Week 9: Box Theatre
This week we’ve come up with a simple fun way to make your own box theatre. All you need is an old tissue box – preferably a flat rectangular one, but a small square box one could work too. Cut two or three slits along the long sides – you could do them in the short sides too. Cut an image out of a magazine or draw your own scene and push it through the hole at the front to make a backdrop. You can add more shapes to create a 3D effect for your scenery. Draw your characters or find some pictures in an old magazine and cut them out. Stick them on stiff bits of card, or a lolly stick if you have some, then push them through the slits so you can move then around your scene. Have fun creating lots of different shows with your characters and try making different scenes for different stories.
This is a lovely simple activity and you can do so many different things with the flowers once you have pressed them. You can make cards, photo frames, bookmarks, all sorts of things by placing the pressed flowers on card and covering them with clear sticky plastic or putting them in a frame. I once found a four-leaf clover pressed inside an old book. The book is over 100 years old, so it was very lucky to survive!
The easiest way to start is to choose a flower that’s naturally quite flat like a buttercup or a daisy. Pick it fresh but make sure it is dry. Place the flower between two sheets of paper or tissue, then place this between the pages of a thick heavy book – make sure you ask before using a book in case the pages go slightly wavy. Put more heavy books on top to press it flat. Change the paper every 3 or 4 days. After 2 to 3 weeks the flower should be completely dry and flat. You might want to use tweezers to lift it out of the book as it will be very delicate.
We’ve had a go at making paper airplanes and can share one tip for making them fly further – add a bit of sellotape on top to hold the wings together!
Pressing flowers has also been a lovely, relaxing activity – both in choosing and preparing the flowers for pressing, then seeing how they are drying out and deciding how to use the finished flowers.
This week we are having a go at one of the activities from the 2020 Creativity Challenge. You may have your own smartphone or see if someone in your family will help you use theirs. There are lots of ways you can edit a photo on a phone, or whichever technology you like to use. Cath, our Education Officer, had a lot of fun taking a photo of Silver, her old hobby horse. “Silver got his name because my mum made him for me in 1977, the year of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee! I had a go at trying out all the effects and decided on the Silvertone filter because it suited his name! I played with exposure, contrast and shadows to make the texture of his fur stand out and chose Vignette at the end to make it look like an old photo. What I really like about this image is that it hides all the fading and dusty marks, making Silver look as good again as he did 43 years go. I’ll certainly have a go at a bit more photo editing in future.” Don’t forget to share the photos of your favourite toys with us too!
This week, Cath, our Education Officer had a go at combining a few activities from the first column. “Trying to spot shapes in clouds (not the easiest one with the beautiful blue skies this week!) also turned in to a chance to sketch the view from a window, then later that evening I tried to turn it into a sunset painting, although it was quite a challenge to capture the delicate pinky golden haze that filled the sky.”
Resources you’ll need
Resources you’ll need
Have a go at our Easter Egg Letter Hunt – there are 9 eggs, each with a different letter on them. Cut out the letter clues and hide them in different places, or if you haven’t got a printer just cut egg shapes out of paper or card and write letters on them.
Epping Forest District Museum 