Stay and Play

Talent show

Britain’s Got Talent is back on our screens and now is the perfect opportunity for your child or children to show off their talents. They can spend the day planning, rehearsing, making costumes, and makeup to get ready for their special live performance for you in the evening. Even if your child thinks they can’t sing or play an instrument, from storytelling to dance, there are so many different ways they can perform and boost their confidence.

Here is a list of ideas to get you started. Don’t forget to make sure they have set the stage and practice their talents before they perform. They don’t only have to use one talent, they could do a whole show and you could vote on which one is the best.

• Tell jokes
• Play an instrument
• Sing a song
• Perform a magic trick
• Circus skills
• Create a piece of art or origami
• Write or recite a poem
• Skipping
• Skateboarding tricks
• Martial art move
• Yo-yo / Rubik’s cube skills

Make your own instrument

To help them in their talent show why don’t they make their own instrument? There are so many they can make easily from bits and pieces around the house. Here are some ideas:

1. Microphone
   Materials: empty toilet roll, aluminium foil – optional decorating materials
   Instructions: Decorate your toilet roll as you wish – use paint or pens to colour it; stickers and glitter are also fun to use. Roll a piece of aluminium foil into a ball and place it in one end of your decorated loo roll

2. Drums
   Materials: empty tin can (no sharp edges), a balloon, a rubber band and scissors
   Instructions: Make sure your empty tin can has no sharp edges and is clean and dry. Cut your balloon and stretch it over the top of the can as tightly as possible. Hold in place with a rubber band or tape it down. Find two sticks such as pencils or chopsticks and play your drum. Decorate it as you wish.

3. Guitar
   Materials: shoebox or similar piece of cardboard, rubber bands or string, long cardboard tube such as a kitchen roll tube, decorations
   Instructions:

• Cut a hole in the lid of a shoebox similar to the sound hole in a guitar
• Place the lid on the shoebox and tape it down
• Stretch four to six elastic bands longways around the box so that they stretch across the hole
• Attach a long cardboard tube to one end
• Decorate your guitar with paint, pens and stickers if you want
• Try using different thickness or sizes of elastic bands to see what difference it makes to the sound. If you don’t have rubber bands, you could use string.

4. Shaker using different ingredients
   Materials: an empty bottle or jar with a lid, any ingredients that make a noise when shaken
   Instructions: put a small amount of your chosen ingredients into your shaker and get shaking. There are all sorts of sounds that can be made. Here are some suggestions:

• Popcorn kernels
• Marbles
• Beads
• Coins
• Rice (dry)
• Dried beans or seeds
• Salt (Kosher, fine, or rock)

Soundscape

This is the perfect opportunity for your young ones to make their own sounds and learn the different noises that objects make. They just need to gather bits and bobs from around the house and play around making different noises.

Afterwards they could write a song and incorporate all the different noises from the objects they have found.

Sound ideas

1. Scraping noise – sieve
2. Rattling noise – dry rice in a pot
3. Rustling noise – scrunching up paper
4. Tapping noise – wooden spoon on a plastic cup or a saucepan
5. See what noises you can make with your body – stamping feet, clapping hands, whistling