Feature: Half-Term Holiday Activities

Published: 20 October, 2011

Wallace Collection
Daily
Make the Laughing Cavalier grumpy, match the dogs to their owners and find a dragon in the galleries –  this family multimedia tour, with interactive games, is available for a small fee; no need to book.

The Wallace Collection also offers a selection of free gallery trails, and free armour handling in the Conservation Gallery – a “hands-on” way to find out how heavy a bullet-proof breastplate was to carry.

Details from the information desk; no need to book.

Saturday October 22
The Big Draw: Ready Steady Draw! This free, drop-in workshop runs from 12-4pm.

Booking essential.

Join a team led by artists Alex Hirtzel and William Riding in this great Ready Steady Big Draw-off.

Inspired by the Collection, your team will go head to head on drawing challenges set by the museum.

All abilities and ages are welcome.

For more information about the Big Draw and other workshops visit: www.drawingpower.org.uk

Monday October 24
Tick Tock: Make a Clock, 10.30am-2.30pm or 2-4pm, £7 per child, age 7-plus.

Booking essential.

With the help of artist Zoe Bates, children can create their own 3D timepiece artwork, taking inspiration from the Collection’s glittering, gilt clocks.

Tuesday October 25
Autumn harvest: Drawing, Painting and Collage Workshop, 10.30am-12.30pm or 2-4pm, £7 per child, age 7-plus. Booking essential.

Create a mixed-media painting inspired by autumn themes in the galleries.

Learn new techniques of painting, drawing, decoupage and collage to create a masterpiece, all with the help of artist.

Friday 28 October
Halloween Photography Project: Dreams and Nightmares, 10.30am-12.15pm and 2-3.45pm, Free, drop-in workshop. Booking essential.

Children must be with an adult and all ages are encouraged to take part. You can have your picture taken as a spooky character: inspired by the collection as well as dreams and nightmares, you can combine make up, mask-making, lighting and acting to create weird and wonderful versions of yourself! Profes­sional photographers and artists Alice Farrell and Olivia Hemingway will be on hand to help.

• The Wallace Collection, Hertford House, Manchester Square, W1U 3BN. Open daily 10am-5pm. Booking is essential on 020 7563 9527 or booking@wallacecollection.org. Children must be accompanied. Accompanying adults free.

London Transport Museum
Journeys of the Imagination
Monday to Friday, October 23-29 

For the whole of half-term week, the museum has devised a workshop featuring characters from the books of children’s author and illustrator John Burningham.

Gorilla, Borka Goose and Mr Gumpy and the museum’s Burningham poster collection will be the inspiration for children to create puppets they can take home.

They can also stage their own mini puppet show in the museum’s pop up puppet theatre.

The poster puppets craft workshops are suitable for children aged five-plus, and run from 12-3pm.

In addition, very young visitors will be able to listen John’s stories about Mr Gumpy’s boating adventures and late-night train journeys.

These storytelling sessions, tailor­made for the under-fives, run from 11-11.30am.

Admission to these events is free for children; adults £13.50 (£10 concessions) and tickets allow unlimited admission for 12 months.

• London Transport Museum, Covent Garden Piazza, WC2E 7BB, Saturday-Thursday 10am-6pm, Friday 11am-6pm, 020 7379 6344 www.ltmuseum.co.uk

Keats House
We Love Letters!
Tuesday October 25, 11am-1pm

We Love Letters! is a free event for families involving multi-sensory poetry, storytelling, and creative letter-writing.

Keats loved writing letters to his friends, his family, and to the girl he was in love with.

His letters tell us all about what he was thinking, how he was developing his poems, even what he thought about that “silly” girl next door.

Thanks to a Heritage Lottery Fund grant, Keats House Museum has recently purchased a love letter the poet wrote to Fanny Brawne, and to celebrate the arrival of the letter, the house is running a series of fun, creative events in the museum and in the community.

This celebratory, family session invites visitors to be inspired by Keats to write letters to the things, places and people they love – and rediscover the (almost) lost art of letter-writing, and enjoy some poetry, stories and surprises in the process.

The event is suitable for children of all ages and abilities; children must be accompanied by an adult.

• We Love Letters! is a free, drop-in event on Tuesday October 25, 11am-1pm at Keats House, Keats Grove, Hampstead, NW3 2RR
Keats House opening hours until October 31 are Tuesday to Sunday, 1-5pm, and from November 1 until March 31, the house is open to public from Friday to Sunday, 1-5pm. Adults £5, concessions £3, children aged 16 and under free. Tickets valid for one year. 020 7332 3868 keatshouse@cityoflondon.gov.uk

Cotswold Wildlife Park
Howl-o-ween
Saturday October 22-Monday October 31

Cotswold Wildlife Park is promising some “Howling good fun” over the half-term holiday for all ages.

The park, near Burford in Oxfordshire, is laying on a pumpkin trail, a spooky train ride, frightening face painting and special animal owl-o-ween feeds. 

There’s also a Pumpkin-carving competition – so be sure to take one along. The prize pumpkin wins a ghoulish goodie bag and wolf encounter.

• Cotswold Wildlife Park, Burford, Oxfordshire, OX18 4JP, 01993 823006, more information at www.cotswoldwildlifepark.co.uk

Florence Nightingale Museum
Halloween trail: Medical tricks and Victorian treats
Monday October 24-Friday October 28 10am-5pm

Come and follow, if you dare, the Halloween Trail at the

Florence Nightingale Museum.

Medical tricks and Victorian treats fill the museum over Halloween half-term.

Take part in quizzes and quests, grisly games and ghoulish activities, and earn a bulging goody bag.

Enter the Halloween competition for a chance to win a horribly good prize.

Feast your eyes on the vermin-infested Halloween banquet!

Put your life in the hands of a crazed Victorian quack doctor!

And come face to face with the monster lurking underneath the haunted bed....

This special family activity is included in the ordinary museum ticket price.

• Florence Nightingale Museum 2 Lambeth Palace Road, SE1 7EW, 020 7620 0374, www.florence-nightingale.co.uk

The Man Who Planted Trees
Puppet State Theatre Company at the Purcell Room
Tuesday October 25-Friday October 28

Comedy, puppetry and storytelling come together in The Man Who Planted Trees, an imaginative family show based on an allegorical novel by French writer Jean Giono, published in 1953, about a shepherd who sets out to plant a forest and transform a barren landscape, accompanied by his faithful dog.

Hear the wind, feel the rain and smell the lavender in this multisensory production from the Puppet State Theatre Company, and the partly improvised nature of the comic scenes means that no two shows are alike.

Richard Medrington and puppeteer Rick Conte, who plays the dog, created the show for schools in 2006 with artist Ailie Cohen.

It has since been performed off-Broadway and at the Sydney Opera House.

Suitable for children aged seven and over.

• Purcell Room, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, SE1 8XX
Adults £10, £5 for children under 16, some concessions available

Bank of England
Designs on Your Money
October 24-28

Here’s a bit of fun devised by the Bank of England Museum as part of The Big Draw, coordinated by the Campaign for Drawing, which runs throughout October.

Visitors of all ages are invited to have a go at designing a prize-winning banknote, taking inspiration from the museum’s Banknote Gallery which has examples of notes dating from the 17th to the 20th century.

Security is a key element in the challenge, and The Bank Today area of the museum has displays the design intricacies and advanced security features of today’s banknotes.

There will be a prize for the best entry as judged by the Museum Curator from four age groups: under 5 years, 6 to 9 years, 10 to 13 years, and 14 years and over.

The winners will be contacted directly, and their names and winning design will be on the Museum’s website from Friday November 4.

Also related to The Big Draw, there is a Know Your Banknotes competition, based on security features on Bank of England money.

Test your detection skills to spot a counterfeit.

• The Bank of England Museum is located within the Bank of England. The entrance to the Museum is in Bartholomew Lane, EC2R 8AH, off Threadneedle Street. Admission to the museum, temporary exhibitions and events is free. Open Monday to Friday, 10am-5pm (last entry 4.45pm). 020 7601 5545 www.bankofengland.co.uk/ museum

BFI Imax
Born to be Wild 3D,
The Lion King 3D (digital),
Real Steal – The Imax Experience, Ghostbusters

Born to be Wild, stunningly captured in IMAX 3D, is the inspiring story of orphaned orangutans and elephants and the extraordinary people who rescue and raise them.

The film is one of four films screened for half-term at Britain’s biggest cinema screen – 20 metres high.

You can also catch the Disney classic The Lion King (U) in 3D for the first time; see Hugh Jackman in the gritty, white-knuckle boxing drama Real Steal – The Imax Experience (12A); and perfect for Halloween, a 3D version of the 1980s comedy Ghostbusters (PG)

• BFI Imax, Waterloo, SE1. Special family tickets £18-£46 by telephone only, box office 020 7199 6000. Full details of films and dates at bfi.org.uk

Delicious Mummies

Proud Camden is laying on weekend family treats with its new Delicious Mummies events for tots, teens and parents every Saturday and Sunday lunchtime.

Enjoy painting competitions, children’s entertainers, and computer games for the children, as well as special lunch menus for parents (two courses for £18; kids £4) – or just have a drink and join in the entertainment.

• Proud Camden Saturdays and Sundays 12-4pm, South Gallery, Stables Market, Camden Town, NW1 8AH. 020 7482 3867, www.proudcamden.com/news/yummy-mummy

Make an aquarium
Chalk Farm Library

is holding a free Workshop for Children on Monday October 24. Create sea creatures out of discarded plastic, and make a Camden Aquarium to tell people about plastic poisoning our oceans.

Children must be accompanied by an adult.

Bring some clean waste plastic – eg, bottles or bags.

• Chalk Farm Library, Sharpleshall Street, NW1. 10.30-2.30pm.

Feed the Birds Day
October 29

The RSPB is challenging Londoners to start half-term by getting their aprons on and their leftovers out ready for its annual Feed the Birds Day.

As we put the clocks back, we need to think about provid­ing garden wildlife with some extra help for the winter.

You don’t need to be a wildlife expert, says the wildlife charity, to provide a nutritious meal for your garden birds and most ingredients can be found in your kitchen cupboards.

Calorie rich foods like mixed seed, nyjer seed and unsalted peanuts, and scraps like mild grated cheese, cooked rice and pasta, unsalted bacon and cooked potatoes are all great for birds. Birds also need water – essential for bathing and preening.

• Go to www.rspb.org.uk/feedthebirds where you can also find out how to bake a bird cake and also how to make your garden or window box as good for wildlife as possible, through RSPB Homes For Wildlife.