Half term activities to keep your children busy

With schools in the West Midlands breaking up for half term, local organisations and councils have scheduled plenty of events and activities to ensure children are entertained throughout the week.

As well as trips to popular venues like Alton Towers, families also have a choice of a wide range of educational days out.

Below we have listed a handful of the activities that have been scheduled to take place over the next week.

Animal lovers can head to Forge Mill Farm in West Bromwich for lambing week, where they can explore the barns and and meet some of the new born lambs and kids.

A forest school is also being held at the Castle Bromwich Historic Gardens where both children and their parents can explore nature.

For those more artistically minded, there are free family and community crafts sessions being held at the Roundhouse Birmingham across the week.

The Birmingham Botanical Gardens is also hosting a Gardens Art Club, during which they will be exploring the beauty of winter flowers.

More activities and events are listed on the Visit Birmingham website.

Coventry Transport Museum has encouraged families to explore its "open-ended play environment" for children who love everything transport.

The Blitz Museum is also reopening for half term, giving youngsters and adults an opportunity to explore what life was like for people living through the Coventry Blitz in 1940.

Meanwhile, Kenilworth Castle will be putting on its half-term history makers event, with bZents Theatre Company presenting Tales of Robin Hood.

Stratford Butterfly Farm will also have their leafcutter ants, which arrived at the farm in August, on display throughout the week.

Herefordshire Council has outlined a number of activities for families taking place at the Black and White House Museum in Hereford.

These include the Hoard at the House Trail, where visitors can uncover hidden treasures of the county's past, and a Bank Heist Trail.

Replicas from the Herefordshire Hoard will also be viewable as part of a display encouraging people to learn the history behind the items and their discovery.

And exclusive tours will see the museum's curators talking people through the historical significance of the hoard.

Attwell Farm Park in Redditch will be offering families a chance to meet its new arrivals while children can take advantage of the sand play area.

The Living History Festival will also be taking place at the Commandery in Worcester on 22 and 23 February, with the chance to watch military displays and re-enactors throughout the museum and gardens.

West Midlands Safari Park in Bewdley is hosting its character week with children able to meet their favourite TV characters, including Bluey and Peppa Pig.

There are activities planned over half-term in connection with the Darwin Shrewsbury Festival, celebrating the birth of the town's most famous son Charles Darwin.

A Lego workshop, fossils and educational talks, will be held at various venues around the town.

Families taking part in Shrewsbury Parkrun will also be asked to get into the spirit by wearing Darwin-inspired outfits.

The activities suggested by Staffordshire County Council include the Pirate Takeover at Alton Towers Resort throughout the week.

The authority also recommended searching for fairies in the vast gardens of the Trentham Estate as well as visiting the Trentham Monkey Forest next door.

Visitors can also get up close with the farmyard animals and let off some steam in the play areas at Lower Drayton Farm, near Penkridge.

Meanwhile, families can explore the beautiful woodland in Cannock Chase Forest as well as tackle the pedal and play beginners mountain bike trail.

Other activities include making a splash on the flumes at Waterworld in Hanley, hitting the slopes of the Snowdome in Tamworth and getting your hands dirty at the National Forest Adventure Farm in Burton.

Wolverhampton Art Gallery has a number of family-friendly events taking place throughout the week.

These include the opportunity for visitors to create their own AI-generated portrait of a fisherman on Wednesday in the style of Sam Wootton's Men Holding Fish series.

Adults and children can also drop into the gallery on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday to help the team create an animated film about "greening the city".

Metallic wing-making will be held on Thursday too, with budding artists able to learn embossed foil art techniques to make their own majestic, wearable wings.

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