We hope your plans for this year's Festival are going well. In this bulletin you'll find ideas and resources that link to the Festival themes. For more activity ideas visit the Family Learning Festival website - we'll be updating this regularly so keep clicking! The Family Learning Festival team are also on hand to answer any questions you may have.

Join the Festival spirit and hold a Big Picture Party at your library...

The Big Picture Party is a month-long extravaganza to celebrate picture books and encourage family learning through drawing. The Campaign for Learning, Booktrust and the Campaign for Drawing are inviting all types of libraries to hold a Big Picture Party event for families as part of the Festival. We've put together a Guide on activity ideas and how to plan your Party. The three most inspiring ideas registered by libraries by 5 September will win an illustrator to participate in their event and will benefit from a national PR campaign. To enter you will need to register your event on the Family Learning Festival website.

Green steps for your community group

If you are a voluntary and community group and are planning to use the environment as a theme for your Festival activities, you may want to register for the free Community Pack from Every Action Counts. Every Action Counts identifies a range of practical easy actions which groups can do to make a difference from saving resources to caring for your area. The Pack includes action cards, games, fact sheets and an action plan template, which can be adapted for a range of audiences.

You can register for your pack here. For more information visit: www.everyactioncounts.org.uk

National Family Learning Network event
10 July 2008, Edgbaston Cricket Ground, Birmingham
This Network event will look at how Family Learning can engage adults and children in promoting and developing community cohesion. To register your interest email Julie King: jking@cflearning.org.uk

New resources for families
The Campaign for Learning's publisher, Southgate Publishers, produces fun, informative, accessible and practical booklets for parents and families. Schools, Children Centres, libraries and Local Authorities and others, buy them to give them to parents often in conjunction with an event. The colourful, lively 32 page booklets are less than £1 each when 200 or more are purchased.

It uses examples from well-loved stories such as The Very Hungry Caterpillar and We're Going on a Bear Hunt.

Other booklets are: Dad Did It! (fun science and technology activities); Hot tips for a Cool Planet (reducing carbon footprints); Lunchbox pro and Five-a Day Pro (healthy lunchboxes and how to get kids to eat fruit and veg).

The Campaign and Southgate are planning a maths booklet, with the emphasis on having fun with maths to be published for this year's Family Learning Festival.

Orders and enquiries to Southgate Publishers. Tel: 01363 776888 Email: info@southgatepublishers.co.uk www.southgatepublishers.co.uk