Hey! You might not know me yet, I'm Leonie the new intern at the Bishop's Palace. Organising February's half term activities was one of the big tasks on my list this year. Since 2019 marks the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, putting together a range of space themed crafts and activities for the 'Crafty Cats' was a natural decision.
In the weeks leading up to the event, my job included picking out (and of course trying to make!) appropriate crafts and setting up a planet trail in the gardens as well as stocking up on all the necessary materials. In all of this I was kindly supported by the Palace's staff and volunteers. Especially a beforehand meeting with the learning volunteers proved to be very helpful to me, since I could greatly profit from their years of experience.
In addition to the space trail that guided families around the gardens while playfully acquainting the children with the planets of our solar system, we had also prepared a crafting area in the Undercroft of our Palace. Here the children could pick from a variety of projects to make either flying rockets, constellation lanterns or alien masks. The crafts were chosen not only to cater to different age levels, but also to provide fun beyond the crafting. The rockets especially proved to be a great toy, while the lanterns made for lovely bedroom decorations. And who doesn't love to dress up as an alien every now and then.
Not least because of the brilliant weather, the event turned out to be a great success. We've had lots of families in and everybody seemed to greatly enjoy themselves. Both the volunteers and me had a very exciting day and we're very happy everyone had a good time.