Exploration

Imagine, Sing, & Learn: Ducks, Scud & Mud

Preschoolers will learn ducks, clams & other mud creatures at Joppa Flats Center

Preschoolers join Joppa Flats Naturalists in an active, fun, program where they will learn what makes a salt marsh special, what lives in a salt marsh, how these animals find their food, and a chance to touch and hold live animals from the salt marsh! Using group games, songs, and fun interactive props, we’ll turn your preschooler into estuary enthusiasts! We’ll also make a take home craft  and enjoy a tasty salt marsh looking snack!

When: 
Wednesday August 9, 2017 9:30-11am
Friday, August 11, 2017 9:30-11am

Fairy Houses and Gnome Homes for Preschoolers

Kids will build their own fairy houses at Mosely Woods in Newburyport!

Join educators from Joppa Flats Education Center with your preschooler for an adventure to collect acorns, pine cones, lichen, bark, and moss at Newburyport's Mosely Woods! We'll use our imaginations to create woodland homes and creature friends with the natural materials we find. You'll go home with your fairyland dwellings and a new excitement for finding natural treasues and turning them into creative projects.

When: 
Tuesday, October 31, 2017 10-11:30 am

Saturday Morning Nature Secrets: Animals in Snow

Kids will learn about animals in the snow at the Mass Audubon Joppa Flats Education Center in Newburyport!

Let's celebrate winter as we look at this beautiful season through storybooks, art, and music. Weather permitting, we'll take a riverside walk in Joppa Flats' backyard and experience the frozen artistry of the season.  Later we'll create artwork that reminds us of the winter joys we found together.

When: 
Saturday, January 27, 2018 10-11:30am

Saturday Morning Nature Secrets: Animals in Snow

Kids will learn about animals in the snow at the Mass Audubon Joppa Flats Education Center in Newburyport!

Let's celebrate winter as we look at this beautiful season through storybooks, art, and music. Weather permitting, we'll take a riverside walk in Joppa Flats' backyard and experience the frozen artistry of the season.  Later we'll create artwork that reminds us of the winter joys we found together.

When: 
Saturday, January 27, 2018 10-11:30am

Saturday Morning Nature Secrets: Sparkling Snowflakes

Kids will learn about snowlfakes at the Mass Audubon Joppa Flats Education Center in Newburyport!

Let's celebrate winter as we look at this beautiful season through storybooks, art, and music. Weather permitting, we'll take a riverside walk in Joppa Flats' backyard and experience the frozen artistry of the season.  Later we'll create artwork that reminds us of the winter joys we found together.

When: 
Saturday, January 13, 2018 10-11:30am

Saturday Morning Nature Secrets: Wake Up Trees!

Kids will learn about trees at the Mass Audubon Joppa Flats Education Center in Newburyport!

Let's celebrate winter as we look at this beautiful season through storybooks, art, and music. Weather permitting, we'll take a riverside walk in Joppa Flats' backyard and experience the frozen artistry of the season.  Later we'll create artwork that reminds us of the winter joys we found together.

When: 
Saturday, February 10, 2018 10-11:30am

Saturday Morning Nature Secrets: March Winds Blow in Spring

Kids will learn about March winds at the Mass Audubon Joppa Flats Education Center in Newburyport!

Let's celebrate winter as we look at this beautiful season through storybooks, art, and music. Weather permitting, we'll take a riverside walk in Joppa Flats' backyard and experience the frozen artistry of the season.  Later we'll create artwork that reminds us of the winter joys we found together.

When: 
Saturday, March 10, 2018 10-11:30am

Bio-Blitz Free-for-All

Kids and adults will learn about the diversity of Plum Island and the North Shore wildlife at Mass Audubon's Joppa Flats Education Center in Newburyport!

Joppa Flats Education Center invites families to join them for a full day of free outdoor and indoor nature activities, art projects, and biodiversity!  Connecting with nature starts with developing a good sense of place, and a great place to start is right here at Joppa Flats. This full-day family event will feature an exciting mixture of indoor and outdoor activities that encourage children and adults to learn more about the biodiversity of all the animals, plants, and insects that frequent our butterfly garden, salt marsh, and backyard!

When: 
Sunday, May 20, 2018 10am - 3pm

Archaeology Day at Maudlsay State Park

Learn about the archaeology of and the first people of Massachusetts of Maudslay State Park in Newburyport.

Maudslay State Park invites you to be an archaeologist for the day!  Learn how to think like an archaeologist…excavate a test unit, screen for and identify artifacts, and document and record soil levels.  Other activities focus on the extensive and rich peopling of the area dating back thousands of years.  Find out why this place was and is so special to the First People of Massachusetts. Learn how to use a bow-drill, grind corn with a mortar and pestle, weave a fishing net, make a ground stone-tool fishing weight, make a ceramic pot in the traditional indigenous way, play the game of Hubhub, bring an artifact for the experts to ID, and even try your hand (arm) at throwing an atlatl!

When: 
Saturday, October 6, 2018 10am-2pm

Imagine, Sing, & Learn: The Mighty Merrimack

The mouth of the Merrimack River lies on the doorstep of the Joppa Flats Center

This 'Imagine, Sing and Learn' is an active, fun, program where you and your child will learn all about the Merrimack River and how it was formed, how it has changed over the years, and who lives in and needs the river. We will learn how the river can “change” rocks, we’ll play river bingo, and sing a few river songs. We’ll make a fun take-home fishing pole craft, and we’ll enjoy a “fishy” snack!

When: 
Tuesday, July 9, 2019 10-11:30am

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Appleton Farms offers great farm-based Vacation Week Programs for kids ages 5-11

Babson Farm Quarry Self-guided Walking Tour at Halibut Point

Kids will enjoy this tour of the Halibut Point State Park and Quarry with a focus on its stone-cutting history!
Take a self guided tour at one of Massachusetts most beautiful locations!
7:00 am to 6:00 pm

Teen Naturalist Club at IRWS: Spring/Summer Series

Join Mass Audubon for their Teen Naturalist Club at Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary in Topsfield Massachusetts!
Explore a variety of local ecosystems such as a salt marsh, a freshwater river, or a tide pool on the beach. Take part in wildlife data collection in tide pools and vernal pools and engage in conservation projects such as a macroinvertebrate study or a horseshoe crab count in this exciting science...
8:00 am to 5:00 pm

CraneOutdoors: The Castle Hill Hike

CraneOutdoors: The Castle Hill Hike at the Crane Estate in Ipswich Massachusetts
Come explore the lesser-visited corners of Castle Hill and its surroundings with us this season. This hike is a CraneOutdoors guide favorite because it’s got a little bit of all the things that make the Crane Estate such a special place…
10:00 am to 12:00 pm

2nd Saturday at Lynn Museum

Lynn Museum in Massachusetts offers free admission on the second Saturday of each month.
Come to the Lynn Museum and Historical Society for FREE family fun. Join us on the second and fourth Saturday of each month for FREE admission to the Museum from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.! You can view our latest exhibitions, purchase Lynn-themed goods in our shop, check out books in our free library, and...
10:00 am to 2:00 pm

Discover Saturdays at Cape Ann Museum

Discover Saturdays for Families at Cape Ann Museum in Gloucester Massachusetts
Enjoy a FREE guided activity (ages 4+) in the gallery. Learn about Cape Ann’s Granite Industry, try a fun art making activity, and join in gallery tour designed for kids and their caregivers, led by a CAM Educator. Afterwards grab a scavenger hunt to explore the property and enjoy the lawn.
10:00 am to 12:00 pm

Read to a Dog at SPL

Kids are invited to read to a therapy dog at the Salem Public Library in Massachusetts
Have a new or struggling reader who needs to build confidence and practice reading aloud?  Come read to Hendrix, the trained therapy dog, a sweet a non-judgmental listener!  Bring your own book to read, or choose one of ours.
10:00 am to 11:00 am

The Legacies of Long Hill: House & Garden Tour

Tour the Gardens at the Trustees of Reservations Long Hill Gardens in Beverly, Massachusetts!
The Trustees of Reservations invite you to join our expert guides for a tour around Long Hill’s stunning Sedgwick Gardens and learn more about the special plants. Step inside the beauty and layered history of Long Hill with a guided tour of its breathtaking gardens and historic house. Once the...
10:30 am to 12:00 pm

Vernal Pool Party: Big Night Celebration at IRWS

Come explore the vernal pools of Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary with Mass Audubon!
Each spring, on the first warm, rainy night, frogs and salamanders emerge and begin an extraordinary journey to the vernal pools where they breed.
2:00 pm to 5:00 pm
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