Continue your learning, we have more training for you…
I was hoping my first article would help inspire readers to do something Star Wars related with their young padawans, while we are all in lockdown. The response we received was wonderful, readers coming together to share ideas of what could be done at home. In fact, there were so many great ideas that I felt compelled to do a follow up article! Not only that, but the authors behind the Adventures in Wild Space series, Tom Huddleston and Cavan Scott on their retweets of the article, said they would be happy to answer any questions young padawans have about the books. So, if you are reading the series with your children and they want to know more, please use Twitter to ask your questions for these two!
A great list of STAR WARS inspired lockdown activities for parents and kids from @JediNewsNetwork.
Oh, and if any of your Padawans have questions related to ADVENTURES IN WILD SPACE, I’m sure myself or @cavanscott will strive to answer them! https://t.co/usDOR3UvV1
— Tom Huddleston (@TomHuddleston_) April 13, 2020
What follows are another five ideas for you to try at home, that will hopefully keep you and your padawans busy, at least for a little while. I will repeat what I said in my first article, with all of these ideas, at the core, is you, the parent. Children love spending time with their parents, doing practically anything. The silver lining in all of this is that we get to spend more time with them too, so let’s make the most of it.
The first idea comes from @ThePoweroftheD4 on Twitter, who suggests growing vegetables. At my school, I take care of the school garden with the children growing raspberries, pumpkins, marrows and rhubarb. The kids love it! Everything from weeding to watering. They know at the end of it that I’ll show them how to cook it and then we get to eat it! Every single one seems stunned when eating it, saying that it tastes nothing like it does when brought from supermarket. It links in perfectly with my first article of cooking, as you can grow the things needed first! Any vegetable will of course do, but @ThePoweroftheD4 suggests the strange and alien, things like purple potatoes, Romanesco cauliflower or heritage carrots. I will say, my pupils were perplexed seeing a huge half meter marrow growing in the garden and thought it was very alien. It’s really anything that they’re not used to seeing or eating.
Loving the ideas! If young padawans could get hold of some seeds they could plant some Star Wars vegetables like purple potatoes/ romanesco cauliflower/ heritage carrots.
— The Power of the Dark side (@ThePoweroftheD4) April 13, 2020
There are a wealth of Star Wars artists out there who create Star Wars art, why not the padawans? Children love to draw, colour and paint. It is so easy to translate this to Star Wars. It could be drawing their favourite scene, replicating a piece of art or any number of things. In school, we use different artists or styles to create our own versions. Ask your child what they’ve done and see if it can be adapted to Star Wars. With my year sixes, we have looked at World War Two and propaganda posters. I showed them my Star Wars Propaganda posters I have from one of my all-time favourite artists Cat Staggs, that were inspired by these and created their own. You can see some of Cat’s amazing work on her website.
We also look at Monet and his watercolours. Children could create their own watercolour of a scene of Naboo, maybe with Anakin and Padmé walking at the side. If your child just wanted to doodle, then there is Star Wars Doodles by Zack Giallongo, which can help inspire them. My son has this book and he spent hours doodling Star Wars! Zack also has his own website where you can see more of his work.
The next suggestion comes from our very own Kat Rees-Jauke, which is crochet. With so much time off, it’s the perfect time to learn a new skill. Lucy Collin has written several books to guide you through the process and they come with everything you need. At a very basic level, sewing is one of the basic skills taught at school. Maybe you and your padawan could create a new outfit for a Star Wars toy. Maybe they are all going to Hoth and the Ashoka action figure needs a warm coat! Or maybe you just want to create a small bag to put all the weapons and accessories that are always getting lost. You can buy Lucy’s books from many online bookstores and she also has a list of free crochet patterns on her website, so go check out what is on offer.
This next one feeds onto one from my previous article, papier mache. If you’ve taken the plunge, you already have all the gear ready, so why not go one step further. Why not create Mustafar? And when I say create it, why not a volcano to top it off and maybe even reenact the final battle from Revenge of the Sith. Some white vinegar, baking soda and food colouring will have lava pouring down your Mustafar landscape. The initially building and painting is fun just by itself, but to watch a child’s reaction as lava comes pouring out is something else entirely!
Finally, our last idea comes from author Tom Angleberger. I remember when I was in Florida a few years ago, I was in Walmart and a book called Darth Paper Strikes Back caught my eye, I had never seen it before. The writing is for under elevens (so perfect if you want to read it with your padawans!), yet the origami character on the front was what really caught my attention. Since then, Angleberger has released a whole series of books which you can enjoy. More than that though, Angleberger has a website where you can go and find instructions to make Star Wars origami. It’s a great practical activity for children to do, very rewarding and something that I don’t imagine a lot of children will have done. A huge thank you to Tom for letting us now about this free resource on his website!
Thanks for the list!
If you do another, I know a small, flat green Jedi who would love to be included. Plus I have instructions for about 30 other characters posted at https://t.co/euMYDoHlEB… pic.twitter.com/cA6I0WNVnY— Tom Angleberger (@OrigamiYoda) April 13, 2020
A huge thank you to everyone who came onto the Jedi News Network Twitter feed with their ideas and suggestions, in this time of so much negativity it is so wonderful to see some positivity and a community coming together. If you have any more ideas or, even better, some photos of what you and your padawans are getting up to, please share them with us, we would love to see them! I hope these new ideas inspire you further, and who knows, I might be providing you even more ideas very soon.
Until then, stay safe and may the force be with you…
