Bring Bonfire Night to life in your classroom! Explore the explosive energy, vibrant colours, and sounds of fireworks through art and music. Below are activities* tailored for each key stage to inspire creativity and deepen pupils’ understanding of art and music.

*Some activities feature links to external websites. We do not have control over their content, so please check before showing them to children.

EYFS: Bonfire Night Ideas

In EYFS, children can explore the sights and sounds of Bonfire Night through art and music inspired by fireworks lighting up the night sky.

Art: Fireworks in the Night Sky

Learning objective: To create a mixed-media artwork that uses colour, pattern, and repetition to represent fireworks in the night sky, inspired by the work of Yayoi Kusama.

• Introduce children to Yayoi Kusama’s bold and vibrant work, focusing on her use of polka dots and patterns. 
• Using this as inspiration, pupils can create their own mixed-media artwork.
• Encourage the children to use brightly coloured dots and lines to represent fireworks bursting against a dark background. Stickers, pastels, and even eco-friendly glitter can be added to enhance the effect.

Music: Fireworks Soundscape

Learning objective: To create a musical representation of fireworks using percussion instruments.

• Encourage the children to think about the sounds they might hear on Bonfire Night, such as bangs, pops, and crackles. 
• Provide percussion instruments such as tambourines, drums, bells, and shakers, and ask the children to choose instruments that best mimic different firework sounds. 
• Pupils work together as a group or as a whole class to create a short soundscape that gradually builds to an exciting, explosive finale. 

Extension: Can the children add any actions or movements to further enhance their performance?

KS1: Bonfire Night Activities

Children in key stage 1 can explore the movement and energy of fireworks through abstract patterns and dynamic dance.

Art: Firework Patterns 

Learning objective: To use bright colours and circular patterns to create a firework-inspired abstract artwork, drawing inspiration from Sonia Delaunay’s use of shape and colour.

Sonia Delaunay’s abstract circular patterns are the perfect inspiration for firework-themed artwork. Children can use overlapping circles and bright colours to represent fireworks bursting in the sky, painting their own bold and dynamic designs on a dark background.

• Show examples of Delaunay’s abstract art, focusing on overlapping circles and vibrant colours.
• Discuss how her shapes seem to move like fireworks and encourage children to use circles and colours to represent fireworks bursting.
• Have children paint large, overlapping circles on a black background to suggest the energy and movement of fireworks in the night sky.

Music: Fireworks Dance

Learning objective: To use movement to respond to music.

• Play Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture Finale Excerpt, a piece of music that resembles the rise and fall of fireworks. 
• Ask children to move their bodies in response to the music – small, slow movements when the music is calm, and big, energetic movements when it builds to a climax. 
• This can be a choreographed activity or a free dance, encouraging self-expression and an understanding of how music can inspire movement.

Extension: Give children percussion instruments and encourage them to play softly and with more energy to match the dynamics of the music.

KS2: Y3/4 Bonfire Night Activities

Pupils in Years 3 and 4 can explore both the visual and auditory elements of Bonfire Night, capturing the movement of sparklers in art and reinterpreting a fireworks display through music.

Art: Sparkler Art 

Learning objective: Create artwork that represents the movement and energy of sparklers, using dynamic lines and metallic colours inspired by Cai Guo-Qiang.

• Show videos or images of Cai Guo-Qiang’s fireworks and gunpowder art, highlighting movement and dynamic results.
• Discuss how sparklers create light trails, and ask children to use lines and colours to represent similar movements in their art.
• Create sparkler-inspired art by drawing with metallic pens, chalks, etc., on dark paper to show movement and light. These could be based on words, phrases, or symbols with meaning or to convey a message.

Music: Fireworks Music with an Orchestra 

Learning objective: To creatively explore the sounds of fireworks.  

• Begin by asking pupils what sounds they would expect to hear on Bonfire Night. Encourage descriptive responses, e.g. crackling fire, whooshing Catherine Wheels, explosive bangs, and simmering sparklers. Use this fireworks video as inspiration: 4K Amazing Fireworks Show with Sound!
• Guide pupils in using their bodies to re-create fireworks sounds, e.g. rubbing hands or clicking tongues for crackling fire, whooshing vocal sounds for Catherine Wheels, whistling and clapping for bangs, and patting legs for simmering sparklers.
• Provide percussion instruments and allow pupils to experiment with representing different firework sounds using these instruments.
• In small groups, pupils create and perform a soundscape of Bonfire Night using both body and instrumental percussion. Encourage them to structure their composition, building to a dramatic climax before ending in silence. Ask the audience to identify specific fireworks sounds.

KS2: Y5/6 Bonfire Night Activities 

For upper KS2, children can explore the unpredictable nature of fireworks through spinning art and can bring Bonfire Night stories to life with shadow puppetry. They can create firework-inspired music compositions using percussion instruments.

Art Activity 1: Firework Spin Art 

Learning objective: To experiment with patterns and centrifugal force to create unique firework art inspired by the work of Damien Hirst.

• Show Damien Hirst’s spin paintings and discuss how the spinning motion creates colours and patterns.
• Set up a spin art activity by using either a toy spinning top dipped in paint or a DIY spinner with paper inside (e.g. a salad spinner) to create firework-like patterns on small sheets of paper.
• Encourage children to layer colours, reflect on how fireworks explode unpredictably, and discuss how artists explore movement in their work.

Art Activity 2: Shadow Puppet Theatre 

Learning objective: To create shadow puppets and use them to retell the story of the Gunpowder Plot, inspired by Indonesian Wayang or Chinese shadow theatre.

• Show examples of shadow puppetry from different cultures, explaining how they are used to tell stories.
• Children design and create shadow puppets of key figures from the Gunpowder Plot (Guy Fawkes, King James I, the guards, etc.) using black card, dowels and tracing paper. They could explore intricate paper cutting to add details to their figures. 
• Set up a light source and white screen. Ask children to retell the Gunpowder Plot using their puppets as shadows. 
• Talk about how storytelling through art can simplify complex events and how shadows can be mysterious, much like the secretive nature of the plot.

Music Activity: Fireworks Music with an Orchestra 

Learning objective: To recognise how different instruments can create different emotions.

• Watch the 1812 Overture Finale Excerpt and ask how the music reflects a fireworks display, focusing on how sparklers and explosions are represented. 
• Discuss how the composer uses musical techniques such as crescendos, forte/piano, accent and climax to build tension and excitement.
• Group percussion instruments into categories: twinkly (chimes, triangles), explosive (drums, cymbals), and melodic (glockenspiels, bells). Assign the children to a group of instruments.
• Replay the performance and decide when each group will play, then discuss how the composer used different instrument timbres to create emotion and energy.

These activities are provided by Kapow Primary Art and design and Music specialists. Sign up for a no-obligation free trial to access full schemes of work for primary schools.

From the abstract patterns of fireworks to the dramatic retelling of historical events, these Bonfire Night activities allow pupils to connect with art and music in meaningful and engaging ways. By bringing together visual and auditory elements, pupils will celebrate Bonfire Night with creativity and imagination.