Telethon: Mullaloo Heights Primary School students create papier-mache dogs to raise funds for Telethon

Mullaloo Heights Primary School students are painting a brighter future.

The year six class spent 10 weeks perfecting papier-mache creations of their pet pups to help raise funds for Telethon.

The four-legged designs were showcased at a school open night last month, with parents casting their vote for their favourite sculpture by making a donation to the foundation.

Art teacher Sarah Zuchetti said the creations were handcrafted from newspaper and a special glue-like mixture.

“We started with an armature inside the body ... the body is made out of newspaper, so balls of newspaper were taped together and then bits were jabbed on,” she said.

“It was really hard to try and get some of these body parts in proportion and get the right shape, and some people did amazingly well.”

Lisa Skripnikova’s adorable art-piece was a near-identical replica of her pet Dachshund, Lucy.

“At first I couldn’t really see the reference, because it was just balls of newspaper, so I was a bit unsure of the whole process,” she said.

“I had printed out photos of my dog, so knowing the size of my dog and her body proportions helped a lot.”

Classmate Eva Stirling constructed an extraordinary papier-mache model of her pet Labrador cross Kelpie, Leo.

She said she enjoyed the challenge and said she felt proud that her artistic creation was helping sick children.

“It feels really good, I’m really happy and proud of myself,” she said.

Ms Zuchetti said school had already raised about $400, and said she hoped the project had taught her students about giving back to the community.

“It’s good for the kids to be able to help other children that are in more need,” she said.

“These days kids don’t generally watch as much free-to-air TV anymore, so hopefully (the project) will raise a bit more awareness and everybody at school will be watching and may donate on the Telethon weekend.”