Animation & Art Workshops, Children's Picture Books and Illustration
This is so brilliant and barmy, the brainchild of kids author Mac Barnett and his illustrator chum Shawn Harris, both incredibly talented.
I love it and I’m pretty sure most kids will love it (I’m on a wavelength with kids for this kind of thing!)
Here’s the first episode on Youtube. Check out the other three, and even more exciting, there are more episodes to come! Stay tuned space cat lovers!
Featuring nutty stories, weird tunes, brilliant drawing – and magnets 🙂
OK, so this is pretty cool for all you HP fans out there, JK Rowling has launched a Harry Potter at Home Hub with games and activities to keep our brains and hands busy during this lockdown.
To enrol at Hogwarts you have to answer some very interesting questions! I am now officially a Hufflepuff and have a passport to prove it! 🙂
There’s loads of stuff on there to get going with like quizzes, wordsearches and crafting – you can even make your very own Harry Potter gift bag. Take a look.
I hope you’re all keeping well! Don’t forget to keep washing your hands, and take care of yourselves and one another.
Hang in there!
X Claire
An Easter-time activity. Click on the picture to go to the free downloadable pdf to make your own Eggbox Owl! 🙂
I’ve posted about the Book Trust’s resources earlier, but they are adding loads of great stuff to their site, including e-books and drawing tutorials with some of the best children’s illustrators.
Have a look, link below! (Ooh, that sounds like something a pirate might shout!) 😉
https://www.booktrust.org.uk/books-and-reading/have-some-fun/
And here’s a video tutorial from the Book Trust’s website by their Illustrator in Residence Ed Vere:
Stay home, stay well, have fun and learn stuff! 🙂
X Claire
Creative learning activity – ages 8 and up
More bears! Well, they really are very cute and interesting! 🙂
I’ve been researching polar bears for some prints and drawings I’m making, and was excited to find this resource at Polar Bears International
Here you can find out amazing facts about Polar Bears and their daily lives. And the resource they have that blew me away is Polar Bear Tracking, where you can actually click on a particular bear and its family and follow its route round the sea ice on Hudson Bay in Canada. Take a look!
They also have videos of the wonderful Northern Lights, including a live Northern Lights cam. See if you get lucky enough to view some live.
Check out the National Geographic website for more Polar Bear facts
Find out more about the Northern Lights here
Use the Polar Bear International and National Geographic websites to find out as much as you can about Polar Bears. Write down all the things you think are most interesting about them.
Lots of artists and illustrators are inspired by Polar bears. Have a look at the gallery below for just a few examples of Polar Bear art..
Which one do you think is the most realistic? “Realistic” means like it is in real life. What is realistic about it? List the details. Which one is the least realistic? Why isn’t it realistic? What makes it look not real?
If you’re not sure, have a look at the photos of real Polar Bears below and compare them with the drawings.
Have a look at the photographs above (or find some online) and choose one that you really like. Copy it using pencils and crayons. You can paint it if you like.
They are quite white, so you might think there is not a lot to draw, so make sure you draw the texture of the fur.
It’s also true that they are not pure white, they are kind of yellowy against the snow, and even a little bit pink-looking in some of the photos. (Why do you think they might look pinkish? I can’t be 100% sure, but maybe they are photographed at sunrise or sunset, and the colour of the light is reflected in their fur.) You can show this in your picture too.
Do a background too. You could maybe draw the Northern Lights as the background
There is a famous book called “Northern Lights” by Philip Pullman. It is the fantasy story of a girl called Lyra Bellacqua and her journey to the Arctic to find her friend Roger, and features a talking polar bear called Iorek Byrnison. It’s a great book, but a bit scary in places, and suitable for children age 10 and up.
Here’s a clip from the BBC adaptation of Lyra riding on Iorek’s back! – very cool but not very realistic! 😉
That’s all for now, guys!
Take care, have fun, learn lots and stay safe! 🙂
Lots of us all over the planet are shut in our homes, but still need to communicate with our friends and family – wherever they are, so here is a neat little solution for holding the phone while you speak!
First you need a cardboard-type coffee beaker.
Get a grownup to help you cut two small triangles out of the beaker, one on either side.
And that’s it – you are hands-free to skype, facetime and zoom away with your friends! 😉
This also makes a perfect stand for making animations with your mobile, using lego characters, sylvanian families or whatever you have, with the Stop Motion Studio app – Free to download on iphones/ipads/smart phones/tablets 🙂 Go to your Apps hub and look for this logo.
I’ll be posting more about animating with your phone soon, stay tuned!
And, ok, I have to admit, I didnt think this up myself! So here’s the video by CNET I got the idea from – plus a couple of others. Get creative and have fun at home! 🙂
Creative learning activity suitable for 8 years and up.
I’ve been trying to draw bears a lot recently. There’s something so cuddly about them – like teddy bears – but that’s not at all true, and I wouldn’t like to meet one up close – that’s a fact! :/
Here’s a great article about real-life, factual avocado-eating Andean Bears in the Andean Forest – or “Darkest Peru” as Paddington Bear, the best-known fictional Andean Bear would call it 😉
They’re also called “Spectacled Bears”, and if you have a look at their face, you can see why.
You can have a look at the article here::
1. Research: read the article – there are a lot of long words in it, but don’t worry if you don’t understand them all. Look up Andean Bears (or Spectacled Bears) on the internet, see what you can find out. Here’s a description of the bears by the people at San Diego Zoo in California that is a bit easier to read!
https://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/andean-spectacled-bear
2. Write down all the cool stuff you have found out about the bears – use pen and paper or your computer/tablet. Where do they live? What do they eat? Are they easy to find? Are they endangered?
3. Do you know what “fictional” means? If not, then look it up and find out, and then draw or write (or both!) a story about a fictional bear. This means you can use your imagination. Maybe this fictional bear doesn’t live in the Andes, but in a flat in the city, or a cottage in the countryside. Maybe it is a bank manager or a PE teacher, or even an astronaut!
It’s up to you – this story can be as imaginative and fun as you like!
Finally, here he is, the world’s most famous fictional Andean bear in a clip from the first Paddington film. And don’t forget, he was originally created by author Michael Bond in a series of books for children. Maybe you have some already? If not keep a look out for them, they are great!
The Book Trust in the UK have loads of great activities related to all things books on their website, take a look here, including drawing tutorials of Hiccup and Toothless by Cressida Cowell! Amazing!
There’s also competitions, quizzes and loads of great book recommends, specially good for this time when so many kids all over the world are at home.
Have a look at the Cressida Cowell drawings, then compare with the “How to Train Your Dragon” animation. Which do you prefer?
Here’s a brilliant clip from the movie… Take care and have fun 🙂
Into Film is a brilliant organisation promoting film for Primary and Secondary age school kids in the UK, and they have sent out some downloadable cinema and film-based activities for kids stuck at home. (And there are a lot of you!)
A lot of them sound really fun and interesting (the ideal combo!) and are very doable at home 🙂
I’ll post more links to cool at-home arts stuff as I get the info.
In the meantime, and on a film theme, take a look at this: “Steamboat Willie”, the First Mickey Mouse animation from 1928. It’s a bit crude in places but hilarious (specially if you’re five or six years old, as I have found when I showed it in a primary school!)
I’ll be posting info about how to make your own animations at home next week – animation has got a lot easier to do since 1928!
This latest downloadable make is now up on my DIY page
It’s a simple creative make for kids 7 and up, using basic, inexpensive materials. Click to go to the DIY page and click on the Rocket Comic Book heading to download.
This fun make can be used to explore Science and Outer Space themes with children. Here’s a link to the NASA website to get you going!
I ran this workshop last year at a library. Here are some pics from the day – more inspiration! 🙂
