. David reads 'The Very Lonely Firefly' by Eric Carle. Making wings for Lisa who becomes a firefly. A shadow puppet theatre is created and the story of a firefly in search of a friend is performed. Through the round window there are people on a night time bushwalk spotting possums with their torches.

Playing a follow-the-leader game with torch lights on a painted scene. Playing a spinning wheel dressing game. Making a night train out of tissue boxes and using small torches, for the night train's lights. Dramatic play: Colin breaks down in his box car, turns on his hazard lights and is helped by the police, a tow truck driver and a mechanic.

Making pictures with cellophane on a light box. Making a cardboard owl with cellophane eyes that open and close. George and Monica play a spinning colour wheel game. Dramatic play: a glasses shop.

David hangs paper lanterns with lights inside. Benita makes cardboard cylinder candles and David makes paper lanterns. Dramatic play: The rainbow light shop has lights for all occasions. Benita and David play a dreydl game.

The presenters draw a picture with crayons, make a pipe cleaner dog, then use a mirror to create a reflection of the drawing and pipe cleaner dog. Painting a picture and taking a print. Colin plays with mirror reflections.

Aka ep77.1 Making a cracker out of a cardboard tube and crepe paper. Making a cardboard box 'Kokomo' bird with colourful crepe paper feathers Monica and David play peep hole game with the toys. This becomes one of a number of activities at the Play School Fete. Monica and Big Ted play a 'roll the ball' game and have a turn on jumping castle. David is the fete 'organiser'.

Hanging decorations: Paper chains and crepe paper streamers. Making paper lanterns and place mats. Printing lace flower patterns on fabric. Monica introduces visiting toy 'Baby Ling', changes his nappy, then places him in his show box cradle. Dressing Jemima and Meeka in going out clothes Making a cellophane and net bag ball. Baby Ling has a party. A party table is set and David, Monica and the toys celebrate.

The Play School guinea pigs Jack and Jill are given a box playground to explore. Bathing and drying Sophie, a visiting guinea pig. Playing a tail memory game. Fergus, Humpty and Jemima take part in the Play School Toy Olympic Games.

In a one hour special, the presenters celebrate 30 years of Play School by singing favourite songs. 33 terrific songs including Miss Polly had a Dolly, Der Glumph went the Little Green Frog, Three Jelly Fish, The Toothbrush Song, The Wobbly Walk, The Bear Hunt, Goldilocks - The Musical, Baa Baa Black Sheep and lots more.

Decorating hard boiled eggs with food colouring. Exploring a collection of decorative eggs. Making a paper basket for the dyed eggs Monica looks at some children's art work. Play 'What can you pick up?', a chopstick game. The toys go visiting each other. Dramatic play: David performs a lion dance and Monica accompanies him on the wok. Monica and David eat their hard boiled eggs.

Aka ep78.1 George and Georgie make a train tunnel our of a large cardboard box and play trains. George makes a cat mask from stockings. A cat and mouse game is played. Dramatic play: Georgie takes Diddle for a walk in the park and passes George who is dressed as different people; a jogger, a horse rider.

Going on a feeling foot walk: guessing what bare feet are feeling without looking. Making foot faces by drawing on the soles of feet. Dressing up game: What clothes go with these shoes?

Angela and Colin pain different weather scenes on a perspex window. Angela makes an Emu puppet using a coathanger, stockings and newspaper feathers. Angela and Colin play an assortment of percussion instruments to depict the sounds of the animals featured in the Jump and Jiggle animation.

There's a real bed in Play School today George and Trisha make the bed using a fitted sheet and quilt. George paints spots onto a pillow case using a tennis ball. Trisha and George play musical chairs.

Monica and Colin give the toys a slide ride in a box up and down a cardboard ramp. Monica makes the box into a wagon for Slush to ride in. Dramatic play: Monica visits the moon. The toys are dressed up as moon creatures. Monica and Colin play a rolling ball game using the ramp.

Aka ep79.1 Making sand castles with wet and dry sand. Making a sand-timer with two plastic bottles to play a game. A variety of clocks are shown - wrist watch, alarm clock, cuckoo clock, pendulum clock.. Playing 'snap' with picture cards then playing 'singing snap'. Songs are sung according to the matching pictures.

AN EPISODE FILMED CIRCA 1999 to REPLACE PREVIOUS TUESDAY EPISODE Night and day game with a revolving wheel. Decorating wheel with day and night pictures. Day and night dressing up game. Putting toys to bed.

Some mice visit Play School with their babies. Dramatic play: a mouse looking for a house. Dressing up as a clock with a box clock face. Feeding the mice.

Monica and David make a wood collage. Monica plays a guessing game with toys hidden in a tree. Monica and David play a hide and seek game.

Collect baby pictures and make a collage. How can you tell which baby is older? Make a collage using an assortment of found wood or wooden off cuts such as twigs, wood shavings, small sticks and bark. NB: Ensure there is no possibility for splinters.