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Families

Each week Thanksgiving Point hosts educational and fun activities for families of all ages and abilities! Our Family Programs include Tales for Tots, Melody Makers, and Dirt on Dinos, just to name a few. 

The programs are always adapting and changing throughout the year so check back often for updates. They are also led by our trained educational team to ensure each person at the activity has a great time learning and playing together as family and friends. Click each drop-down menu below to learn more about these one-of-a-kind educational opportunities at Thanksgiving Point and to see dates, locations, and times for each one. See you soon!

All activities are FREE for Thanksgiving Point Members, as they are included with venue admissions.

 

11-11:20 am

Mondays: Museum of Ancient Life

Wednesdays: Farm Country

Fridays: Butterfly Biosphere

Saturdays: Ashton Gardens

Join us for our weekly storytelling adventure, Tales for Tots, held each Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 11:00am. Staff will engage guests with interactive storytelling as well as movement and/or music activities that connect to the story theme of the day. Watch for special Saturday Tales for Tots during Dinosaur Island!

Included with regular venue admission

 

Upcoming Schedule

May 23 | Museum of Ancient Life | Have You Seen my Dinosaur? by Jon Surgal
How do you find a missing dinosaur who’s large and green and likes to roar? When a little boy’s dinosaur decides to play hide-and-seek, he is surprisingly difficult to track down.  

May 25 | Farm Country | Driving My Tractor by Jan Dobbins
Chug along with a farmer and his tractor on this multi-season animal adventure! A busy farmer picks up fifteen animals along his route, but when his trailer hits a stone, chaos ensues.

May 27 | Butterfly Biosphere | Hilda Must Be Dancing by Karma Wilson
Hilda Hippo loves to dance! But there’s just one problem. When Hilda dances, it sounds like this: Ka-bump! Ka-bump! Crash! Crash! Crash!

May 30 | Museum of Ancient Life | The Poppy Lady: Moina Belle Michael and Her Tribute to Veterans  by Barbara E. Walsh
When American soldiers entered World War I, Moina Belle Michael, a schoolteacher from Georgia, knew she had to act. Some of the soldiers were her students and friends. Almost single-handedly, Moina worked to establish the red poppy as the symbol to honor and remember soldiers.

June 1 | Farm Country | Neither by Airlie Anderson
In this colorful and touching story that celebrates what makes each of us unique, a little creature that’s not quite a bird and not quite a bunny–it’s “neither”–searches for a place to fit in. 

June 3 | Butterfly Biosphere | A Place to Grow by Stephanie Bloom
No matter where it lands or how desperately it hopes, the tiny seed can’t find a place to grow. Will the tiny seed ever find a home, or will it keep searching and floating forever 

June 4 | Ashton Gardens | Dinosaur Roar by Paul Stickland
Dinosaurs of every size, color, shape, and personality introduce small children to the concept of opposites, in a brightly illustrated, rhyming concept book. 

June 6 | Museum of Ancient Life | Beach Day by Karen Roosa
A colorful board book that captures the fun and excitement of a day at the beach. Sun, sea, and sand meet bright illustrations and a fun rhyming text in this delightful summer story. 

June 8 | Farm Country | Freight Train by Donald Crews 
In simple, powerful words and vibrant illustrations, this wonderful story evokes the rolling wheels of that childhood favorite: a train. 

June 10 | Butterfly Biosphere | The Crunching Munching Caterpillar by Sheridan Cain
Caterpillar REALLY wants to fly like Bumblebee and Sparrow. Bumblebee tells him that in order to fly he will need wings. So Caterpillar glumly spends his days crunching and munching his way through blackberry bushes. But after a long winter sleep, he wakes up to the surprise of his life!  

 

Join us for our weekly storytelling adventure, Tales for Tots, held each Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 11:00am. Staff will engage guests with interactive storytelling as well as movement and/or music activities that connect to the story theme of the day.

Join us for our weekly storytelling adventure, Tales for Tots, held each Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 11:00am. Staff will engage guests with interactive storytelling as well as movement and/or music activities that connect to the story theme of the day.

June 11 | Ashton Gardens | If the Dinosaurs Came Back by Bernard Most
In this delightful book, a small boy imagines a world where dinosaurs perform public services.

June 13 | Museum of Ancient Life | Memoirs of a Goldfish by David Scillian
Join us for this tell-all tale from a goldfish. With his bowl to himself and his simple routine, Goldfish loves his life. Until one day…  

June 15 | Farm Country | Lets Make Faces by Hanoch Piven
There are so many faces to discover in our world! All you have to do is look.  

June 17 | Butterfly Biosphere | The Best Father of All by Peter Horn
“I feel so safe when I’m with you,” Sebastian the little turtle tells his father. “Yes,” said his father. “That’s what a father does—he keeps you safe.” Explore the many things different fathers do for their children. 

June 18 | Ashton Gardens | Pirasaurs! by Josh Funk
Meet the Pirasaurs, a ragtag team of seasoned pirate dinosaurs looking for adventure and treasure! There’s fearsome Captain Rex, golden-toothed Velocimate, one-eyed Bronto Beard, and more fearsome, buccaneering beasts…

June 20 | Museum of Ancient Life | Juneteenth for Maizie by Floyd Cooper
Mazie is ready to celebrate liberty. She is ready to celebrate freedom. She is ready to celebrate a great day in American history. The day her ancestors were no longer slaves.

June 22 | Farm Country | Summer Solstice by Maddie Spalding
Engage readers with the story of the summer solstice. Readers are introduced to the longest day of the year and the concept of how Earth changes to bring us the warm season.

June 24 | Butterfly Biosphere | Give Bees a Chance by Bethany Barton
Not sure whether to high-five bees or run away from them? Well, maybe you shouldn’t high-five them, but you definitely don’t have to run away from them. Give Bees a Chance is for anyone who doesn’t quite appreciate how extra special and important bees are to the world, and even to humankind! 

June 25 | Ashton Gardens | Bee Dance by Rick Chrustowski
In Bee Dance, follow a foraging honeybee as she searches for food and returns to the hive to share the news in a honeybee dance!

June 27 | Museum of Ancient Life | Toby and the Ice Giants by Joe Lillington
Join Toby the Bison in this fact-filled adventure as he explores the Ice Age Tundra and meets some of the giants that roamed its icy surface.

June 29 | Farm Country | When I Grow Up by Al Yankovic
It’s Show-and-Tell time in Mrs. Krupp’s class, and Billy just can’t wait for his turn! Today the class is discussing what they want to be when they grow up, and our exuberant eight-year-old hero is bursting to tell everyone about his future career plans.