This week I was contacted by Amanda, an Alphington Primary School (APS) mum, asking if her children could put a lizard up on our fence. As part of a school project. And of course I said yes.

And then I got to thinking about what the lizard was for and why they were putting it up … and I rang her back and asked if her children would like to write a little post and tell us all about the project.

And here it is. Thanks so much Abigail and Joshua.

And, on a broader note, aren’t we just SO fortunate to have such caring and excellent local teachers and schools that so creatively give our children a framework, language and strategies to discuss and action positive mental health in these times.

When life contracts to the neighbourhood, community connections really do rock! And now, thanks to Abigail and Joshua, we can all look out for the APS lizards on our walks and know that we’re surrounded by kids and families thinking about our whole community, and that we’re not alone.

Here’s what they wrote …

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Alphington Primary School is a great place to learn and play. It is full of people who work very hard to make it an awesome environment for everyone.

Because of lockdown, we haven’t been able to come together like we usually would. Even though we catch up every day through Google Classroom, it has been a bit lonely sometimes. To show that we are still strongly connected, our wellbeing team came up with an idea.  The idea was to colour in some lizards (the school animal logo),  and put them in places that are visible in the community. This is to show that our community is united, even though we are not all at school. When we see an APS lizard out and about, it makes us feel happy to know that we are still there for each other, and that we are not alone. After lockdown is over, our lizard friends will help us to remember that we got through another lockdown together.

Thank you to Alphington Community Centre for allowing us to display one of our lizards. It’s a place that many families from our school pass by. We hope that they feel connected to us and others in our school community when they see it. 

 By Abigail and Joshua

Alphington Primary School Students

Thanks Yarra City Arts for financially supporting and helping promote the Alphington Neighbourhood Gallery. Here’s a link to their latest enews post about Gabe Freeman, the artist currently on our fence.

Also … you might like to sign up to receive their news in your inbox … to keep up to date with what’s going on and coming up. Yarra City Arts do a fabulous job supporting a wide variety of artists, arts projects and events, and art spaces across Yarra each year.

We’re creating a set of building blocks for everyone to play with … featuring the houses in our neighbourhood. And we’re hoping you’ll help us out, by picking up a block from our collection bin, drawing your house on it with a black sharpie and returning it to us. Then we’ll add some colour … and a roof.

Look out for our community arts bins out on the corner over the next few days and join in.

With lockdown extended we think a little community arts cheer is in order … so Lee and I have started work on two new community projects to see us all through the next couple of weeks.

Painted timber blocks … step one!

The first is an interactive neighbourhood project that we’ll need some creative help with …instructions and materials should be out the front of ACC over the weekend for you to collect. Look out for our community art bins … and join in!

We’re also planning to do a little ‘marker of the times’ installation onsite. We are certainly living in a unique era … we think it could be cool to acknowledge it. More to come on this soon.

I’m looking forward to:

• More sunshine ☀️ - the weekend was pretty great!

• Our short courses starting (Women in the Shed with Maylei, Woodworking Projects with Dave and Drawing with Louisa are all kicking off this week).

• Arty Gardening on Friday … parents and kids, oldies and youngies … and anyone in between who enjoys creative outdoorsy activities is welcome to join Katrina in the garden and/or shed from 10.30am. This week we’ll be decorating and filling seed packets. Then why not stay for morning tea (at 11.30am with Kalimna).

• Our new play equipment arriving - finally. Lockdown delayed things a little, but we have a new cubby and sandpit now arriving (fingers crossed) on Wednesday. They’re going to be pretty gorgeous we think! Pop past later in the week for a play.

• Catching up with more of you! I did see lots of people last week and catch up on their news, but I was sick on Friday and missed seeing all our regular Friday friends. Hopefully this week!

Pods collected for nature play - in the garden on Wednesday (Playtime in the Garden) and Friday (Arty Gardening) mornings. There are activities on every weekday morning at ACC for young families.