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Arts for Kids – SYDNEY!

Posted on February 15, 2024February 15, 2024 by Cristin
Arts Activities for Kids - Sydney

Find arts activities for kids in Sydney in the Artsplorers Calendar of Events

Look for the Sydney school holidays guides ahead of each NSW term break.

Posted in What's On Sydney Arts for Kids

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What is the NSW Active & Creative Kids Voucher? (Updated 2024)
Sydney Family Arts – Autumn 2024 School Holidays

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I’m Cristin-my kids and I are exploring Sydney & beyond through the arts. 🎭💃🏻🎨🎵📚On Cammeraygal land
Artsplorers.au(at)gmail.com
A perfect book for the first day of Spring - BETSY A perfect book for the first day of Spring - BETSY & BON by Simon Howe @simonhoweart 🐝 This gorgeous story book hums with nature, wonder and play. Betsy and Bon are bees. (They are also little girls, but what’s really important is that they are a couple of sweet bees.) In three gentle stories, they explore and play with their other garden friends. Betsy and Bon took me right back to a time when one of my girls was about 4 and each day she wanted to be a different animal. “What animal are you today?,” I would always ask. And, for the day, she WAS a dog or a possum or a bird - fully immersed in a whole world of play. I loved that era. The illustrations are so special - the colours are calming, with the occasional bright pop directing our eye to flowers or mushrooms or other wonderful things. Everything about this book design makes it perfect for gifting - the petite size, the floral framing on the cover, the lovely thick paper, even a ribbon bookmark! I’d give this one for a new baby or special birthday. *Thank you to @uqpbooks for our copy of Betsy & Bon *
Three recent fantastic First Nations picture books Three recent fantastic First Nations picture books for this Book Week. 🩷COME HOME, BIGIBILA by Corey Tutt @corey_tutt1 and Irma Gold @irma.gold , illustrated by Jessica Tedim @jrt.creative is hte story of a little echidna (Bigibila) pup who gets put in captivity after being rescued from a hawk. It just doesn’t feel right away from its Country and in an unnatural environment. Bigibila, we learn, are great escape artists and the call of Country is too strong for it to stay behind walls. *Thank you @allenandunwin for our copy of Come Come, Bigibila* 🐸GREEDY FROG by Gregg Driese @greggdreise is based on a Dreamtime story about Tjidalih Frog - a fascinating frog who hide under dried up creek beds and soak in water through their pores. This frog took all the water for itself, using a bit of magic he’d been given, keeping it in its pouch. The other animals needed the water from the billabong, as well, so as he gets bigger and bigger as they all try to make him laugh to release all that water. In the end, his greed does not pay off! ☀️BELONGING by Ambelin Kwaymullina is a bright and highly graphic book that gently introduces the basic ideas of Country contrasted with the past concept of “terra nullius,” illustrating how flawed the colonising policy was. When you see just how vivid and alive the art on every page is, it exemplifies how rich the stories and culture of First Nations communities is. *Thank you to @magabalabooks for our copies of Greedy Frog and Belonging * These are all very different books, all shared with a generous spirit to let all Australians share in the creativity, knowledge and culture of a diversity of First Nations experiences. Each one has additional information in the back pages to help us grow our understanding, perspective and vocabulary. From learning why we should never move a healthy echidna from the wild to learning about a creature that we would never see if it weren’t for generations of knowledge to a work of art with a message, each one of these books is a gift of shared information and art. 🎶Aussie kids music pairing these books with “Winhangagigilanha” by @auntysharronmiriibell 🎶
Coming back to my book reviews with one that I thi Coming back to my book reviews with one that I think Dolly would love because it’s all about finding your inner creativity - and it’s funny. 🖍️DEAR HUMANS, WE STOLE YOUR CRAYONS 🖍️ is the latest bright and wonderfully unexpected picture book by Anna McGregor @annamcgregorau Two aliens land in classroom and, while the class is at lunch, they explore for an interesting artifact to bring back. There, they discover a crayon and realise that it can take the thoughts into their heads in put it on paper. Meep asks Zimothy (yes, those are their names 😅 ) how it works with no buttons. He says, “All I did was have the image in my head while dragging the crayon around. Then, bit by bit, it appeared!” They are amazed at the brilliance of this technology. We even get a sneaky bit of math snuck in there. The neon orange in crayon lines is the standout colour on both the white and blue backgrounds - your eye fully drawn to the clever creations. 🧡 If you love a neat folded page, there’s a fun one for a little extra surprise at the end. I love the thought of kids having these alien in their heads the next time they get our their crayons and truly marvelling at just how good it is to have a brand new idea and then put it down on paper. *Thank you @@scribblekidsbooks for our copy of Dear Humans, We Stole Your Crayons * 🎶Sound on - I’m Aussie children’s music pairing this book with “Any Colour That You Choose” by @_emily_who 🎶
🦋🦋Thank you to the fates that let me grow up and k 🦋🦋Thank you to the fates that let me grow up and keep on growing in a world with Dolly Parton to show us how it should be done. 🦋🦋
Confessions of a book lady... the books are winnin Confessions of a book lady... the books are winning! 📚Yes, my stack of books to brag on is crying for the attention it so deserves, and so my commitment to it and to you is to dedicate myself to the very good fight that is Book Week. I’ll be sharing at least one great new Aussie book each day this week. First up is this absolute gem of a middle grades story that Miss 9 and I read together at bedtime - JOEY AND THE JUNARDY by @allisonroccawrites . Joey is used to moving schools, but this time his family has settled in Coolibah Creek where they can reconnect to their family and Wakka Wakka Country. Joey’s way of fitting in is to be a certified jokester. He does like a good prank, but it’s also a way of keeping the more authentic things about himself under wraps, especially his talent for art. Before long, however, some of the “funny” stuff that begins happening isn’t of his making and seems to be getting out of control. Joey soon realises that he is being shadowed by a Junjardy, a trickster from the Wakka Wakka tradition who especially visits young people. Joey is torn in several directions - trying to keep the Junjardy under control while dealing with a class bully, trying to keep his one new friend, and dealing with his sister who has turned against him. Joey is a really likeable kid who has some struggles that may feel familiar to middle grade aged readers - fitting in vs being authentic; finding the balance between silliness and ruining the fun for everyone; taking the first steps up into a bit more mature responsibility. And the Junjardy is definitely going to give him a push on all of those fronts! My Miss 9 sometimes tells me she doesn’t like a story if she finds it too predictable or, as she says, “they just do the same thing as every other story.” Half walk through Joey and the Junjardy, I looked at her and said, “you definitely can’t say this one is just like every story!” We loved not knowing where it would twist and turn or just how far the Junjardy would go. *Thank you to @uqpbooks for our copy of Joey and the Junjardy *
I’ve been a fan of the brilliant Kate Foster @kfos I’ve been a fan of the brilliant Kate Foster @kfosterauthor for a number of years now. Her latest book, A RIVER I MUST BE is something extra special. A verse novel about Bec, a Year 7 student starting at an elite private school, this story is about what happens to her sense of self-worth and happiness when she finds that the school seems to view her autism as an annoyance and makes no effort at any accommodations that would help her thrive. We are invited so intimately into Bec’s world where she has gone from happy, sporty primary student to confused, overwhelmed, outcast high schooler. Bring some tissues to reading this one because it’s a emotional ride. One thing that my artsplorer heart loved about this story is that dance plays an important part as a universal language that speaks more powerfully than words. I fell so deeply for this book, I was almost afraid to hand it over to my Miss 13 in case she didn’t love it as much as I did. But, the day after I put it into her hands, she said to me, “that book was so beautiful.” I was so delighted to be able to bring her along to hear Kate Foster talk about some of the big and important conversations this book invites. We could have stayed in that cosy conversation circle at Gleebooks all afternoon. @gleebooks_kids I want to recommend this book so widely - to readers for whom neurodiverse “mirrors” are important, to those who can learn from the “window” into another type of mind, to teachers and anyone who works with young people who may not even realise how they might be impacting students, for Year 6 or 7 class reads, to reluctant readers for whom verse novels are an invitation into books that don’t overwhelm on the page ... but honestly, just so widely to any reader who appreciates an honest, beautiful, heartfelt story. *Thank you to Haper Collins @harperkidsau for our copy of A River I Must Be*
I had a stellar time today taking Miss 9 and a cou I had a stellar time today taking Miss 9 and a couple of her friends to the Willoughby Literary Festival. We started at an epic and great spirited Illustrator Battle with @serenageddes_creative and @ramonaofjersey (referee extraordinaire @miscelleni ). They had some pretty wild prompts to work with! And Miss 9 even got to challenge Mo to a kid vs illustrator round. Heaps of fun. In the afternoon, the girls hung on @jacquelineharve ‘s every word - theres a reason she’s such a beloved storyteller. Miss 9 is currently in the middle of the first book in The Girl and the Ghost series and loving it, so she loved hearing all sorts of background info. This is the second year for the Willoughby Literary Festival and it’s been a great event (I went to a grown up session yesterday too). Run like a bunch of pros. Thanks team @willoughbycitylibrary ! @willoughbycity
SPACE PLAY at Carriageworks @carriageworks 🌟🪐🚀 Mi SPACE PLAY at Carriageworks @carriageworks 🌟🪐🚀 Miss 9 and I took a little adventure to Carriageworks to check out the interactive Space Play space. On weekdays, this is a free/drop-in activity. It’s $5 ticketed on weekends. Running on a 45 minute loop, the experience begins with a short animated film about how our young explorer girl made it to space. Then, we travel to space for a series of beautifully crafted locations, all with interactive elements projected on 3 walls. Miss 9 loved it all. There are also free colouring tables in the lobby if, like mine, your kid wants to extend the creative fun. 🖍️ Space Play is on through 25 July (closed Mondays and Tuesdays) . Full schedule of times on the Carriageworks website. @stalker_and_boxofbirds
In a week where the news of gendered violence in A In a week where the news of gendered violence in Australia has been overwhelming, I wanted to put this book into the hands of young people all over the country. HELL’S BELLS by Jared Thomas @jaredthomas6 is the third book in the Uncle XBox series and - let me start by saying - this middle grades book is not *at all* about violence. Quite the opposite. 12 year old Dusty is a great kid. He lives with his mum, baby sister and Uncle (Uncle XBox). He’s found his niche in soccer and also loves surfing, but is dealing with a loss of confidence after a bad wipe out. Surfing with Uncle XBox, his girlfriend Lil and her teenage son Taj helps Dusty to slowly regain his confidence, learning new skills and eventually landing him a spot in the Indigenous Surfing Title. This book struck me as an antidote to the attitudes that breed violence in men because we get to know Dusty as a boy who is allowed to feel his fears and uncertainties. He’s supported by positive male figures in his life - while his own father is absent, Uncle XBox and his elderly neighbor are steadfast people who he looks to for advice and role modeling. A proud Nukunu boy, Dusty finds inner pride and self-confidence from his culture and community. There are also such positive attitudes towards the girls and women he surfs with. None of this is presented in a didactic, message-y way. Another brilliant thing about this series is how clear and straightforward the writing is. Thomas strikes a rare balance of packing a lot of story and feeling into simple sentences and short chapters. These books are perfect for kids who may find chapter books intimidating or don’t really connect with very figurative language. While I don’t really believe in the idea of “boys” books, I know tween and teen boys can be a particularly tough demographic for reading, and this series is one that I think will reach some of those reluctant readers. And, for its exceptionally realistic and positive pictures of boyhood, I’d recommend them to any young reader from middle primary through high school. *Thank you to @magabalabooks for our copy of Hell’s Bells *
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