Top Picks for the week ahead 10th – 16th September
Actual real life events are taking place once again and museums are still re-opening. So if you’re up for getting out and about, here’s our pick of the best things to do in and around London; from the reopening of The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre just in time for Roald Dahl Day to joining in with the Great British Clean this September, discover Heritage Open Days, experience an immersive sound installation, explore a forest school pop-up and watch an alfresco ballet, plus largest ever Bronze Age hoard discovered in London opens this weekend.
Check out our previous blog on what opened and when From theme parks, cinemas, museums and attractions.
And there’s lots of virtual fun to be had; tune into Roald Dahl Story Day celebrations with Puffin Books, find out how to Build-a-bot, learn how to make an animal inspired mobile, zoom into an art installation workshop using plastic cleaned from blue spaces and get ready for Bake Off – back this autumn – by catching up with Bread Aheads Live Bakes – there’s lots to do, see and have fun with.
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OUR TOP PICKS OF THINGS TO DO
The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre, reopens Thursday 10th September
Just in time for Roald Dahl Story Day on 13th September, The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre reopens on Thursday 10th September.
As with all museums and galleries, you’ll need to book your tickets online in advance and all visits will be in the form of guided visits, exclusive to you and your bubble, led by an expert guide. The museum is currently booking up to Thursday 22nd October with tickets for later dates to be released nearer the time.
Find out more here
Ring Out, Friday 11th & Saturday 12th September @ 2pm, 3pm, 4pm & 5pm
Part of the Greenwich + Docklands International Festival (finishing this Saturday 12th September), catch one of the final events of the festival and experience Ring Out. This installation from Ray Lee takes the form of a series of giant towers which hold suspended bell-like speaker cones. A team of volunteer bell-ringers start to operate the industrial machinery and make the pendulum arms swing higher and higher until each arm soars up over the heads of the audience ringing forth with a peel of electronic tones.
To find out more and book your ticket, click here
To find out more about the Greenwich + Docklands International Festival, what’s on and when, click here
Havering Hoard: A Bronze Age Mystery at the Museum of London Docklands, opens Friday 11th September
Unearth the mystery of the largest ever Bronze Age hoard discovered in London in Museum of London Docklands major exhibition and discover what life was like during the Bronze Age, when the land where London now exists was a very different place.
Weapons including axe heads, spearheads, fragments of swords, daggers and knives, alongside some other unusual objects rarely found in the UK, make up a total of 453 bronze objects dating between c.900 and c.800 BC will be on display.
Entry is included with a free general admission ticket to the museum and remember you need to book your ticket in advance of your visit and note the new opening hours too. Find out more here
The Great British September Clean 11th – 27th September
Make a difference to the environment in your local area by joining this national campaign. Everyone can join in with the Great British September Clean. You can simply register your support by pledging how many minutes you’re going to give to the campaign. You could pick up litter while walking the dog or on the walk to school. Find out more here
And make sure you catch Steve Backshall’s poem ‘Jemina Glitter and the Voyage of Bob the Bottle’. Watch it here
Heritage Open Days, 11th – 20th September
For the first time in its history, Heritage Open Days, England’s largest festival of heritage and culture, will feature online events as well as in-person activities. With the theme Hidden Nature, you’ll be invited to uncover stories, sites, places and people that traditional history has overlooked or forgotten.
This year you can experience virtual tours and take part online as well as visiting historic places and green spaces in person. This means visitors can just as easily explore events across England, as well as those on their doorsteps.
Find out more here
Alice in Wonderland, Alfresco Ballet, Saturday 12th September
Don’t be late for this very important date! Join Alice as she enters the curiouser and curiouser world of the White Rabbit, Queen of Hearts and Mad Hatter. Stunning dancing and much loved characters bring the famous tale to life in this magical ballet production performed in the outdoors, brought to you by Let’s All Dance. Tickets £6
To find out more and book tickets, click here
Down at the Dock, The Great Wild Wharf, Saturday 12th September @11am – 2.30pm (timed slots)
Mill Harbour’s new urban forest will play host to a one-day only ‘Forest School’ pop-up. Led by Intrepid Ventures, activities will include safe and socially-distanced soft archery, shelter-building, survival bracelet-making and water purification, giving children the opportunity to go wild and learn new skills.
Each activity takes place for an hour, aimed at ages 6 – 11. Register for free here
Story Seekers, IWM London, Saturday 12th & Sunday 13th @10am – 4pm
The Imperial War Museum is packed full of stories but they need your wits and imagination to explore the museum collections and find connections.
Explore what’s in store here
To find out more about visiting IWM, safety measures and booking tickets, click here
OUR VIRTUAL TOP PICKS
Roald Dahl Story Day, Friday 11th September @10am
Celebrate Roald Dahl’s stories at home or in the classroom with this year’s show. You’ll be able to watch from 10am on Friday. Whenever you choose to watch, here’s what you can look forward to;
Join your host Radzi Chinyanganya for a 35 minute video lesson packed with ideas you can try out during and after the show, including:
- Waterstones Children Book Prize WINNERS Nathan Bryon and Dapo Adeola will be playing the ultimate Roald Dahl guessing game
- Get your pens and paper ready for a draw-along with Dapo Adeola
- Test your brain with some r-r-r-revolting witcha-grams
- Watch again this year’s World Book Day bedtime story, The Witches, read by Stanley Tucci – and listen carefully, because Radzi will have a few questions for you
Tune in here
The Gruffalo Zoom Story Workshop, Friday 11th September @ 10am
Enjoy a digital zoom storytelling session of The Gruffalo with Seven Stories, the National Centre for Children’s Books.
A mouse took a stroll through the deep dark wood…and has come to tell their story! Play, sing and make a craft activity with a little brown mouse in this fun interactive telling of everyone’s favourite tale about the mysterious woodland creature with purple prickles. Silly old mouse, don’t they know? There IS such a thing as a Gruffalo!
You’ll need to book a ticket to join and your confirmation email will include suggestions for creating your own woodland den at home before the event and links to further Gruffalo themed activities you can do as a family afterwards.
Aimed at ages 3 – 6. Join via zoo, tickets are £5 per household. Book here
The London Design Festival’s ‘New Reality’ Interactive Environments, 12th – 20th September
Launching on Saturday 12th, the London Design Festival (12th – 20th September) is offering online events this year as well as actual events including a digital-first online gallery with the aim to take the term “online exhibition” to the next level. Using the latest technology to make these designed environments fully interactive, each day the festival will tune in on two country collections, where visitors will be able to enter the virtual environment with a guided tour by the curator. Find out more here
And if you’re out and about in Stratford and near International Quarter London, don’t miss The Hothouse. Reminiscent of a Victorian glasshouse, it will provide a controlled habitat for cultivating plants that would not ordinarily grow within the UK’s climate including guava, orange, gourd, chia seed, avocado, pomegranate, quinoa, mango, sweet potato, lemon, sugarcane, chickpea, loquat and pineapple.
Scientists predict that if the current rate of climate change continues to accelerate, all of these crops could potentially be grown outside in the UK by 2050 – highlighting the reality of a rapidly changing climate. For more info, click here and to find out what’s happening and when throughout the festival, click here
Gŵyl Fwyd Amgueddfa Cymru Digital Food Festival, Saturday 12th & Sunday 13th September
Offering a showcase of Welsh food & drink producers and crafters, join this online food festival by following Amgueddfa Cymru on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & Crowdcast. Each platform will act as a separate ‘festival tent or area’ – with family-friendly workshops, cooking demos, panel discussions, live music as well as a range of activities and stories inspired by food-related items in the Museum’s collection. Join a sun printing workshop, learn circus skills or discover fruit mocktail top tips and more!
Check out timetables, which platform to find which activity on and at what time here
Roald Dahl Story Day, Sunday 13th September
Don’t forget to download your party pack packed full of ideas to help you celebrate. You can download the pack here and there’s a pack for Titchy Toddlers too that you can download here.
Plus, if you haven’t watched it already, don’t miss this new theatrical reading of The Twits on the Unicorn’s YouTube Channel here. And why not enter this competition to win a truck load of treats here
Humans Make Plastic on Zoom with Totally Thames, Sunday 13th September @ 11am, 12pm, 2pm & 3pm
Part of the Totally Thames Festival that runs throughout September, make bold installation art that uses single use plastic and plastic cleaned from blue spaces to inspire thought and challenge consumption.
An art workshop conducted from your home, where you’ll experiment with materials and make colourful recycled art using plastics from the clean and single use plastics from your home. Book your free ticket here
If you can’t make the zoom workshops, you can download a Do It At Home pack to discover more. Download the pack here
Totally Thames Festival runs until 30th September, to find out what’s on and when click here
Build-a-bot! Cereal Box Robot with the Glasgow Science Festival, Sunday 13th September @ 1pm
Celebrate science from the comfort of your own sofa this autumn. Join Glasgow Science Festival digital programme (running until 9th November) bringing dozens of experiments, activities, demo’s and workshops to you, covering a range of subject areas – biology, physical and mental health, physics, chemistry, maths, coding & gaming, engineering and art conservation. Through videos, how-to guides and activity packs. All designed for people to do at home or in the classroom, using readily available and inexpensive materials.
This sunday, find out how to build-a-bot. From R2D2 to Bender, from Roombas to the Mars Rover – robots are coming out of science fiction and straight into our everyday lives. But if you could build any robot, what would it be like? Would it have a name? What would it do?
Find out more here and what’s going throughout the festival here
Nature Live Online: The Inside Out of Flies, Tuesday 15th September @ 12pm
Discover the astonishing mechanics of fly anatomy. Part of the Natural History Museums Nature Online Series, join entomologist and author Erica McAlister as she reveals the inside out of flies. See some fascinating specimens from The Natural History Museum collection and discover how amazing, exotic and important these creatures really are.Join here
This is a great way to meet NHM scientists and discover the fascinating work carried out behind the scenes at the Museum. And if you can’t make the session, or are interested in watching previous talks, you can catch up here
ONLINE ANYTIME
Culture Mile London Play Packs are designed to encourage families to play creatively, in whatever way works for you. With ideas for a range of ages, there are things you can do together or alone – there are even some activities for grown-ups!
Find all three Play Packs here
FuseSchool
FuseSchool is a global education charity that creates free animated bitesize videos covering the maths and science topics you learn in school. Teachers record explanations into bitesize audios and then designers bring the content to life. Find out more here
With The Red Shoes cinematic release scheduled for 30th September, it’s time to get excited and explore Matthew Bourne’s REEL Adventures.
Everyday, social channels are updated with activities suitable for the whole family; exclusive behind-the-scenes content from all their shows; and rarely seen treasures from New Adventures history and why not take part in workshop weekend at home.
Find out more here
Creepy Crawly Creations
The V & A Museum of Childhood is inspiring you to connect with nature this autumn. Create your own butterflies, bugs and insects by finding objects from your park, garden, or even pot. Find out how to make your own creepy crawly creations here and why not take their Magnificent Mini Beast Quiz. Take the challenge here
To explore the V & A Museum of Childhood online learning and find out what else you can do, click here
Bread Ahead Live Bakes catch up
With Bake Off back on TV this autumn, be inspired with Bread Ahead instagram live bakes, with season one to three on YouTube; learn how to make lemon meringue pie, eton mess doughnut filling, baguettes, sourdough pizza, bakewell tart, millionaire shortbread and so many more.
Tune in on YouTube here
Barbican’s how to make an animal-inspired mobile and thaumatrope
Created on behalf of the Barbican’s Family Film Club, these online workshop
Find out how to make an interactive and animal-inspired mobile and thaumatrope with these two how-to videos by artist and illustrator Ivonne Vargas.
Start watching here