Ways to Play - October Half-Term

Ways to Play – October half-term events at Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums

(All images available to download here)

This October half-term, families are invited to enjoy a great value day out across museums and galleries on Tyneside including lots of Halloween inspired activities.

Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums (TWAM) and Tyne and Wear Metro are working in partnership to offer great value days out, combining Tyne and Wear Metro’s free travel for children under 11 (with a fare paying adult) and Ways to Play, free high-quality events at well-loved family destinations across South Tyneside, North Tyneside, Newcastle and Gateshead. Find out more about the Metro offer here.

Ways to Play events are inspired by a range of ways of playing to encourage children to be active, curious and creative, for example: invent, imagine, discover, make, design, pretend, draw, decode, create, look, and build.

There is free admission for under 16s to all TWAM’s attractions including the Great North Museum: Hancock, Discovery Museum, Segedunum Roman Fort and South Shields Museum.

Highlights of the Ways to Play event programme include: creating Halloween Pots – Roman Style, making bat hats, encountering larger-than-life insects and exploring a spooky trail. Events include:

Discovery Museum

Saturday 22 October - Sunday 30 October
Explore Discovery Museum with a spooky trail (50p per trail)
In a self-led trail round the museum, visitors are encouraged to complete the spooky ghost trail  with the chance of winning a spooky prize.

 Segedunum Roman Fort

Monday 24 October, 11am–3pm
Create Halloween Pots - Roman Style
The Romans used to like to decorate some of their pottery with faces. Have a go at creating your own Halloween-inspired face pot or mask.
Adult: £5.95* | Concessions (over 60s and students): £3.95* | Child under 16 years: FREE | North Tyneside residents with an NE28 postcode: FREE (T&Cs apply) 

Discovery Museum

Tuesday 25 October, 10am–12noon and 1-3pm
Make bat hats
Discovery Museum is inviting you to bring your giggling gremlins to the ghoultastic Great Hall this October half term to get into the spooky spirit with lots of creepy crafts including making bat hats, pumpkin magnets, wooden Halloween decorations and spooky puppets.

Shipley Art Gallery

Tuesday 25 October,10.15am, 12noon, 2pm 
Create big bold flowers
Visitors to the Shipley Art Gallery this half term can explore the still life exhibition then have a go at making their own largescale floral artwork, and a 3D flower sculpture.

This big and bold workshop will involve creating layers of paper shapes and playing around with composition to create a unique floral design. Participants will create a big flower poster and 3D paper flower sculpture to take home.

£3 per participant + booking fee. Booking essential. 

South Shields Museum & Art Gallery

Tuesday 25 October,11am–1pm and 1.30-3pm
Make eco-friendly Halloween decorations
Visitors to South Shields Museum can go green this Halloween by making Halloween decorations using household items. They’ll need to bring their own junk such as glass jars, cans, egg cartons, plastic milk jugs, or old books. The museum will supply the materials to help visitors turn their recycled materials into lanterns, monsters and more.

Hatton Gallery

Wednesday 26 October,10am–12.30pm
Create a collage
Create an autumn collage using the colours and shapes of the season.

Great North Museum: Hancock

Wednesday 26 October 11am–3pm
Encounter larger-than-life insects
Meet the larger-than-life butterflies and bees who will teach you about biodiversity through spectacular performance.

Hatton Gallery

Thursday 27 October 10am–12.30pm
Make a Halloween mask
Create and decorate a magnificent mask for Halloween.

Laing Art Gallery

Until Saturday 3 December, 10am-7.30pm
The Lindisfarne Gospels
The Lindisfarne Gospels, the most spectacular manuscript to survive from Anglo-Saxon England, are on display at the Laing Art Gallery until 3 December 2022, on loan from the British Library.   

The Lindisfarne Gospels feature in a contemporary exhibition about its meaning in the world today and its relationship with themes of personal, regional and national identity.

Tickets priced from £7-14, children aged 12 and under are free. Book your tickets online

Stephenson Steam Railway

Thursday 27 October 11am–3pm
Make a Halloween Lantern
Create your very own locomotive lantern, inspired by the museum's collection of vintage locomotives. Heritage train rides will also be running.
Free activity and entry to museum. Charge for heritage train rides.

Media contact: cheryl.mccarrick@twmuseums.org.uk