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.
This parent/child program is designed for the creative, curious, and active preschooler who loves animals. Each 90-minute session offers a structured series of activities including original songs, movement, dramatic play, hands-on science, and a thematic snack. We are going to learn about the journey our backyard birds have made from the south to the north, what they will do now that they are here and we’ll get to learn all about bird nests and explain why we are hearing so many birds in the morning now! We’ll make a bird nest snack and a great take-home craft to welcome in spring! Bring your rain boots so we can venture out into the riverside yard and see/listen for our returning birds!
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!
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!
Stop by to build or make artwork with Wikki Stix, wax-covered pieces of yarn that mold into any shape you want. Drop-in for kids of all ages and abilities.
Grades 6-12: Learn how to paint a sugar skull in celebration of El Dia de los Muertos with step-by-step instructions! You will leave with a beautiful completed painting! Meets in the Program Room. Please contact Emely, Teen Services Librarian, with questions at 978-465-4428 ext.242 or nplteenlibrarian@gmail.com.
For Kids in Grades 6-12: Come to NPL try out the braiding technique kumihimo, the ancient Japanese art of creating complex patterns of braided cords. Join us in the Program Room for this free event! Please contact Emely, Teen Services Librarian, with questions.
Join us in making some kite artwork to get excited for Newburyport Winter Kite Festival! This program is open to kids of all ages and abilities. No registration required! The Kite Festival will take place on February 2. Please visit Newburyport Youth Service's website (newburyportyouthservices.com) for more information.
Spend an hour with Jane Kelly, and several of her live birds of prey, in the refuge auditorium, while learning about the habits and habitats of these fascinating creatures. Kelly, of On the Wing Raptor Rehabilitation, will reprise the hugely popular program that she delivered as part of last year’s Earth Day celebration. No preregistration for this program.
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!
