Holiday Plans?

What will your Family do these School Holidays?

Here are some fun ideas for active adventures and creative indoor activities to help to entertain your children over the next two weeks.

Science & Space Exploration

Visit Scienceworks in Spotswood for hands-on exhibits and Planetarium shows, or check out the massive dinosaur fossils and the Children's Gallery at the Melbourne Museum in Carlton. 

Immersive Art & Tech

Step into the futuristic, high-tech worlds at Dreamskape or Imaginator in Docklands. 

Wildlife Encounters

Take a trip to the Melbourne Zoo in Parkville to explore, or head out to the Healesville Sanctuary to get up close to native Australian wildlife. 

Explore the world of film, video and digital media

There are holiday workshops and programs offered at NGV and ACMI, where kids can see what happens behind the cameras, add wacky sounds to movies and even make their own photographic flip book. 

Lightscape 

This is an installation of colour and light that illuminates the Royal Botanic Gardens after dark and kids will love wandering the sparkling trails. 

Some Free Ideas

Creative Library Workshops

Check local libraries (the Hawthorn or Camberwell libraries have programs) for free Makerspace sessions, coding workshops, and holiday craft programs. 

Darebin Libraries run dedicated council-funded school holiday programs across their branches: 

• Ice Cream in a Bag: A fun, hands-on food science workshop hosted at the Preston Library.
• Clay Creations: An interactive crafting workshop where primary schoolers learn simple sculpting techniques.
• Decoupage Glowing Glass @ Keon Park Children's Hub: Children explore decoupage by decorating glass jars with patterned napkins, transforming them into glowing lanterns using LED tea lights. 

The holidays are also for:

• Relaxing
• Being in the great outdoors
• Having a pyjama day
• Riding your bike
• Learning to knit
• Making a cardboard cubby house: Transform large appliance boxes into castles, spaceships, or theatres.
• Rock painting: Collect smooth pebbles from outdoors and paint them to make custom pet rocks.
• Making comic books: Fold plain paper together so children can write and draw their own graphic stories.
• Putting on a sock puppet play: Use old, mismatched socks and markers to design characters for a living room puppet show.
• Doing the egg-drop challenge: Build a protective structure out of recycled materials to save a raw egg from a high drop (this is an outside activity!)
• Making kitchen volcanoes: Combine baking soda, vinegar, and food colouring inside a small container to trigger a safe eruption.
• Making homemade slime: Mix cornflour and water together to create an interesting non-Newtonian fluid known as Oobleck.
• Do an alphabet hunt: Search the entire house to find objects that start with every letter from A to Z.
• Make a Lego city building: Challenge children to design their dream miniature city grid using building blocks they already own.
• You could make an indoor obstacle course: Arrange pillows, chairs, and cardboard boxes to create a safe running and jumping track.
• Have fun in a living room disco: Turn up the music for a high-energy dance routine or a game of freeze dance.
• Play a game of feelings charades: Act out different emotions like excitement, shyness, or frustration for family members to guess.
• Enjoy some backyard star gazing: Lay blankets out on the grass during a clear night to spot constellations.
• Make some chalk murals: Use outdoor footpath chalk to sketch oversized murals or standard hopscotch grids in your driveway.

Whatever you do, have a safe and enjoyable holiday. 

We look forward to seeing well rested children ready to learn on their return.

Grace Clark and Cathy Turner

Wellbeing Leading Teachers