Half-term Holiday Guide
If you are lucky enough to be in London over the half-term, take your pick of some fantastic workshops and events. I have sifted through most of them and chosen my favourites below. In addition to the events below you may want to check out the London Architecture Festival and the Kid-friendly events at Chelsea Fringe. Enjoy!
The Great Outdoors
Garden Museum Family Half Term Activity: Monday 29th, 2-4pm. Explore the Garden Museum on Bank Holiday and let the kids create their own still-life collages in a workshop led by artist educator Bethan Durie. Free, ages 3+. Westminster Abbey Glorious Gardens Family Day: Friday 1st June 10am-3pm. Explore the ancient cloister gardens of the Abbey once used to grow food and medicinal herbs for the monks who lived there. Free, booking essential, ages 5-11. Hyde Park Education Centre: book the kids into Nature Explorers on 29th May (£20) or drop in for the Discovery Day 30th and 31st May. Chelsea Physic Garden Half Term Family Events: there are a variety of workshops for little ones, older ones and their grownups over the half term including Art Safari and smartphone photography. From ages 3-16, £11 per person for half day, £15 for all-day.
Museum Drop-ins and Art Workshops for little ones …
House of Illustration Family Workshop: Concertina Creatures. Book into this mixed-media workshops exploring printmaking and paper construction. Saturday 26th, 2-5pm, £6 per person. British Library, Family Activity: Drawings of Discovery: Penguins to Polar Bears, Wednesday 30th 11am-12:30 and repeated 1:30-3pm, free, drop-in, tickets allocated on arrival, ages 5-11. There is a Moana Sing Along on Saturday 2nd June, 2-5pm, £8 adults, £5 kids. On Saturday 9th of June there is an Architecture Explorers workshops where kids age 5-11 can make their own Jaipur palace. Royal Academy, Family Studio: Sunday 27th, 11am-3pm. Look at iconic landscapes of Constable and Turner and then create willow lanterns to take home. Free, drop-in, all ages. Whitechapel Gallery, Live Art for Children and Family: Sunday 27th, 2-3:30pm. Artist Jessie McLaughlin will create live art integrating football, photography and performance, drop-in, all ages. Wallace Collection Half Term: work with artist Hattie More for a drawing workshops and The Little Draw. William Morris Gallery, Family Day: Saturday 26th 1-4pm, celebrate Maytime and summer’s arrival by making a decoration inspired by Morris’s Labours of the Months and enjoy some Morris Foundling Museum Half-term events: Tuesday 29th Casting Traces, join the Sculpture Lab for a fun plaster casting workshop. Identity Totems, Thursday 31st, make your own clay totem based on the exhibition Sea. Photographic Traces, Friday 1st June, use light-sensitive paper to create a photographic print. All workshops are for ages 5+, booking on the day, sessions start at 11am, 1:15pm and 3pm. V & A Half Term: there is a variety of activities on over half-term, Saturday 2-3pm, Oliver Jeffers will be leading a storytelling and live drawing event with book singing after. The Door to Design project will be leading workshops on Saturday 26th, noon-5pm, free and drop-in. There will be pop-up performances, The Imagination Station and other events. British Museum Half Term Events: Saturday 26th, Little Feet, a fun workshop for the under fives taking place between 11and 3pm. Rodin, Move, Make and Marvel: activities exploring the Rodin exhibition Monday 27th - Friday 1st, 11am-5pm, free, drop-in, all ages. RIBA Family Day: Saturday 9th June, 11am-4pm. Bring the kids to Mayfair as part of the London Festival of Architecture for a free, drop-in, all ages workshop - registration required.
And a quick mention, Kensington Mums is holding an summer event at the newly refurbished Gazelli House on Walton Street. There will be nibbles, wine and you can make your own body scrub with the Gazelli Body Expert.
Workshops and Events for older ones …
National Army Museum Half-Term Workshop: How to be a Journalist: Saturday 26th - Sunday 3rd June, 10:30-4:30pm. Create a mini-documentary about museum objects by writing your own script and record your film using the Museum’s iPads. Free, all ages welcome. Royal Institute of British Architects, RIBA Half-Term Workshops: take the kids to Mayfair to the take part in some advanced, and not free or affordable workshops. Design Day, Architecture and Optical Illusion: use photography to make #D models Monday 28th - Wednesday 30th, 11am-4pm, ages 11-15 years, £150. Design Quest ages 6-10, take part in creative games and challenges to discover different ways to create the illusion of depth or space. Wednesday 30th- Friday 1st June, 11am-4pm. Royal Institute of Great Britain Family Fun Day: Saturday 2nd June, 11am-4pm. Get hands-on with the science behind Frankenstein, Star Wars, Doctor Who and more … for ages 6-12, tickets £16, RI Members £7 and young RI members are free. RI Holiday Workshop: Extract Your Own DNA: Wednesday 30th, 11am-1pm, ages 7-9. Thursday 31st, ages 10-12, 11am-1pm. tickets £30. Palace of Westminster, Family Guided Tours: Wednesday 30th - Friday 1st June, 10am-4pm. Take a really interesting tour of Parliament and see the seat of Western Democracy … before it closed for renovation, tickets £18.50 per adult, but kids under 15 are free. Institute of Imagination: Take the kids for some great workshops over the half term: Lab Life: Super City, Saturday 27th, 1-4pm. Draw and design existing buildings, construct your own building using wires and pliers, use BBC mircobits to code lights, tickets just £5. Puppetry Storytelling: Take part in a three day workshop to make your own storytelling puppets, Tuesday 29th-Thursday 31st, 9:30am-4pm, ages 9-12, £180 for the three days. British Film Institute Half-term and Holiday Activities: Tuesday 29th, 10:30 The Weird and Wonderful World of Animating Green Screen; Wednesday 30th 10:30, Fantasia Fun … A Musical Animation Extravaganza. Thursday 31st, 10:30, Plasticine Smashticine! Fun with Claymation.
