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Series 286: Mini Beasts
We see insects and other small creatures almost every day of our lives. These “mini beasts” are one of the first introductions young children have to the natural world. They come in countless varieties, shapes, colours, patterns and sizes and are celebrated in favourite pre- school nursery rhymes, such as “Incy Wincy Spider”, “Ladybird, Ladybird” and “The Ants Go Marching”. In this series of Play School, we explore “mini beasts” through craft activities, play, songs and stories. We are also visited in studio by some real-life insects: slaters, snails, worms and even a stick insect!
Episode 1
PRESENTERS
Andrew McFarlane – Karen Pang
PIANIST
Peter Dasent
STORY
BUTTERFLY, BUTTERFLY
written & illustrated by Petr Horáček Walker Books Australia
FILM
Barron Gorge Walk
(Play School, ABC)
ANIMATION
Incy Wincy Spider
(Play School, ABC)
IDEAS FOR LATER
Make a garden diorama with green grass, a blue sky & flowers made from patty pans and pipe cleaners. Make some craft bugs to live in your diorama, such as the bottle top bugs described below.
Take a walk in your garden or a local park and look out for “mini beasts” such as ants, worms, beetles and birds. Take a close look at the mini beasts you find (without touching them) and then draw or paint a picture of them. Tape or staple your pictures together to create a mini beast scrapbook!
Plant some colourful flowers in your garden or a plant pot. Watch them as they grow. Do they attract any insects?
SONGS
Spots Are Great
Composers: Peter Dasent & Mark Barnard
Publisher: Origin/ Control
Incy Wincy Spider
Composer: Traditional
Publisher: Origin/ABC Music Publishing
Outside in the Garden
Composers: Peter Dasent & Judith Keyzer
Publisher: Origin/Control
Flutter, Flutter Butterfly
Composer: Lesley Lees
Publisher: Ward Lock Educational
Would You Like to Be a Tree?
Composers: Peter Casey & Carissa Campbell
Series 286: Mini Beasts
We see insects and other small creatures almost every day of our lives. These “mini beasts” are one of the first introductions young children have to the natural world. They come in countless varieties, shapes, colours, patterns and sizes and are celebrated in favourite pre- school nursery rhymes, such as “Incy Wincy Spider”, “Ladybird, Ladybird” and “The Ants Go Marching”. In this series of Play School, we explore “mini beasts” through craft activities, play, songs and stories. We are also visited in studio by some real-life insects: slaters, snails, worms and even a stick insect!
Episode 2
PRESENTERS
Michelle Lim Davidson – Teo Gebert
PIANIST
Peter Dasent
TOLD STORY
The Frog Gobbler
(A story told by the Play School team)
FILM
Honey Farm
(Play School, ABC)
IDEAS FOR LATER
Play a bug dress-up game with a friend or family member. Use your body, imagination and some simple items from your dress-up box to transform into a bug. For example, put a yellow towel around your shoulders and “buzz” around like a bee, or, get into a sleeping bag and wriggle on the ground like a worm. Your friend or family member has to guess what kind of bug you are. Make a paper plate frog. Paint a piece of A4 paper and the bottom of a paper plate green. Once dry, place both hands on the green paper, ask someone to trace around them, and then cut out. Stick the two handprints to the bottom of the paper plate for legs. Add two sticker dot eyes and a long, red, paper tongue.
Eat some honey on toast. Yum!
SONGS
Round and Round and Round
Composer: Colin Buchanan
Publisher: Rondor
Come On And...
Composer: Louie Suthers
Incy Wincy Spider
Composer: Traditional
Publisher: Origin/ABC Music Publishing
There Was an Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly
Composer: Traditional
Publisher: Origin/ABC Music Publishing
I’m So Hungry
Composers: Ann North & Martin Welsey-Smith
MAKE AND DO
Series 286: Mini Beasts
We see insects and other small creatures almost every day of our lives. These “mini beasts” are one of the first introductions young children have to the natural world. They come in countless varieties, shapes, colours, patterns and sizes and are celebrated in favourite pre- school nursery rhymes, such as “Incy Wincy Spider”, “Ladybird, Ladybird” and “The Ants Go Marching”. In this series of Play School, we explore “mini beasts” through craft activities, play, songs and stories. We are also visited in studio by some real-life insects: slaters, snails, worms and even a stick insect!
Episode 3
PRESENTERS
Luke Carroll - Leah Vandenberg
PIANIST
Peter Dasent
STORY
“Slinky Malinki, Open the Door”
by Lynley Dodd, Puffin Books New Zealand 1993
FILM
Wildlife Montage
(Play School, ABC)
IDEAS FOR LATER
Make a snail from play dough or clay! Roll out a long piece of play dough or clay and twist about three quarters of it into a shell shape. The rest of the play dough can be the head of your snail.
Make some bugs from egg carton cells. You might like to make a caterpillar with three or four egg carton cells for a wriggly body, or an ant with just one egg carton cell for a small body. Paint your egg carton bugs and stick in short lengths of pipe cleaner for antennae.
SONGS
Mrs Snail
Composer: Traditional
Publisher: Origin/ABC Music Publishing
There’s a Worm at the Bottom of My Garden
Composer: Traditional
Publisher: Origin/ABC Music Publishing
I Have Made a Pretty Nest
Composer: Ann Elliot
Publisher: Steiner & Bell
I Can Fly
Composer: Lucille Wood
Publisher: Chambers Harrap
Who’s That Tapping at the Window?
Composer: Traditional
Publisher: Origin/ABC Music Publishing
Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes
Composer: Traditional
Publisher: Origin/ABC Music Publishing
Go, Go, Goanna
Composer: Colin Buchanan
Publisher: Universal
Incy, Wincy Spider
Composer: Tradi
Series 286: Mini Beasts
We see insects and other small creatures almost every day of our lives. These “mini beasts” are one of the first introductions young children have to the natural world. They come in countless varieties, shapes, colours, patterns and sizes and are celebrated in favourite pre- school nursery rhymes, such as “Incy Wincy Spider”, “Ladybird, Ladybird” and “The Ants Go Marching”. In this series of Play School, we explore “mini beasts” through craft activities, play, songs and stories. We are also visited in studio by some real-life insects: slaters, snails, worms and even a stick insect!
Episode 4
Come along with Leah and Teo as they create kitchen space bugs, make some picnic creatures with fruit and vegetables and see a picnic by a river through the windows.
PRESENTERS
Leah Vandenberg – Teo Gebert
PIANIST
Peter Dasent
TOLD STORY
The Inchworm and the Grasshopper
(A story told by the Play School team)
FILM
Picnic at Torrens River
(Play School, ABC)
IDEAS FOR LATER
Make a cardboard roll rocket! To make the nose of your rocket, cut a small circle from cardboard and make a slit in the middle, so you can roll the circle into a cone shape. Secure the cone with tape and stick it to the top of the cardboard roll. Stick red streamers, or thin strips of crepe paper or cellophane, to the other end of the cardboard roll for flames.
Go on a picnic and look out for different types of birds.
Move like different animals - jump like a frog, slither like a snake and creep like a mouse!
SONGS
Making Things
Composers: Scott Aplin & Phil Barton
Publisher: ABC Music Publishing
Rocket Song
Composer: Peter Dasent & Mark Barnard
Publisher: Origin/Control
The Ants Go Marching
Composer: Traditional
Publisher: Origin/ABC Music Publishing
Everybody Likes Fruit and Vegetables
Composer: Jay Mankita
Publisher: Dreams on Tape Music
Jump and Jiggle
Composers: Edna G. Buttolph & Evelyn Beyer
Series 286: Mini Beasts
We see insects and other small creatures almost every day of our lives. These “mini beasts” are one of the first introductions young children have to the natural world. They come in countless varieties, shapes, colours, patterns and sizes and are celebrated in favourite pre- school nursery rhymes, such as “Incy Wincy Spider”, “Ladybird, Ladybird” and “The Ants Go Marching”. In this series of Play School, we explore “mini beasts” through craft activities, play, songs and stories. We are also visited in studio by some real-life insects: slaters, snails, worms and even a stick insect!
Episode 5
PRESENTERS
Karen Pang & Teo Gebert
PIANIST
Peter Dasent
TOLD STORY
The Mini Beast Ball
(A story told by the Play School team)
FILM
Tulip Time
(Play School, ABC)
IDEAS FOR LATER
Make a night-time garden collage by pasting newspaper, magazine & coloured paper cut-outs onto a piece of black cardboard or paper. Paste on a moon, trees, flowers, bushes or anything you like. You might like to add some night-time mini beasts, such as an owl or a firefly.
Make a peg firefly or dragonfly by twisting a small square of cellophane or tissue paper in the middle and taping it to a peg for wings.
Make up a dance to a piece of music you like.
SONGS
Tiptoe Through the Tulips
Composers: Al Dubin & Joe Burke
This Little Light of Mine
Composer: Harry Dixon Loes
Incy Wincy Spider
Composer: Traditional
Publisher: Origin/ABC Music Publishing
Spots Are Great
Composers: Peter Dasent & Mark Barnard
Publisher: Origin/Control
Heel and Toe Polka
Composer: Traditional
Publisher: Origin/ABC Music Publishing
MAKE AND DO
How to Make a Lantern
You will need:
- A paper gift bag with handles
- Safety scissors
- Coloured cellophane
- Tape
- Recycled newspaper
- A small LED torch
Cut a shape, such as a circle, square, or triangle, from one face of the paper gift bag.
Cut the sa
