8 festive themed activities for doing Discover

It’s the most wonderful time of the year for getting creative! With carol concerts, festive lights and decorations among us, there’s certainly lots of inspiration during the holiday season. Why not bring this festivity home and incorporate it into doing Arts Award Discover? You can also encourage families in your network to try it with these eight themed activities…

There are so many different festive decorations young people can create as part of their Discover! From snow globes created with old jam jars, to paper snowflakes, handmade tree ornaments and felt bunting, there’s something for everyone! Why not go on a scavenger hunt in the park and collect some natural materials such as pinecones and leaves to add to your decorations? Children could even make a collage of their favourite festive character to put up at home. This could be a musician in a Christmas song they hear, or an actor from their favourite festive film, and their findings can be used as evidence for Part B!

2. Design themed costumes

Dressing up is so much fun during the festive season, so why not encourage your children to design themed costumes? Depending on how you celebrate, this could be anything from traditional figures and animals to your children’s favourite festive cartoon characters! Why not make use of different materials around the home, such as cotton wool, cardboard, paper and ribbons? You can even experiment with face paint and glitter for your festive masterpiece!

3. Festive sing song!

Why not encourage young ones to sing a festive song, or create their own song for their Arts Award Discover? You can get ideas from the television, radio and online, and also discuss festive music they may have come across at school. You could even introduce them to instruments that could be used to accompany their song and get the children to draw them in their arts log. Once ready, why not perform and record the performance, which can be used as part of their evidence for Part C!

4. Handmade cards and wrapping paper

This could be a great way to engage your young ones with the creative arts, whilst producing something meaningful to give to a loved one. You can even make your wrapping paper eco-friendly by using recycled brown paper or old newspapers!

5. Take your best festive photo!

Snap! Taking a festive photo is a fun way to engage young ones with photography for their Arts Award Discover. They can stage their perfect shot for Part A, and find out more about a specific photographer and ways of taking photos for Part B. They can use whatever device they can get hold of to take the photo; from their parent’s phone, to a disposable camera or DSLR… why not get the family to pose and create a family portrait?!

6. Design gingerbread cookies 😊

Although baking is not a suitable activity for Arts Award, decorating definitely is, so designing gingerbread cookies is the perfect solution! Decorate with icing, sweets and sprinkles to make unique designs. If you’re feeling ambitious, you may even want to attempt a gingerbread house, wow!

7. Watch the panto!

Oh no it isn’t – wait, oh yes it is a great arts activity for Discover! Why not head to the panto with your child and get them to write down their reactions? You could even get them to dress up and act out their favourite scene for their Part A!

8. If you’re lucky… create a snowman!

I can’t guarantee you’ll be able to do this activity (fingers crossed we have a white Christmas!), but you could always create a snowman indoors using papier-mâché, glue and old newspaper. Whether indoors or outdoors, you could use this activity to introduce your young one to multiple forms of art, including design, crafts and sculpture!

Check out more about Arts Award Discover here