What's On This Easter For Families Staying Home!

Okay, so the UK is under lockdown. Lots of people have spent months preparing to keep you busy this Easter, and they will need to hold on to some of their plans for a while until it's safe for everyone. That doesn't mean they won't still be entertaining you though - loads of artists and others have temporarily moved online, so here are some of the people you can still be entertained by....

Z-Arts might not be open to the public, but the creative teams behind their fantastic arts projects are busy behind the scenes putting together loads of things you can do at home.

LEGOLAND Discovery Centre are doing 'Build At Home' Sessions with Masterbuilder James over on Facebook. The first was at 3pm on Friday 27th March and you're invited to give it a go too.
If you have the same bricks as James you can follow his build, or work with whatever you have to create your own awesome version. Each video will be posted on LEGOLAND Discovery Centre Manchester's Facebook page. If you can't make it at 3pm don't worry - it will stay posted for you to access whenever you like!

HOME Manchester have the Manchester Open Exhibition online, and are creating a series of works "Artists In Isolation".

The Science Museum Group have put together an awesome site where you can view lots of the exhibits from National Collections Centre, National Railway Museum, National Science & Media Museum, Science & Industry Museum and the Science Museum.

Afflecks Palace traders aren't all taking time away, many have online shops and you can still browse your oddities and eccentricities from the comfort of your own home. Not only that, but they've put together an Afflecks Spotify playlist so you can recreate the ambience at home.

ComedySportz are moving their live improvised comedy shows online - check the ComedySportz Facebook page for details.

Manchester Museum has lots of different galleries and exhibitions available to view online.

Greater Manchester Police Museum also has collections online

Wind In The Willows - Theatre for free from Theatres Online at the London Palladium.

Chester Zoo have absolutely loads of information online, including a virtual tour and educational resources, plus stories about the animals who live there.

Liverpool Museum hosts lots of their collections online.

National Theatre of Scotland are creating a series of works Scenes For Survival.

Listen to the Glasgow Gruffalo with Elaine C Smith.

The Imperial War Museum have loads to look at online, including collections and the stories behind the pieces.

The National Football Museum have collections online and are currently thinking up inventive ways to let you get your football fix online.

Kids In Museums have put together a list of 10 different activities you can enjoy at home online.

Tracy Beaker is back with brand new stories in The Tracy Beaker Podcast, made by BBC Children’s In House Productions, and based on the books by children’s author Dame Jacqueline Wilson.
Each episode follows the adventures of Tracy and her friends – as well as the occasional enemy along the way. Having grown up in care, Tracy hates soppy fairy stories but secretly longs for her own happily ever after. Through the trials and tribulations, will Tracy find a foster family of her own?
Five episodes landed on BBC Sounds Saturday 11 April with more to come in future weeks.

BBC Sound and Bigmouth Audio have a 'Once Upon a Time in Zombieville' podcast which is brilliant for visually impaired and sighted children to enjoy together. An immersive comedy-horror audio cartoon suitable for children 7-12 and their families. Season 1 and 3 are available free of charge from BBC Sounds and Apple Podcasts.

Children's publisher Puffin have an 80th birthday this year and have thrown themselves into being there for kids and parents during the school closures: 

Puffin Storytime:  on Puffin’s YouTube, Instagram and Facebook channels search #PuffinStorytime
Mondays & Fridays, 3.30pm - Storytime & Draw-alongs for little ones 0-5.
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 3.30pm - Sam Copeland will serialise, in 20-minute episodes, his hilarious book Charlie Changes into a Chicken for readers 7+
Wednesdays, 3.30pm - Story Starters for ages 6-11. Puffin authors will read extracts from their books to help inspire children to discover their next read.
The Puffin Podcast: A new 3-part Puffin Podcast series will launch on Sunday 19th April (via Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Acast and YouTube Kids), where comedian, children’s author and YouTube personality Humza Arshad hosts laugh-out-loud stories, games and jokes guaranteed to give you the giggles! The podcast will be available at www.puffin.co.uk/podcast 

The Big Dreams on Screen: children have until 2nd August to send in their big dreams for a chance to have them turned into a film and premiered at their local cinema later in the year as part of the Into Film Festival
The Puffin Festival of Big Dreams: An online seven-day Puffin Festival of Big Dreams in May. Writing workshops, drawing masterclasses and storytime sessions and a weekend of live events. Share your own big dreams during the festival using the hashtag #PuffinDreamer

Working with the BBC: Puffin have also signed up to offer content and activities for both a BBC Bitesize Daily broadcast and BBC Bitesize Online.
Puffin Schools: To support teachers, parents and caregivers now tackling home-learning, the Puffin Schools website has bite size activities and new categories such as Writing Prompts, Activity Ideas and Picture Book Packs
Partnership with TWINKL: Puffin are providing resources from their authors and illustrators to Twinkl’s home learning hub, which offers daily educational activities and a range of free materials to use at home
Teach Primary’s ‘Author in Your Classroom Podcast’: series to inspire the next generation.
 YA Book Club: Launching soon on teen and YA channel: Penguin Platform on YouTube, Instagram and Twitter.

The BBC are proving they're well worth the license fee. They have scheduled a full 14 weeks of educational programmes and lessons for children of all ages, and there's some really excellent stuff lined up. The schedule will start April 20th, after the 'Easter holidays'. You can find out more on the BBC Bitesize website.

Omnibus Theatre, Clapham are going online, and you can access a DEM TIMES live performance digitally. A young adult comedy-drama following the re-education of British-born troublemaker, Samuel Adjei, in a Ghanaian boarding school.

Andrew Lloyd Webber is streaming loads of his musicals free of charge on You Tube. You can find an updated list of free online musicals, opera and other performances here.

Game makers Asmodee have published several of their most popular games as 'print and play' versions. They are FREE and include Dobble, Cortex, Classic Timeline, Dixit and others. It's a fantastic opportunity to have a try of some of our favourite Asmodee Games... You can find the Asmodee Print And Play Family Games here.. 

I'll add to this when I see anything appropriate - please feel free to email if you also have moved online while people can't visit!