What's on during the Spring School Holidays in Canberra
There is so much happening during the Spring School Holidays in Canberra. The school holidays run from Saturday 26 September to Monday 12 October. I’ve been collecting events happening over the break, including lots of free and low-cost options:
🐨 Koala Talks at Tidbinbilla
Come and meet King Arther, Lady Yellow and Dame Scully, Tidbinbilla’s resident ‘royal’ koalas. A member of Tidbinbilla’s Threatened Species Team will introduce you and tell you everything you wanted to know about this iconic and fascinating species. Details here.
CMAG: 🧱 LEGO exhibition and flower craft
The new RELICS: A New World Rises LEGO exhibition will be running at Canberra Museum and Gallery during the school holidays, with highly detailed miniature worlds created inside discarded objects.
In the Make Your Own RELIC school holiday workshop, children will create their own miniature artefact from the future. The workshop is designed for ages 5-13.
CMAG is also holding Talk with LEGO Builder: A Normal Day at Jurassic Park. Young Canberra LEGO enthusiast Eric Wanigasekara will take visitors behind the scenes of his award-winning creation, A Normal Day at Jurassic Park, and explain how the idea grew into a detailed, interactive LEGO world.
For Floriade, the Makerspace is running a free drop-in craft activity where children can use a variety of interesting upcycled materials to make their own flower.
Tidbinbilla: 🫖 Billy tea & damper, bushwalking, cubbies and waterbugs
Tidbinbilla’s school holiday activities are always popular, with many booking out quickly.
At Billy Tea & Damper, kids can mix up their own damper, cook it over an open fire and try some freshly brewed billy tea.
On the Introduction to Bushwalking for Kids, children will head out on the 3.1km Congwarra Track with a guide, learning some basic bushwalking skills along the way.
For Cubby House Rules, kids can use natural materials to build their own cubby among the gums at Tidbinbilla.
At World of Waterbugs, kids will get a close-up look at the tiny creatures living in freshwater and learn how waterbugs can tell us about the health of rivers and wetlands.
National Arboretum: 🪁 Kites, birdwatching, wildflowers and orienteering
The Arboretum’s KiteFest is back over two days this year - make and fly kites in one of Canberra’s most picturesque locations.
On the Junior Bird Watching Walk, children aged 8-12 will explore the Arboretum with a guide, learning to identify and observe native bird species.
The Wildflower Seed Sphere workshop is for children aged 5 and over. They’ll explore the native STEP garden before making their own native wildflower seed sphere.
Free family orienteering is also back at the Arboretum over the school holidays - just pick up a map at the Visitor Centre.
Dendy: 🎥 Worlds of Wonder
During the school holidays, Dendy is screening a series of 3D IMAX documentaries on Canberra’s largest cinema screen. Tickets are just $7.
Libraries ACT: 📚 Coding, LEGO, movies, silent discos and more
Libraries ACT has a packed free school holiday program running across all branches.
Kids can learn coding with Ozobots, take on Brick Challenges, make their own badges, meet Constable Kenny Koala, try mindfulness at Little Breath, Big Calm, learn about sustainability with Super Sorters with Binion, or settle in for a family movie screening.
For teens, there are gratitude journal workshops, a Teen Board Game Lounge and Performance Playground, an interactive theatre workshop. There are also Silent Discos, while Puzzle Quest: Brain Teasers & Challenges is available as a drop-in activity at every Libraries ACT branch throughout the holidays.
National Portrait Gallery: 🖼️ Andy Griffiths
The National Portrait Gallery is celebrating the launch of best-selling children’s author Andy Griffiths’ new portrait.
On Saturday 26 September, Andy Griffiths will be at the Gallery for a day of fun. There will be an interactive session with Andy, family tours, a Scribbletorium where you can scribble (almost) everywhere and a hands-on craft space. The craft space will also be open throughout the school holidays for drop-in activities.
Portrait Play will be back during the school holidays - a gentle, creative program for families with young children.
National Archives: 🌷 A city in bloom
The National Archives is exploring the world of Marion Mahony and Walter Burley Griffin and their vision for a capital filled with colourful native flowers and beautiful gardens.
Children aged 7-12 will explore the archival collection and then get creative and make their own vibrant flower sculpture to take home.
Canberra Glassworks: 🐞 Bugs, butterflies, blooms
The Canberra Glassworks is running workshops during the school holidays.
In Bugs, Butterflies, and Blooms, children will design and assemble their very own beautiful bug or flower using colourful pieces of glass
MoAD: ☁️ Cloud gazing, craft and hat making
At the Museum of Australian Democracy (Old Parliament House), there will be a paper lantern-making activity, and the outdoor PlayUp area is back in the Senate Courtyard. Both activities are free. Entry to the museum is free as well.
In the Cloud gazing and painting workshop, local artist Ineka Voigt will lead children aged 5-12 in an outdoor painting session.
Design and craft paper hats in the Hat-making workshop with award-winning picture book author Andy Geppert.
The Mint: 🪙 Coin design, spies, coin trading and craft
The Mint’s holiday programs are back:
The free Coin and Design Discovery Family Tour takes families through the museum to play coin spotto, examine tiny design details with magnifying glasses and look into the factory to see the Mint's robots in action.
For younger kids aged 4-6, Mini-Minties includes sessions where they can hunt for tiny details on coins with magnifying glasses, design their own coin, discover some of the animals featured on Australian coins and explore unusual coin shapes and colours.
For ages 7-12, Mintventures goes a little deeper with workshops on how nature and flowers have influenced coin designs, designing a new currency, cracking codes and discovering the stories of animal heroes commemorated on coins.
At the Kids Coin Trade, children aged 5-12 can bring along used coins and trade them for different coins of the same value - with a limit of $30 per child.
There are also free drop-in Crafternoons every weekday from 2-4pm, with kids making animal and floral crafts inspired by Australia's coins and spring.
National Gallery: The Printers’ Studio
The National Gallery is running the free Printers’ Studio drop-in space throughout the school holidays. Join NGA Artist Educators to play with different printmaking techniques, learn about David Hockney’s extraordinary creative practice, and experiment with layering, texture and colour to make your own monoprints to take home.
Parliament House: 🇦🇺 How Parliament Works
Parliament House is running a family-friendly How Parliament Workstour during the school holidays, where you’ll discover the inner workings of Australia’s parliamentary process. It’s designed especially for school-aged children aged 6+.
Tuggeranong Arts: TAC Grand Day Out and theatre for kids
TAC is hosting the TAC Grand Day Out on the first Saturday of the spring school holidays. There will be activities for the whole family including art, drama and dance classes, live entertainment, an outdoor creative corner, craft, a group art project and more.
Especially on Birthdays is a visual theatre experience for children and families, centred on a pair of twins navigating the excitement and uncertainty of turning six. It blends physical theatre, an original musical score, visual storytelling and gentle audience interaction.
The Art and Action school holiday program gives children a chance to get creative with theatre sports and drama games, art classes, street dance and music-making.
National Museum: 🐧 Antarctica workshops
The National Museum currently has a free Antarctica exhibition telling the stories of more than 100 years of Australians in Antarctica, with more than 200 objects on display.
In DIY Dog Sleds, designed for children aged 5-12, kids will learn about the history of sled dogs in Antarctica and make their own dogs from air-dry clay.
The Museum’s Choose Your Own Antarctic Adventure is a polar role-play for teens. They’ll step into the boots of an explorer in the early 1900s, join a polar expedition and try to survive the elements.
Floriade: 🌷 Circus, crafts, gnome painting and more
Floriade has a full program of free family activities running through the school holidays, alongside the flowers, rides and entertainment around Commonwealth Park.
At the Gnome Knoll, kids can paint their own garden gnome to take home or enter in the annual competition. Gnome painting runs throughout most of the school holidays.
There are Kids Potting Up Workshops on 2, 3, 9 and 10 October, where children can plant seeds and seedlings to take home.
From 6-10 October, Warehouse Circus takes over Floriade with free circus performances and drop-in workshops where kids can try juggling, hula hooping, plate spinning and other circus skills.
Other activities during the holidays include garden-themed balloon twisting, a cut flower growing workshop and DIY floral bookmarks.
There’s also family entertainment running throughout the festival, along with the Floriade Train, Ferris wheel and other amusement rides.
PhotoAccess: 📸 Filmmaking, photography and screen printing
In Mini Movie Makers, kids aged 8-16 will spend two days learning the essentials of filmmaking before developing, shooting and editing their own 90-120 second film. It runs on 6-7 October.
Picture to Print is a two-day workshop with Megalo Print Studio for ages 8-16. Kids will learn the basics of digital photography and head out on a photo walk on the first day, before turning their favourite images into screen-printed T-shirts at Megalo on day two. It runs on 8-9 October.
Ginninderry Conservation Trust: 🦗 Curious Kids
Held over two days, Curious Kids invites families to explore the natural world in the Ginninderry Conservation Corridor. Take part in a guided nature walk, use microscopes to study natural specimens and make your own stick insect.