Where's Wally gets 'tagged' at Port Ahuriri School

Jo Blogg tutor with kids at Port Ahuriri school Napier and their Where's Wally (absent junior helper Layla O'Connell).

Jo Blogg is no stranger to receiving "lots of bits of stuff". So when she was given a box of bread tags from a friend last year, she knew exactly what to do with them.

"The first lot were all sorted into their colours but then I was given more which weren't sorted."

That's when Jo had a brilliant idea.

"I thought, I'll get the kids to sort them. It became the sorting game. Some kids couldn't manage it, some did it for a while and others were obsessed."

Jo runs Port Ahuriri Afcare and is often the receiver of other people's 'junk'.

"It soon became apparent these were the colours of Where's Wally and it would be easy to translate this into a grid pattern."

Jo says it was the same process as an artwork she'd done using pixilation.

"It was an app which gave me the idea — the bread tags are the pixels. Then we spray painted some black ones."

She says they first drew Where's Wally onto some graph paper.

"It translated so well because of the square shape of the tags. It was almost too easy."

Caretaker Gavin Smith also jumped on board the project, making a plywood backing board which Jo says was the perfect size.

"He painted it white and off we went."

The team effort has paid off. After months of sorting, planning and gluing, last year's Afcare kids have created a life-size portrait of the famous book puzzle character out of the bread tags and are going to donate it to the school, which has recently undergone renovations.

Jo says around 10 children created the artwork "in stops and starts".

"These are last year's seniors and never got to be in their new classrooms. It's a cool idea for them to gift this from Afcare to the school. We imagine it might go into the hall because of its size."

Principal Glenn France says the Where's Wally donation is a constant and living reminder for the children of their commitment to kaitiakitanga.

"It's about looking after and being part of our environment, of our values to reduce, reuse and recycle."