5 Fun Activities to Spark Creativity This Bonfire Night

Autumn is a fantastic season for celebrations and festivities. We know that many primary schools will be linking the work they do in the classroom to events such as Harvest Festival, Diwali or Bonfire Night, so we thought we would pull together five fun activities for the 5^th November!

1. Try Your Hands At Wax Painting.

One of our favourite Bonfire Night activities from childhood is firework wax painting. To create these impactful firework paintings, children cover an A4 sheet of paper with lots of different coloured wax crayons. Encourage them to be as creative and colourful as possible! When this is done, paint over the crayons with black acrylic paint and leave this to dry (always the hardest part but now the fun can really start!). Using lolly sticks or cocktail sticks, have young people carefully carve out bits of their black paint in the shape of fireworks. They can be Catherine wheels or big exploding shapes – creativity and experimentation are key here so let the children explore however they wish.

Hopefully, you will end up with something like this:

Not only is this an incredibly fun activity, the different stages involved in creating the final piece lend themselves to excellent evidence of process for Explore Part C! Make sure you take lots of photos of kids creating their firework wax painting as well of them with their final pieces.

2. Get Lit.

Firework night acrostics are an oldie but a goodie! Many people don’t realise that literature and literacy can tie into Arts Award but they do and this is a great opportunity to combine them. Start with the word Rocket, Firework or Bonfire on a sheet of paper and see what poems the children come up with. You may want to differentiate between the poems children create depending on their abilities. This is a good opportunity to encourage them to use particular words or phrases you have been teaching recently.

3. Create A Bonfire Collage.

Source

Creating a bonfire collage is another easy but fun way to get creative for Bonfire Night. Go outside to gather small twigs to stick on the bottom of the bonfire and use this opportunity to discuss mini-beats about at this time of year or collect leaves for another collage. Back in the classroom, children can construct their bonfire out of twigs and tissue paper. Encourage them to make it as big and crackly as possible! You could always use this activity as a lead in to doing an acrostic on bonfires, using their collage as inspiration.

4. Host A Bonfire Bake-Off.

Decorate bonfire night cupcakes or cookies. Cake decorating is always a favourite arts activity here at the Arts Award towers! We advise that baking a cake and following a recipe is not a suitable activity for Arts Award, however decorating can be. Ensure that children focus on the art they are creating on the cake and the creative impact of this. See if the kids can ice fireworks or maybe even a hedgehog onto their cupcakes! You could then have a bonfire night picnic and invite parents in to look at all the creative activities the children have been taking part in over a piece of cake.

5. Make a rocket

This is a brilliant Blue Peter challenge. Using an old toilet roll, children can create their very own rocket, complete with a trailing tail. Paint the toilet roll tube bright colours, and create a cone head for the rocket. This can be a great link into shapes you might be studying in maths, as well as a fun crafting activity which can contribute towards Discover Part A or Explore Part A or C.

We hope that these ideas are a good starting point to demonstrate how so many activities can link to an Arts Award and get your creative juices flowing this Bonfire Night.