S and I spent the day at The Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green this week. We used the book “Christmas at The Toy Museum” by David Luscas (ISBN 978-1406324594 ) as a starting point for a Christmas themed hunt. A Christmas at the Toy Museum Hunt In the story, the toys wrap themselves up as Christmas…
Exploring Light in the Museum this Autumn
Using light in paintings as an inspiration for our own work During this late Autumn period, here in the UK, our working world starts and ends in darkness. Whilst we have had some beautiful Autumn days with the sun warming rustling leaves and beautiful dew tipped spider webs spectacularly glistening, our extended darkness has been…
Walking through the jungle style museum hunt
On our visit to the Fitwilliam Museum today we played a game based on the book “Walking Through the Jungle” by Julie Lacome (ISBN 9780744536430) On a previous visit I had taken some pictures of jungle-type animals and stuck them into cards with a clue to solve. I read the clue to the boys and…
A Portrait Trail
S has been learning about portraits at school and so we decided to visit the National Portriat Gallery in London. We did a family trail as suggested on their website which the boys thoroughly enjoyed. We spent a lot of time discussing each portrait – who might be in it, where they were, how they…
Turner’s Watercolours – painting in the cafe
One of our most frequently visited museums is The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. They are currently showing a watercolour exhibition which includes some less often seen pictures by Turner. After spending some time looking at the pictures; the colours, shapes and identifiable objects (horses are always popular for the boys to look for) we went…
Fantastic Friday – Statue Posing
Whilst walking through a gallery in The Fitzwilliam Museum, S stopped suddenly, bent over with his hands on the floor and shot his leg up in the air. It completely took me by surprise until I noticed the sculptures on the stand above. I love the spontaneity and making sense of what he saw by…
Summer Festival – reenacting visual art
One of our favourite museums is The Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green. This July we went to their Summer Festival which was largely a celebration of music and dance from around the world. The museum is set in a beautiful building. The acoustics were amazing, particularly when the South London Samba band played –…
Painting with Scissors
By S. Whilst on holiday in France we spent a day at Musée Matisse, Le Cateau-Cambrésis. The museum was very welcoming, particular with S and A, giving them pencils and an artist’s pad to take with them around the museum. We started with the Matisse rooms although there were exhibitions on Herbin and Genevieve Claisse to name…