Happy New Year from the Learning Team

Happy new year from the Learning team at CTM!

Thank you to all of you who came to visit us on our Christmas activity weekends in December - you made some gorgeous unique Christmas cards and unusual gifts!

Naomi and I are the biggest Christmas fans ever and always feel a little bit sad when the decorations come down and go back into the loft for another year, so it’s a good job we’ve got loads of exciting things planned for 2012 to keep us smiling.

Our work with schools

We are currently working with lots of local schools getting good advice from both teachers and pupils, to help us create brand new school sessions that are completely different from anything the Museum has done before, including sessions for secondary school and college students. Keep an eye out for more information on these soon.

Family Activities

We will continue to hold regular family activity weekends throughout the year, and to make them easy to remember they will take place on the last weekend of the month. The first one will be on 28^th & 29^th January, activities will be themed to our ‘Wheels and Waves’ exhibition of surf vehicles, so come in out of the cold and look forward to the summer while designing your own seaside windmill. (10am – 12noon & 1pm – 4pm Saturday and Sunday)

Who’s counting the weeks until the February half term holiday already?... Well, we are already busy planning lots of interesting events and activities to keep you and your family entertained during all of the Coventry school holidays this year too.

But the most important of our learning team resolutions this year is that we want to make Coventry Transport Museum even more family friendly, so look out for more things you can actually do, things you can touch, things you can try on and things you can play with in the galleries because later in the year we will be asking for families to come in and tell us what you think!

See you soon, Krissy

Facilitator Blog - 2011 so far...

It’s been a busy and exciting start to the new year and we’re really pleased with how our themed family learning weekends have been going. Our ‘Through the Decades’ weekends started in January with a closer look at the Victorians, and last week we had our Edwardian weekend. It’s been really lovely to see families having a go at the timeline quiz and drawing trails, and really working together to find the answers. People have had lots of fun trying on bonnets and top hats, while finding out more about how people lived in times gone past. We’re really looking forward to our next Through the Decades weekend in March where we’ll be revisiting the Roaring Twenties – it has been great fun for us finding out all about flapper fashion and this age of decadence. We’ll be dancing the Charleston and learning how to make our very own ‘Mocktails’ (child-friendly, alcohol free cocktails!)



January also saw our Storytelling Weekend as part of National Storytelling week. We were very lucky to have Lady Godiva, aka Pru Poretta, come in again this year to hold some very special storytelling sessions for our younger visitors. This year she also brought Kushumika with her and together they told wonderful stories and had their audiences entranced. All the children really enjoyed this, and I have to say I loved it too - I could have listened all day! Downstairs in the Museum, children created their own stories and turned them into small books or comic strips to take home with them. Thanks to everyone who came and had a go. As well as our 1920s weekend to look forward to we’ve also got our Land Speed Record Weekend in a couple of weeks (19th-20th February) where we’ll be making and racing balloon powered cars, and our Women’s History Weekend at the beginning of March (5th-6th) to coincide with International Women’s day and the Coventry Women’s Festival. We’ll be discovering all about the vital roles women played during the Second World War and there will be a Women’s History Trail that visitors can follow around the museum.

Phew! With all this going on I guess I’d better go and do some work! Hope we see some of you at our weekends very soon! Naomi

CTM Events Calendar 2010

Let's Do It! - Summer activities at the Museum

The summer holidays are pretty much upon us now and we are putting the very final touches to our hectic programme of events called 'Let’s Do It!'. It's a real crafts extravaganza and will be taking place at the Museum from 20th July to 28th August.

There's a different theme each week where young and old alike can try out model making, painting, designing, thread work, drawing and making a fabulous array of items including tea light holders, helicopters and photo frames.

Museum staff will also be on hand to help visitors explore the Museum and Coventry’s past including fascinating stories about the pioneers of Coventry’s motoring heritage and there's also the chance to get to grips with some of the Museum’s artefacts.

We're also hosting very special circus workshops for kids to learn how to spin plates, juggle and much, much more. Circus workshops take place every Wednesday morning.

Finally (I did say it was hectic!) our special quizzes are also available Monday to Friday.

The Museum itself is guaranteed to keep everyone entertained and what’s more, it’s absolutely free to get in!

Let’s Do It starts on 20th July and activities take place every Monday to Friday until 28th August; there’s no need to book in advance. For further information on all the events taking place at the Museum over the school holidays, visit the Museum website: www.transport-museum.com