Category: Activities for Kids

Activities for children in Newton, Massachusetts.

The Discovery Museums Announce EBT $1 Admission Program

The Discovery Museums announced today a new program that offers $1 admission to holders of a Massachusetts Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card, and up to five additional family members. There is no limit to the number of visits per year. The Museums do not process EBT transactions, so cash or another form of payment must be provided to pay the admission cost.

The Museums offer the new EBT discount as part of its Open Door Connections program to provide free or deeply discounted access to the Museums for those who face financial, developmental, or cultural barriers to visiting. In 2013, the Museums served 40,400 individuals at free or deeply reduced cost in the museums and in classrooms throughout New England, 24% of the almost 172,000 served.

“Providing access for all families to be able to visit the Museums is a critical priority for us, because informal learning is foundational to the development of a child,” said CEO Neil Gordon. “We have been offering a number of ways for families to visit for free or at a discount, but we feel the EBT $1 admission program will offer the most flexible benefit to the families that need it most. We are excited to welcome all families to experience The Discovery Museums’ fun and formative learning environment.”

The Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA) administers benefits through EBT cards to help low-income individuals and families meet their basic needs, increase their incomes and improve their quality of life. Serving one out of every seven people in the Commonwealth, DTA is an agency within the Executive Office of Health and Human Services and ensures that the emergency and transitional needs of the individual and families of the Commonwealth are met through a combination of state and federally-funded programs.

“The Department helps one in seven residents throughout the Commonwealth meet their most basic needs, including feeding their families. Partnering with educational and cultural institutions is helping to provide low-income families with the opportunity to experience all the programs and treasures the museum has to offer,” said DTA Commissioner Stacey Monahan. “We are excited to partner with The Discovery Museums and look forward to continuing our work with them to promote educational experiences for families and individuals across the Commonwealth.”

Other Open Door Connections programs offering free or reduced price admission to the Museums include free events for families with children with an autism disorder, or who are deaf or hard of hearing; free or discounted pricing for schools visiting the Museums or bringing science workshops into their classrooms; free family memberships offered through organizations including Massachusetts Adoption Resource Exchange (MARE), SMOC Head Start, and Minute Man Arc for Human Services; free admission for active duty military personnel and their families; and free admission on the first Friday night during the school year and every Friday night during summer months.

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About The Discovery Museums

The Discovery Museums are the children’s and science museums of Metrowest Boston. Two great museums—for one admission price—blend the best of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) learning on a beautiful 4.5-acre campus in Acton, MA, about 20 miles west of Boston. The Museums serve families and schools from towns throughout the region, with a commitment to informal education that enhances classroom learning. The hands-on, playful exhibits, developed by professional educators, inspire curiosity, exploration, experimentation and imagination. The Discovery Museums combine manageable scale, convenient location and free parking to provide a fun and engaging experience where children and adults can discover their world together. For more information please visitwww.discoverymuseums.org.

School Year Hours and Admission

Children’s Discovery Museum

Tuesday through Sunday:  9am to 4:30pm

First Friday night of the month (free admission):  4:30pm to 8:30pm

Science Discovery Museum

Open Tuesday through Friday: 1pm to 4:30pm

Saturday & Sunday:  10am to 4:30pm

First Friday night of the month (free admission):  4:30pm to 8:30pm

Both Museums are closed on Mondays during the school year

June 10, 2014
STEAM Workshop for 3- and 4-Year-Olds with Parent or Caregiver

STEAM Workshop for 3- and 4-Year-Olds with Parent or Caregiver

Tuesdays, June 3, 10, 17 and 24, 3:30 p.m.,

Story Craft Room

at Newton Free Library

Participate in a four-part series where we will explore Science, Technology, Engineering and Math through discovery and play. Take home something from each session. Space is limited. Registration is required (patrons must come to all four sessions). Sign up here.

June 2, 2014
Summer Art Classes at Arsenal Center for the Arts

SUMMER VACATION WORKSHOPS for CHILDREN

At the Arsenal Center for the Arts in Watertown

The Arsenal Center for the Arts offers a wide variety of week-long art workshops this summer, from June 16 – August 22.

Choose from Comics/Cartoons, Creative Creatures, Puppets, Mixed-Media, Drawing, Basic Jewelry, Circus Art, Pottery and much, much more. Morning and afternoon workshops for three age groups from 5+.

Supervised Lunch and Extended Day options available. Classes are held at the Arsenal Center for the Arts, 321 Arsenal St., Watertown, MA 02472.

Free parking and easy access to public transportation. Registration and Information: 617-923-0100, ext. 8309.

Visit www.arsenalarts.org for workshop descriptions. Scholarships and Membership discounts are available.

May 29, 2014
Pine Village Preschool Newton Spring Fling

Event: Pine Village Newton Spring Fling

Date: Saturday, May 31st

Time: 10am

Location: Pine Village Preschool 1326 Washington Street, Newton, MA 02465

Description: Come and enjoy fun activities with your toddler and preschooler. Enjoy free face painting, gardening, arts and crafts, spring science fun and much more!

You can also learn more about our Spanish immersion summer and preschool programs. To RSVP or if you have any questions, please contact us at enrollmentpvp@gmail.com.

More information here.

May 27, 2014
The Mortal Instruments Author Event

Celebrate with Cassandra Clare when she comes to Wellesley on Tuesday, May 27th at 7:00pm at the Wellesley Middle School for the release of City of Heavenly Fire, the thrilling conclusion to her The Mortal Instruments series.

Best-selling author Jodi Picoult will lead a discussion with Cassandra at an exclusive evening of audience Q&A, trivia, book signing, and much more.

Visit our website for ticketing information, signing line rules, and complete details.

Cassandra Clare was born to American parents in Teheran, Iran and spent much of her childhood travelling the world with her family, including one trek through the Himalayas as a toddler where she spent a month living in her father’s backpack. She lived in France, England and Switzerland before she was ten years old. Since her family moved around so much she found familiarity in books and went everywhere with a book under her arm. She spent her high school years in Los Angeles where she used to write stories to amuse her classmates, including an epic novel called “The Beautiful Cassandra” based on the eponymous Jane Austen short story (and from which she later took her current pen name).

After college, Cassie lived in Los Angeles and New York where she worked at various entertainment magazines and even some rather suspect tabloids where she reported on Brad and Angelina’s world travels and Britney Spears’ wardrobe malfunctions. She started working on her YA novel, City of Bones, in 2004, inspired by the urban landscape of Manhattan, her favourite city. She turned to writing fantasy fiction full time in 2006 and hopes never to have to write about Paris Hilton again.

Cassie’s first professional writing sale was a short story called “The Girl’s Guide to Defeating the Dark Lord” in a Baen anthology of humor fantasy. Cassie hates working at home alone because she always gets distracted by reality TV shows and the antics of her two cats, so she usually sets out to write in local coffee shops and restaurants. She likes to work in the company of her friends, who see that she sticks to her deadlines.

May 24, 2014
New American Alligator Exhibit at Stone Zoo Opens Memorial Day

On Memorial Day weekend, a new American alligator exhibit will be opening at Stone Zoo!

The exhibit will feature three 5 to 7 foot alligators and will be a permanent seasonal exhibit at the zoo.

Also, to celebrate the opening of this new exhibit, Lyle the Crocodile, from the popular series of children’s books, will visit the Zoo on Saturday, May 24 and Sunday, May 25 for storytime, a meet and greet, and zookeeper encounters, giving visitors the chance to learn more about crocodiles, alligators, and their similarities and differences.

The American alligator exhibit is a permanent seasonal exhibit at Stone Zoo. Visitors will be able to see the alligators on exhibit into the early fall.

In addition to the large adult alligators, visitors will also be able to see “gators” up close with the three smaller animals, measuring 1 foot long each, that will be featured program animals utilized by the zoo’s Education department.

Adult American alligators are extremely strong and formidable predators. They use their long, muscular tails to propel through the water and their incredible bite power to catch and hold onto prey. These animals help to control populations of prey species and also create “alligator holes,” which are invaluable to other species in dry seasons and winter. Red-bellied turtles, for example, incubate their eggs in old alligator nests, which consist of piled vegetation.

Male alligators can measure nearly 15 feet long, while females can measure 10 feet long. They are the most vocal of all crocodilians, and communication begins before babies even hatch out of their eggs. When they are ready to hatch, the young make high-pitched whining noises. Alligators commonly bellow and roar at one another, and the loud bellow can be heard up to 165 yards away. During courting, alligators emit cough-like purrs.

In the wild, American alligators can be found in freshwater swamps, marshes, rivers and lakes in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service considers this species threatened as populations are not entirely stable throughout its range.

May 23, 2014
Wellesley Books Fantasy Chapter Book Event

Get ready for an afternoon of fantasy and adventure when J.A. White and Paul Durham come to Wellesley Books on Wednesday, May 21st at 4:00pm.

These two debut middle-grade authors will talk about writing and share their new stories: the witchcraft and forbidden forest of White’s The Thickety and the secrets, magic, and monsters of Durham’s The Luck Uglies.

Paul Durham was raised in Massachusetts and at-tended college and law school in Boston. He now lives in New Hampshire with his wife, two daughters, and an enormous bushy creature the local animal shelter identified as a cat. He writes in an abandoned chicken coop at the edge of a swamp and keeps a tiny porcelain frog in his pocket for good luck.

Strange things are happening in Village Drowning, and a terrifying encounter has eleven-year-old Rye O’Chanter convinced that the monstrous, supposedly extinct Bog Noblins have returned. Now Rye’s only hope is an exiled secret society so notorious its name can’t be spoken aloud: the Luck Uglies. As Rye dives into Village Drowning’s maze of secrets, rules, and lies, she’ll discover the truth behind the village’s legends of outlaws and beasts . . . and that it may take a villain to save them from the monsters. .

J. A. White lives in New Jersey with his wife, three sons, and a hamster named Ophelia that doesn’t like him very much. When he’s not making up stories, he teaches a bunch of kids how to make up stories (along with math and science and other important stuff). He wishes dragons were real because it would be a much cooler way to get to work.

When Kara Westfall was six years old, her mother was convicted of the worst of all crimes: witchcraft. Years later, Kara and her little brother Taff are still shunned by the people of their village, who believe that nothing is more evil than magic…except, perhaps, the mysterious forest that covers nearly the entire island. It has many names, this place. Sometimes it is called the Dark Wood, or Sordyr’s Realm. But mostly it’s called the Thickety.

The villagers live in fear of the Thickety and the terrible creatures that live there. But when an unusual bird lures Kara into the forbidden forest, she discovers a strange book with unspeakable powers. A book that might have belonged to her mother.

And that is just the beginning of the story.

May 22, 2014
Last Week of June Soccer Camp by Coach Brian Rooney

Coach Roy Dow and Coach Brian Rooney will be running another 4-day clinic the week after school ends.

Here are the details:

Tuesday, June 24th – Friday, June 27th

9 am – 12 pm

Ages 7 – 12

Weeks Field in Newton Center

Go to NYS website here to register.

May 21, 2014
Valeo FC Summer Soccer Clinics

The Valeo Futbol Academy, Advanced Skills Clinic is a fun, yet intensive program designed specifically to improve a player’s individual skill, technique, and tactical awareness while fostering a love of the game.

It is a low-pressure environment that encourages creativity, attacking soccer and where players not only learn from professional coaches but also from each other.

Players will benefit from our progressive Academy training as we strive to build well-rounded players utilizing a technical, tactical, physical and mental training model approach. During each training session, athletes are guided through fun and challenging workouts that are combined with homework to maximize improvement and ultimately help them become more creative, efficient and effective players.

AGE GROUPS
Jr. Champs 5 – 8
Champions 8 – 12
Advanced Academy 12 – 14

For the schedule, pricing and registration, go here.

May 19, 2014
Waban Village Day Today

Waban Village Day- 10th Annual

Sunday May 18
11-3pm

Family 5K Fun Run 10am

Come join the fun on Sunday, May 18th for the 10th Annual Waban Village Day. The Family Fun Run kicks off the day at 10am. If you would like to pre-register for the Fun Run, please go here.

Waban Village Day will have new rides, food, vendors, and wonderful music, including the The Newton South High School Jazz Combo. Also preforming is Ed Harlow’s Original Gentleman, the Newton Family Singers and Waiting for Neil. Come enjoy the rides, and the delicious food at our Waban Grilling Station and mingle with your community.

11 am: The Newton South High School Jazz Combo
This group of eight young musicians is Newton South High School’s top jazz improvisational unit. Come hear the sound of Newton’s next generation of jazzers right now! – Conducted by Ed Harlow

11:45 Ed Harlow’s The Original Gentlemen
Led by saxophonist Ed Harlow. The jazzreview.com said “Harlow has a gorgeous tone, lodged somewhere between the lilt of Paul Desmond and the muscular passion of Johnny Hodges and imbued with the sex appeal of Stan Getz.” His band includes: pianist Kevin Harris, bassist Keala Kaumeheiwa, and drummer Brooke Sofferman.

1:30pm, Newton Family Singers singing a selection from their April 13th spring concert, “Loves Me Like a Rock,” a celebration of the music of Paul Simon. The Newton Family Singers is an intergenerational family chorus composed of 60+ singers between the ages of 2 and 72, that sing and perform American folk music.

At 2:15pm, Newton’s own homegrown Americana band, Waiting For Neil. Having played together for the past two years at local venues and festivals, including the 2013 New England Americana Festival and the 2014 Joe Val Bluegrass Festival.

If you would like to help with Village there is still opportunities available. Please contact Theresa Fitzpatrick at tabilel@yahoo.com if you (we gladly accept the help of students ages 11 and up) would like to help.

May 18, 2014