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!
Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford St., Cambridge
What treasures are found in the Harvard University paleontology collections? Meet Harvard paleontologists to find out! See their favorite fossils, learn about their research, and ask them your questions.
Learn about local fossils and where to find them, see what new techniques and technologies are being used to study fossils, and hear about current research projects. Join us to celebrate National Fossil Day with short talks and table-top presentations for all ages.
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.
Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford St., Cambridge
Celebrate the vibrant culture and natural history of El Salvador. Enjoy captivating folk dances by Grupo Torogoz and try hands-on activities including corn grinding and painting with cochineal insects. Go on a scavenger hunt and discover the rich heritage of animals, minerals, and artifacts from the region. Join an archaeologist for a live-streamed tour of Joya de Cerén, the Pompeii of Latin America. Take a break with Spanish Story Time, enjoy traditional Salvadoran cuisine (available for purchase), and enter a raffle to win a museum gift basket.
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.
Harvard Museums of Science & Culture, 11 Divinity Ave., Cambridge
Join the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture on the longest day of the year—free of charge—to explore the galleries and new exhibitions at the Harvard Museum of Natural History, the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, and the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East.
Step outdoors to enjoy lively musical and circus performances, play mini-golf, and make a flower crown. Ice cream, mocktails, and snacks will be available to purchase from food trucks and vendors. Don’t miss out on this popular event for all ages...
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.