Playschool is a high quality educational children's television programme on Australian TV
The first episode went out on July 18, 1966, and a different episode has been shown every weekday since that date. Approximately 80% of children up to 4 years and approximately 44% of children 5 - 12 years will be reached by the program at least once in any 4 week period.

Playschool uses play, dance, music and songs, story reading, locational segments, dressing up and make believe to both teach and entertain preschoolers and early primary school children.

And it's a lot of fun.

I have vivid memories of John Hamblin reading The Peddlar and his Caps, and doing The Wobbly Walk. The two Johns were very much my favourite as a littly.

Every day of the week on Playschool has a particular association. Monday is Useful Box day, Tuesday is Dressing-Up day, Wednesday is Animals day (which used to be called Pets' Day in my day), Thursday is Imagination day and Friday is Finding out day. Each Day has certain activities attached to it. 

In addition to the special Day activities, a number of things happen on Playschool every day. A picture story book is read to the viewers, with the reader sitting in a comfortable chair (in my day it was The Story Reading Chair, but now it's just a nice comfy chair, or a bench, or even a pile of cushions) and the camera positioned in such a way that the viewer feels almost as though they are sitting at the feet of the reader, his or her attention fixed solely on them. There is an "on location" section Through the Windows (Think Teletubbies, but with class, and worth, and making-senseness and non-repetition)

There is a selection of toys who are the constant cast of Playschool. Big and Little Ted are traditional teddy bears, complete with worn fur, Morris is a smallish white shaggy furred bear, Jemima  is a rag doll, Lisa, David and Kim are plastic dolls with nylon hair, (one of them is Asian and one is aboriginal, but I never can remember which is which) There is a Banana in Pyjamas (and he inspired a TV series) and Humpty, who is a large oval fellow with a happy smile and a bow tie, and he does really well at falling off a wall.

Then there is the human cast, which at the moment consists of Angela Moore, Benita Collings, Colin Buchanan, Don Spencer (music), George Spartels, Glenn Butcher, Jamie Oxenbould, John Hamblin, Max Lambert, Monica Trapaga, Nicholas Opoliski, Noni Hazlehurst, Pauline McLeod, Philip Quast, Simon Burke and Trisha Goddard
Any two of these people present the programme on any given day. The partnership is usually a male/female one, but sometimes a single sex pairing is used, and for out of studio excursions there are usually three presenters; two men and a woman.

Three of these presenters have been a part of Playschool since I used to watch it as a child. John Hamblin, Noni Hazelhurst, and Benita Collings have continued to keep Playschool lots of fun, despite the obvious signs of aging they have gone through... Well, actualy, Noni is still looking pretty good :)

So if you are in Australia have a look at Playschool on channel 2 at 9.30 am and 3.30 pm in Victoria.

Much of the information for this writeup was taken from Playschool's website at http://www.abc.net.au/children/play/

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