Duri Public School completes its entry in the Picasso Cow Program

The school's newest addition is Bessie, an almost life-size fibreglass cow, which the school's 33 students, ranging from Kindergarten to Year 6, have painted for the 2023 Picasso Cows Program.

For more than 10 years the Picasso Cows program has taught primary school aged students about the Australian dairy industry, its products, health and nutrition benefits, farming practices and manufacturing processes - all while decorating the fibreglass cow.

This the first time Duri Public School has taken part in the program, unveiling their finished artwork on Thursday, September 21, for family and friends, followed by a celebratory milkshake party.

Duri classroom teacher Elle McRae said the school had been so excited to learn it had been accepted into the Picasso Cow Program.

"We had applied and missed out in the first round but were accepted later on," she said.

In the lead up to the program kicking off, Mrs McRae said the students had completed a paddock to plate project for science, which involved an excursion to local dairy, Peel Valley Milk, to see how a dairy works, and cows being milked.

The children then later visited a local gelato bar, Spilt Milk, to see how the milk is turned into gelato ... and to do some taste testing of the end product, of course.

"The school was supported with a number of learning resources, which included the students keeping a learning journal to document and showcase their learning engagement with a chosen theme," she said.

"There were lots of photos taken to document progress in the journal."

Before starting, Mrs McRae said the cow was painted yellow and then taped off into 12 sections; the students were then grouped into twos to threes for the project.

"They then decided on how to decorate their section," she said.

"Some of the older students chose to use the paddock to plate theme, while another team incorporated the Aboriginal, Torres Strait and Australian flags."

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While the older students "got right into the project", Mrs McRae said all students had some input.

"We encouraged the really young students to join in by asking them to put hand prints on the cow - telling them they could use these hand prints as a measure to see how much their hands grow as they progress through school," she said.

"A couple were so keen they rushed back within days to see how much their hands had grown."

Mrs McRae said Duri was known as a bit of a "snake corridor", so the children included a snake down one side of the cow.

A competition was held to name of the schools's caw, with Bessie becoming the winner closely followed by Milkshake.

Mrs McRae said the project took all Term 3 to complete, and Bessie now sits in one of the school gardens as a special feature.

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