Early Childhood - Lower Primary

The windmill on top of Mort’s home in Beep generates the energy to power the bird that sounds the beginning of the day to the villagers. Click here to watch the highlights from Beep.

In this activity you will explore wind power, how it has been used in the past and present and how we can use wind to power a simple toy.

Think about all of the ways that wind power is used. Look out of the window. Is it windy today?

Wind power has been used by humans forever. We’ve used it for:

• Sailing ships
• Flying kites
• Grinding grain
• Pumping water.

What do you know about how wind is used? Where could you find out about how wind is used? What are you wondering about wind?

Wind Turbines

Wind power can be used to generate electricity directly from the wind. They use big windmills called wind turbines. Big wind farms with lots of wind turbines generates electricity that can power thousands of homes.

Wind is a source of energy we call renewable because there is always wind on the Earth and we aren’t “using up” wind when we make energy from it.

Click here to download the instruction template.

Early Childhood - Lower Primary

Write a letter to Grug with your idea for Windmill’s next big show!

It could be based on a previous show, like Grug or Beep, or a completely new character from a far-off land. Grug loves drawings and pictures, so feel free to include some in your letter! Don’t forget to let him know what you’ve been up to.

Click here to download the template. Or, feel free to use any paper you have at home. 

To ‘post’ to Grug: scan or take a photo and email it to marketing@windmill.org.au.

Foundation – Year 3

Every good story, whether it be from the directors and creatives at Windmill, to the writers and animators at Disney, starts with a storyboard.

Writing can be tricky, especially when you’re unsure of how to make your ideas connect and your narrative flow – that’s where storyboards come in.

What is a storyboard?

A storyboard is a set of drawings, in a sequence, that tells a story. By breaking a story into small chunks, the writer can focus on the flow of the story.

Storyboards help you to see:

• How ideas connect
• If the story makes sense
• Where the story is set (the scene)
• what characters will be in each scene
• What the character’s say
• What scenes you can change to build suspense and interest.

Fun Fact: The process of storyboarding was developed in the 1930’s at Walt Disney Productions.

To get you started, we’ve provided some templates using our friends from two of our stage shows, Beep and Grug. Once you’ve had a go using our story – have a go at coming up with your own!

The next steps will support you to:

1. Create a storyboard using the story provided
2. Create a storyboard using the characters provided
3. Create a storyboard for your own story

Create a storyboard for Grug

For some inspiration, you can watch our actors read some of of the Grug series aloud. Click here to watch.

Create a storyboard for your own Grug story

Choose an adventure you might like Grug to go on.

Think about what you have watched and:

• Talk about the sequence or order of events
• What came first?
• What happened next?
• Then what happened?
• How did the story end?
• Draw the main events in a storyboard.

Think about:

• Who will Grug meet?
• What will they do?
• What problems might they run into?
• How will Grug solve the problem?

Click here to download the storyboard templates. You may need to print some pages a few times, depending on the length of your story.

Repeat the activities above using the characters from Beep! Click here to download the template for Beep.