North Shore Kid Stories, Events, Activities, Camps and Recipes

Kids will learn about the winged creatures that inhabit the sanctuary at this vacation week program. Spring is in full swing and all our flying friends are in a frenzy. If it has wings, we'll find it, and learn about the different ways creatures use their wings. Using binoculars, nets, and bug boxes, we'll take an up-close look at birds, dragonflies, butterflies, and other insects that make their homes at the sanctuary.

Got milk? We do! On this special program designed especially for our toddler friends, we'll enjoy calf close encounters, a cow story and costume, milking in the dairy barn and more! For ages 2-5 with an accompanying adult. Please pre-register. For older kids, check out Meet the Cows at Appleton Farms.

Pettengill Farm is hosting an Earth Day celebration in conjunction with their annual Spring open house with FREE eco activities! Bring the family for fun earth day activities like a scavenger hunt in the woods and fun with eco-activities, face painting and loads of fun. Come meet the farm's newest & cutest animals. Light refreshments will be served including home-made cookies. The celebration will include gardening demonstrations and mini classes for adults.

There's going to be a  24 hour-long MDA Muscle Walk Challenge at Ken Spellman Track in Ipswich this May and we're encouraging people to get involved! One of our friends, Deb LaFrance, will be walking the full 24 hour stint to raise funds for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, with a goal of $20,000. You can sponsor her, join her team or start a team of your own and compete with other teams to see who raises the most funds! To sponsor Deb, join her team or start your own, visit www.musclewalkmda.org/24HourChallengeWalk

Explore the concept of time revealed in specimens specially marked with a 'time piece' located throughout the galleries of the Harvard Museum of Natural History. Find extraterrestrial rocks "as old as time"; look closer at giant clams whose shells, like tree rings, show each year's growth; or seek out fossilized dinosaur footprints crossing through a riverbed over 200 million years ago. Pick up the Time Trails map at the museum front desk, free with museum admission. Great for kids ages 6 and up!

During this vacation week program, kids will learn about the plant-eating mammals that make their home at the sanctuary. We hope to catch glimpses of them, and certainly we'll see signs that they are living here. Participate in a mammal obstacle course. Build a beaver and muskrat lodge as a group, and track deer and other mammals in the fields and forests of the sanctuary.

Maritime Gloucester invites kids in grades 2-5 to a vacation week session about coral and crystals - part of a week full of educational sessions during April vacation! Is a coral a plant or an animal?  How does it grow? 

Dads & Donuts is a story time designed especially for dads and children ages 2 and up. You don't have to be a dad either.  Moms, grandparents, or partners - everyone is welcome to attend and eat delicious sticky donuts. The event will be held in the children's room. Snacks will follow 30 minutes of stories based around the theme of Fractured Fairytales! Enjoy stories with donuts, juice and coloring to follow.

Mass Audubon's Joppa Flats Education Center in Newburyport will be busy with lots of different outdoor/indoor activities this April school vacation. Our three days of Vacation Week Flybys feature activities, games, experiments, and more. Children ages 2 to 12 are invited to drop in anytime with their families for indoor and outdoor fun that will keep minds active and hands busy during school break!

North Shore Community College is proud to offer kids entering grades 3–8 a summer of fun, interesting, mind bending classes that focus on making cool science experiments like flowing volcanoes and foaming potions. And it wouldn't be summer if you didn't get to have some fun fitness time playing games inside and out. And surprise everyone when you make your own delicious and healthy recipes - fruit smoothies, homemade granola, fruit kabobs, and more. Then get onboard for hobby shop time. Build a bird house, learn to stitch a puppet, or make your own room sign or treasure box. Come one week, four weeks, half days or all days, you will never do the same thing twice on your journey.

Maritime Gloucester has planned a fulfilling and fun week of programs for kids during April Vacation 2013. The programs are geared towards learning about life in the sea, and on it! Daily session are offered through the week, and offerings will be split by age - pre-K through 1st grade and grades 2-5.  These sessions are part story, part presentation and part art or craft project.  Kids will learn about sea life, sail and wind power, lobstering and more!