Families need nature at all times of the year! We’ll go on a StoryWalk to learn how a little bird can bring back the Sun! Then we will go inside and make a paper model of an Eastern chickadee.
Families need nature at all times of the year! We’ll collect sticks, cones, leaves, seeds, and all kinds of natural materials from the forest floor, and then we’ll make our Fairy Houses among the maples!
Use the freshly fallen leaves at the Arboretum to make beautiful art, just like the famed nature artist Andy Goldsworthy. This is a chance to play in the leaves and make something beautiful—even if it only lasts until the next gust of wind! This program is suitable for ages 5 and up.
Families need nature at all times of the year! Construct a rainbow of fall colors from leaves and seeds we find as we walk from the main gate to the ponds along Meadow Road.
Come by the Arnold Arboretum for our series of Second Sundays community events, celebrating Peters Hill and the neighborhoods surrounding it. Enjoy family activities, play lawn games, talk to a horticulturist or a scientist, sample local apples, take a tour, and more!
Families need nature at all times of the year! We will look for seeds that fly, seeds that float, seeds that get buried away, and seeds that travel through an animal’s stomach. If you were a seed, which one would you want to be?
Free and open to all, most suitable for children ages four through ten.
Come by the Arnold Arboretum for our series of Second Sundays community events, celebrating Peters Hill and the neighborhoods surrounding it. Enjoy family activities, cool off with free ice cream, play lawn games, talk to a horticulturist or a scientist, take a tour, and more!
Tour and Tree Mob Schedule:
12:00pm: English-language tour of Peters Hill
1:00pm: Spanish-language tour of Peters Hill / Recorridos guiados en español a las 13.00 horas
Families need nature at all times of the year! Following a StoryWalk® path, we’ll visit a nearby forest on Arboretum grounds and look under logs for the tiniest animals of the forest floor. Most suitable for children ages four through ten.
The Caterpillar Lab is moving in, and while the exhibit will be full of their munching critters and offer lots to explore, the real story is the one going on outside where these creatures are living out their strange lives in the wild.
Join Director of the Caterpillar Lab Sam Jaffe on a walk around the property exploring for native caterpillars and other insects. Learn how the Caterpillar Lab finds all of their caterpillars, learn about host plants and parasitoids, and get all of the caterpillar-finding secrets from one of the foremost caterpillar hunters in the world! This...
The Caterpillar Lab is returning to the Arboretum! This immersive, interactive exhibit will feature hundreds of native caterpillars at every stage in their life cycles. Visitors will be able to learn from the experts as they explore the displays. The Lab offers something for every age group, and will give new insight into the world around us.
Peters Hill, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston
Bring your family and friends to Peters Hill for an afternoon of free tours, crafts, family activities, and more! Did we mention free ice cream and bubbles? Free activities open to all ages include:
Tours of Peters Hill offered in both English and Spanish
Plant information tents featuring wildflowers and plant defenses, fascinating Arboretum plant highlights, know-how of Arboretum experts, and a rich assortment of cuttings to view up close
Ice cream, art activities, lawn games, StoryWalks®, and more!...
Hunnewell Lawn, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston
Stop by the Hunnewell Lawn between 12:00pm–3:00pm to create beautiful nature-based cyanotype prints. Participants will arrange flowers, leaves, and seeds and expose them in sunlight to create a deep blue print with bright, ghost-white silhouettes.
Families need nature at all times of the year! We’ll use nets and bug boxes to find insects in the meadow and the woods. Go on a StoryWalk® and look at insects with magnifiers!
Free and open to all, most suitable for children ages four through ten.
An opera for youth and families, Mr. Twister and the Tale of Tornado Alley follows Mr. Twister and his grandson Bobby on a journey around the globe—from the chilly arctic to the sizzlingly warm Gulf of Mexico. Through the power of his magic telescope, Mr. Twister can see just about everything—except the family reunion of the North and South winds that is about to create a cyclone in Tornado Alley! Join us on this operatic adventure (with puppets!).
Families are also invited to a pre-show puppetmaking workshop where your child can make a puppet to use during the performance of...
Hunnewell Building, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston
Families need nature at all times of the year! Meet inside the main gate at the Visitor Center. We’ll look at buds and blooms and learn how bees find flowers. Go on a StoryWalk®, get a bee tattoo, and look at flowers under magnifiers. Free and open to all, most suitable for children ages four through ten.
Experience the springtime bloom of our renowned collection of over 400 lilacs. Visit for tours with Arboretum experts, hands-on children’s programming, and more. Picnicking in the Arboretum landscape is permitted on this day only.
Intersection of Meadow Road and Bussey Hill Road, Arnold Aboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston
Lilacs are blooming in the Arboretum throughout the month of May, not only on Lilac Sunday! Join Chris McArdle and other docents on a 45-minute amble up the hill from the ponds to see the lilacs, enjoy their scents, and hear the stories of the many different lilacs in our collection.
Intersection of Meadow Road and Bussey Hill Road, Arnold Aboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston
Lilacs are blooming in the Arboretum throughout the month of May, not only on Lilac Sunday! Join Chris McArdle and other docents on a 45-minute amble up the hill from the ponds to see the lilacs, enjoy their scents, and hear the stories of the many different lilacs in our collection.