Lukas, my guide, grew up, attended school and learned to ski in Gstaad. Like a lot of his colleagues and his father before him, he’s a dairy farmer. In summer, he escorts his precious herd – Lukas refers to the cows as ‘his princesses’ – into the high, verdant pastures. In winter, as pasture becomes piste, the cows retreat to the warm safety of a hay-stuffed barn, leaving Lukas free to instruct and guide. A full head of hair takes 3-4 weeks to grow, and "greying and balding" will occur after about 6 weeks. Experiment with different hairstyles :-) You can make mohawks, pony-tails, crew-cuts... have fun with it! If you don’t have a sewing machine, don’t worry – you can easily sew your animal shapes by hand too. This is a perfect, simple animal craft activity for kids of all ages to enjoy. How to make Animal Grass Heads To honour the great motor racing commentator, Murray Walker, who died last month aged 97, Radio 4 is repeating the programme that, in 2004 , tempted him out of retirement - Grasshead Racers.

Go on Nan, try this for the kids at Halloween. At least it is something a bit different to take home after the party.

Looking for something different

The idea of reliable train travel might be alien to us, but, in Switzerland, it’s a basic right. The GoldenPass train from Montreux (there’s a direct connection from Geneva) to Gstaad is a Belle Epoque delight; sit on the right-hand side of the carriage on the outward journey for the best view. In less than three days, you’ll see the seeds start to germinate. The roots will come down first. Within 5- 6 days you’ll have a healthy head of grass hair on your animals and enough to start cutting your animal’s hair.Miss Possum loved cutting the dinosaur’s grassspikes! Dinosaur grass head Given its international reputation and famous clientele, many are surprised to learn that Gstaad is still a working village – home to 200 farms, 7,000 cows and a population of more than 9,000 people – but that’s undoubtedly part of its charm and success. Go on, get arty, make a smily face for your new pal. You could even cut a face out of a magazine and glue that on instead. Last year, I became familiar with my sewing machine by making some animal bean bagsand continued that friendship by making these DIY animal grass heads.

Lawnmowers, Murray reveals, have a surprisingly sexy provenance: Mr Benz of Mercedes launched his career making lawn mowers; Royal Enfield, more famous for their guns and motorcycles, made mowers. So did Rolls Royce! At the Le Mans (if he’s not mistaken) of the lawn mower racing world - a field dotted with straw bales in Kingston Maurwood, Dorset, Murray spends a summer's day with members of the British Lawn Mower Racing Association and discovers this is a sport with wide appeal. Sir Stirling Moss reveals he was a keen lawn mower racer; Oliver Reed was as enthusiastic, but less controlled. Murray meets one competitor with more world championships than Michael Schumacher.It’s the skiing, however, that many return to Gstaad for, year after year – 200km (124 miles) of immaculately groomed, wide and often empty slopes. Unlike other popular resorts, Gstaad’s ski areas are separated by nature reserves and un-pisted mountain faces. Far from being inconvenient, it meant that I spent each day in a new area, exploring new terrain, from the windswept plateau of Glacier 300 – the only glacier ski area in the Bernese Oberland – to the Wasserngrat’s Tiger Run, the region’s steepest slope with an average gradient of -45˚.

Decorate! Use fabric scraps or permanent marker to decorate the face, and coloured paper to make the yoghurt container into a dress or a suit or whatever you like - get creative! Just make sure that any glues or markers you use for the head are water-proof.

I hope you enjoy this activity with your classroom be it big or small! I would love to hear what classrooms you are using this with (KS1, KS2, Elementary etc) and how the kids enjoyed it! We made a caterpillar, echidna, and dinosaur. I’m sure these would make a great porcupine, too! You could make any animal grass head you like. It’s such a fun activity. Why not get inventive and create your own? In his long career as a commentator Murray Walker covered all manner of motor sports, so when radio producer Julian May told him about lawn mower racing he was intrigued. He agreed to present a programme exploring it, on one condition - that he would not have to commentate.