St Joseph's Primary Quarry Hills create Bessie for Picasso Cows program

Over the past few months, prep, grade one and two students learnt all there is to know about dairy farming while designing their new bright bovine as part of Dairy Australia's Picasso Cows program.

"We wanted our students to learn all about farming life while also honing in on their creative skills and I think they've really loved it," P/1/2 teacher Nathan Walsh said.

"Throughout the term, we had dairy farmers and a representative from Saputo come in as guest speakers and even took the kids to the Collingwood Children's Farm on an excursion.

"We also held a 'Dress like a Farmer' day and raised money for Rural Aid.

"Even though we live in a regional centre, we noticed a lot of our students had never been on a farm, so it was a great experience for them."

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All the while, students were asked to submit their own designs for what would eventually become their beloved Bessie the cow.

"Once we had all the designs together, we sat down and chose bits of each piece to include on our finished project," Mr Walsh said.

"We then sent off our ideas to one of our school parents who was able to put together a final design we could work with.

"It was brilliant seeing the look on the kids faces when they saw their own work in being included, they were really excited."

After putting the stencil on the cow, each class was asked to paint a different section until the cow was fully decorated.

"We also asked our students for ideas on what our cow should be called and it was put to a vote on our Facebook page," Mr Walsh said.

Students and staff finished Bessie this week and submitted their creation to Dairy Australia with hopes of winning the Picasso Cows competition.

"Even if we don't win as the best designed cow, I think the students got a lot out of this unit of study," Mr Walsh said.

"We plan on renovating some of our buildings so hopefully we can display Bessie somewhere in there."

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