Feature: Half-Term Activities
Published: 9 February, 2012
There’s something to interest every child of any age at the Imagine Children’s Festival, which returns this half-term to the Southbank Centre.
There will be readings by popular authors including Jacqueline Wilson, Cathy Cassidy and actor Mackenzie Crook – who has been nominated for the Waterstones Children’s Book prize for The Windvale Sprites – science demonstrations from Lord Robert Winston, an audience with poet Roger McGough and a staged performance of Michael Morpurgo’s award-winning Private Peaceful.
A key aspect of this year’s Imagine is that children will be taking a main role in the running of events, from managing the cloakroom to selling programmes and making sure the shows start on time. Shan MacLennan, creative director of learning and participation at Southbank Centre said:
“We have invited children from different backgrounds to help us run things and think about how to create a festival that they themselves might conjure up. We love the idea of the greatest figures making work for children today being looked after by children.”
The festival includes The Red House Children’s Book Awards, voted for by children and hosted by comedian James Campbell, who will also perform his own stand-up show.
The Imagine Extra Stage takes place on both Saturdays of the festival and offers another opportunity to meet favourite authors, including Ciaran Murtagh, Steve Cole and Korky Paul.
The festival’s poetry library, open for the whole fortnight, focuses on Roald Dahl while on stage The Beano is brought to life in the world premiere of The Trial of Dennis the Menace. Comedy highlights include readings by Jeremy Strong and Mr Gum creator Andy Stanton.
For music fans, the Southbank’s Philharmonia Orchestra will perform pieces by Mussorgsky and Dvorak with 300 pupils from schools across Southwark.
There will also be a special performance of the music from the 1943 film of The Jungle Book.
• Many events are free. For more details and tickets visit www.southbankcentre.co.uk or call 0844 847 9910.
Museums And Galleries
Lord’s Cricket Ground
The Lord’s Tour
If you have any young cricket lovers in the family, there can be no happier outing than a trip to Lord’s in St John’s Wood, the self-styled home of the game. It’s certainly the home of The Ashes, and the fascinating story of that tiny urn is told as part of the Lord’s Tour, which takes in the Lord’s Museum of historic artefacts and trophies, the Long Room gallery of portraits of cricketing greats, the players’ dressing rooms and the stunningly futuristic JP Morgan Media Centre.
• Lord’s Cricket Ground, St John’s Wood, NW8 8QN. Tours last for 1 hour and 45 minutes, and start daily at the following times: Monday-Friday 11am,12noon, 2pm; Saturday 10am, 11am, 12noon, 1pm and 2pm; Sunday 10am,11am and 12noon; adults £15, children and concessions £9; family ticket (two adults and two children £40), www.lords.org/tours, email tours@lords.org, 020 7616 8595
Bank of England
Tales from the Riverbank
The Bank of England is the last place you would expect to find the gang from The Wind in the Willows, but the connection is their creator, Kenneth Grahame, who was Secretary of the Bank from 1898-1906.
For half-term week (February 13-17), a costumed storyteller will be in the Bank of England Museum recounting some of Toad, Badger, Ratty and Mole’s adventures.
Story times are at 10.30am, 11.30am, 12.30pm, 2pm, 3pm and 4pm. There is no need to book, but space is limited, so get there early.
Other museum attractions include banknote jigsaws, safe-cracking and a chance to lift a gold bar, valued at more than £400,000.
• Bank of England Museum, Threadneedle Street, EC2R 8AH, Monday-Friday 10am-5pm, admission free. 020 7601 5545, www.bankofengland.co.uk/museum
London Transport Museum
Junior art curators’ week
London Transport Museum has a sound reputation for imaginative activities for the school holidays, and this half-term it has set up a series of events for children to become art curators: Make a mini art gallery (12-1.30pm, age 5-plus).
Children can curate a poster parade in a mini art gallery box, choosing a theme from circus and fairgrounds, sport and the seaside, or create and draw their own themed posters.
Design a picture frame (2-3.30pm, age 5-plus). Children can make a frame for their favourite mini London Transport poster or photograph from the Museum’s collection. Using card and paints it can be 3D, animated or traditional.
Story telling (11am, suitable for under-5s).
Every picture tells a story and in this activity Derek the Designer needs help to make a special poster for his friends. Young visitors can help choose the theme and design.
• London Transport Museum, Covent Garden Piazza, WC2E 7BB, Saturday to Thursday 10am-6pm (last admission 5.15pm), Friday 11am-6pm (last admission 5.15pm). £13.50 adults; £10 concessions (all tickets allow unlimited admission for a 12 month period from date of purchase), Children under 16 free (under 12s must be accompanied by an adult), 020 7565 7298, nline bookings www.ltmuseum.co.uk
RAF Museum
Helicopter Half Term
The RAF museum is holding a series of special interactive workshops from February 13-17, offering a chance to learn more about the history of its helicopter collection.
Visitors will be able to look inside the Whirlwind and Royal Wessex helicopters, and children will get the chance to make a paper helicopter to take home. Session times are 11am-1pm and 2-4pm.
• RAF Museum London, Grahame Park Way, NW9 5LL, email: london@rafmuseum.org, 020 8205 2266
Museum of the Order of St John Museum
The story of the Order of St John has its origins more than 900 years ago in a founding hospital in Jerusalem for sick pilgrims.
The museum’s collection includes silver and armour and historic first aid equipment from the First and Second World Wars.
On Saturday February 18 the museum is hosting a special half-term event linked to the weird and wonderful hats and helmets worn by the Knights of St John.
Children can design their own hat to wear home, using recycled materials (11am-1pm; and 2-4pm – drop-in activity; age 3-plus, free.
• Museum of the Order of St John, St John's Gate, St John's Lane, Clerkenwell, EC1M 4DA, Monday-Saturday 10am-5pm, with 30-minute tours on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday at 11am and 2.30pm, admission free (with small donation suggested for guided tours), 10020 7324 4005, email: museum@nhq.sja.org.uk
Cecil Sharp House
Get Your Folk On!
English Folk Dance and Song Society’s youth folk music project, Get Your Folk On!, ran with huge success for the first time in February last year. This year, beginning on February 13, there is a five-day, half-term course for youngsters aged from 8-11 of all abilities to learn folk and traditional music... and even clog dancing. Booking is a must. Monday-Thursday 10.30am-4pm; Friday 10.30am-5.30pm.
• Cecil Sharp House, 2 Regent’s Park Road, NW1 7AY, 020 7485 2206, www.efdss.org
Roundhouse
Roundhouse Rising
The Roundhouse is offering workshops aimed at 14- to 25-year-olds who are looking to gain experience in the music industry.
Using the venue’s facilities, there will be an opportunity to learn everything from music production to podcasting.
The likes of record producer Jagz Kooner, who has worked with Oasis and Primal Scream, will be on hand to lend a guiding hand. Book in advance by visiting the Roundhouse website.
• Roundhouse, Chalk Farm Road, NW1 8EH, 0844 482 8008, www.roundhouse.org.uk/rising/blog/roundhouse-rising-returns
Whitechapel Gallery
Art and photography
Children are invited to explore place and space in the work of Zarina Bhimji, currently exhibiting at Whitechapel Gallery.
Look, Record, Play (February 14 and 15) involves children aged 5-8 in looking, talking, drawing and recording. Material collected will be made into a film strip, exploring the editing process. According to the publicity, it involves a trick that “teleports participants into the gallery”!
Space-Object-Light-Camera: Action! (February 16 and 17). Children aged 9-11 can investigate how Zarina Bhimji uses objects and empty spaces, light and sound to make stories about history, memory and geography. Participants can then make their own story in photographs and film.
• Whitechapel Gallery, 77-82 Whitechapel High Street, E1 7QX, £45 for a 2-day course, to book call 020 7522 7888 or online at www.whitechapelgallery.org
National Army Museum
War Horse: Fact & Fiction
You’ve read the book, seen the play and watched the film – now catch the exhibition at the National Army Museum that expertly links all three versions to the real soldiers’ story.
• War Horse: Fact & Fiction, National Army Museum, Royal Hospital Road, Chelsea, SW3 4HT, until August 31. Open daily from 10am-5.30pm. Free. 0207 730 0717, www.nam.ac.uk/warhorse
Theatre
Shrek the Musical
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
This tale of a lovable ogre, a wise-cracking donkey, a fearsome dragon and a feisty princess continues it’s run on the West End stage, bringing the heady brew of film characters into singsong life.
• Shrek the Musical, Theatre Royal Drury Lane, Catherine Street, WC2B 5JF. Monday/ Wednesday-Saturday 7.30pm, Thursday and Saturday 3pm (there will be an extra matinée on Monday February 13 at 3pm). Tickets £20-£65, 0844 871 8810, www.ShrekTheMusical.co.uk
Into the Grimm Forest
Unicorn Theatre
The Unicorn Theatre, in association with the Crick Crack Club, is celebrating 200 years of Grimms’ Fairytales with a storytelling season:
Grimms’ Sheesha (until February 12) explores South Asian tales that have made their way in to classic European folklore for children aged 8-plus. and their families.
Grim Grimms: Three Drops of Blood (February 14-19), will reveal the darker side of the Grimms, taking children (aged 8-plus) on a gruesome journey through the fairytale world.
A Year in the Forest (February 21-26) features a collection of magical Brothers Grimm stories with music that will enchant children aged 5-plus.
• Into the Grimm Forest is at the Unicorn Theatre, 147 Tooley Street, SE1 2HZ, until February 26, 020 7645 0560 or www.unicorntheatre.com (no booking fee), £7, For times see website
• Looking ahead to the Easter holidays. The Unicorn’s new season includes The Legend of Captain Crow’s Teeth, based on the book by Eoin Colferr. This adventure story of ghostly pirates, sibling rivalry and school discos is suitable for children aged plus. March 31-April 15.
Horrible Histories: Barmy Britain!
Garrick Theatre
This is a sure-fire hit for those who like their history told "with all the nasty bits left in!" Yes, hot on the heels of the Birmingham Stage Company’s productions of The Awful Egyptians and The Ruthless Romans, comes Barmy Britain!, the latest Horrible Histories live show, which has its premiere at the Garrick Theatre on Tuesday.
• Horrible Histories: Barmy Britain – “recommended for ages 6 to 106” – runs from Tuesday February 14 at the Garrick Theatre, Charing Cross Road, WC2H 0HH. Wednesday-Friday 1pm, Saturday 10.30am and 12noon, Sunday 3pm and 5pm. Box office 0844 482 9673, www.barmybritain.com
Little Red Riding Hood
Little Angel Theatre
Puppetry, music, song, clever staging and witty dialogue are the hallmarks of Norwich Puppet Theatre’s retelling of this classic tale at the Little Angel Theatre which draws on the story’s oral tradition, as well as versions by 17th-century French writer Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm.
• Little Red Riding Hood – for children aged 4-plus – is at the Little Angel, 4 Dagmar Passage off Cross Street, Islington N1 2DN, until February 19. Running time 55 minutes, box office 020 7226 1787, or online at www.littleangeltheatre.com
Greetings from Planet Zog
More than 60 works by Quentin Blake, one of Britain’s most successful illustrators and best known for his work accompanying Roald Dahl’s stories, are on display at the Foundling Museum in Bloomsbury.
Quentin Blake – As Large As Life shows his most recent work which allows visitors to reflect on the contribution of artists to hospitals and child welfare.
Four series of pictures are displayed throughout the museum, which tell the history of the Foundling Hospital, Britain's first home for abandonded babies and London’s first public art gallery. Alongside Blake’s works are paintings by William Hogarth and his contemporaries who donated works to the hospital in the 1740s.
The four series of painting include Our Friends in the Circus, Ordinary Life, Planet Zog, and Mothers and Babies Underwater.
• Quentin Blake – As Large As Life is at the Foundling Museum, 40 Brunswick Square, WC1N 1AZ, until April 15, 020 7841 3600, www.foundlingmuseum.org.uk