Our museums have loads of fantastic events going on over the autumn half term - and lots of them are FREE. Make sure you don't miss out. Check out the rundown of what's on below. You can find out about more events across Stoke-on-Trent at https://www.stoke.gov.uk/events. We'll send another bulletin soon with more events and activities - watch this space!

Gladstone Pottery Museum

Gladstone Pottery Museum has lots of craft activities and other events for families throughout the half term including:

• Rat trail – Tuesdays to Saturdays during October. Gladstone has been invaded by rats – can you find them hiding around the museum? There’s a free pencil and entry into a prize draw for everyone who takes part. Cost: £1 plus admission.   • Pottery painting – Tuesday, October 29 to Saturday, November 2. Paint a piece of pottery to take home as a unique souvenir of your visit to Gladstone, from £1 plus admission. Choose from mini bottle ovens, animals, flowers and special witches, wizards and Halloween-themed items.   • Spooky goblin doors – Tuesday, October 29, 10.30am to 12.30pm and 1.15pm to 3pm. Forget fairy doors! Get ready for Halloween and make your own spooky goblin door out of clay in a drop-in craft workshop. Suitable for all ages. Cost: £1 plus admission.   • Spooky spiders – Wednesday, October 30, 11am to 3pm. Make your own spooky spider decoration ready for Halloween in a drop-in craft workshop. Included with admission.   • Spooky fun day – Thursday October 31, 11am to 3pm. Visit the museum this half term for Halloween-themed facepainting, balloon modelling and magic shows, included with normal museum admission.

At Gladstone you can also see regular demonstrations of traditional skills and try your hand at throwing a pot, making a bone china flower or painting pottery for a small extra charge. The opening hours are Tuesdays to Saturdays and bank holidays, 10am to 5pm. Entrance: adults - £7.75, children - £5.40 (four to 16 years old inclusive), concessions - £6.20, family ticket - £23 (two adults, two children).

Find more information at http://www.stokemuseums.org.uk/gpm/.

The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery

The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery has craft activities and many more attractions throughout half term. They include:

• Where’s Wally? The Big Museum Hunt – Until November 3. Join the search for Wally with your family at the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery this half term. The venue is part of the national event, organised by Kids in Museums and Walker Books, to celebrate the release of the new Where’s Wally? book Double Trouble. Can you find Wally in the museum’s collections? Pick up a free activity sheet at the welcome desk and get a special sticker if you find him.   • Witches, Wizards and Warlocks – Saturday, October 26. Enter a magical world as the museum pays tribute to JK Rowling’s famous wizarding stories. Join two wizards as they outwit, out-duel and outsmart the forces of darkness. Take part in wand-making and potions workshops and listen to the talking hat. Free performances take place at 11.30am, 1.30pm and 3pm. Workshops cost £2.50 per session - please call 01782 232323 to book and for times.

• Mars robots – 11am Monday, October 28 - FREE. Explore the surface of the red planet and learn all about robots with a Mars rover. Drive a remote-control robotic vehicle across a ‘Martian landscape’ and discover the challenges faced in space exploration and how robots will help the first humans to land on Mars.

 
• Clay spooky familiars – Tuesday, October 29 to Thursday, October 31. In European folklore, familiar spirits – sometimes referred to as familiars or animal guides – were believed to be supernatural entities that would help in the practice of magic. If you were a witch or a wizard, what ‘familiar’ would you choose? A cat, frog, rabbit or even a ferret? Make your very own from clay to take home. Drop in from 10.30am to 12.30pm or 1.15pm to 3pm. Cost: £1.50.

• Potty Gardening Club – Wednesday, October 30, 10.30am to 11.45am. Join the Potty Gardening Club and decorate a pumpkin for Halloween. Activities where possible will take place outside in the Secret Garden, so please dress for the weather. There is an indoor space too so the club can go ahead, whatever the forecast. Children will help to grow and develop the garden, but will also make something to take home. Suitable for children aged 7 to 11. Children must be accompanied by an adult. £3 per child payable on booking. 10.30am to 11.45am. Booking essential ‐ call 01782 232323.

• Spooky Ozzy Owl trail – Until Thursday, October 31. There’s a Halloween Ozzy Owl trail for children - find 12 spooky items for Ozzy hidden in the museum (£1 per trail and includes a free pencil).

• Potters Lane – Until December 22 – Visit the local history galleries and see a magical transformation as you enter a world inspired by JK Rowling’s famous characters. Can you spot the snowy owl in the pub, identify the witch’s potions in the chemist shop and unravel the spell in the schoolroom?

 
• Apollo 50 – Until November 3 – This exhibition marks 50 years since the historic moon landing. It includes 50-plus models, memorabilia, info, dressing up for children, a big video screen showing historic clips, and an astronaut cut-out for photos.

 
• Staffordshire Hoard - The revamped Staffordshire Hoard exhibition to mark 10 years since the discovery of the treasure. This includes star items that haven’t been on display for years – and it’s the biggest ever Hoard exhibition at the site.

The museum also boasts exhibitions including the world’s best collection of Staffordshire ceramics and the Leekfrith Torcs – the earliest Iron Age gold ever discovered in Britain, as well as galleries including fine and decorative arts, costume, local history, archaeology and natural history. Opening times - Monday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm, Sunday, 11am to 4pm.

Find more info at http://www.stokemuseums.org.uk/pmag/.

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