School Visits
Brooklyn Children’s Museum welcomes school groups, daycares and other groups Tuesday through Friday between 10 am–1 pm.
- A 50% non-refundable deposit made by credit card is required in order to confirm a spot for your group.
- Your visit is confirmed once you receive confirmation from BCM personnel and your deposit has been paid.
- There must be one adult present for every five children in the group.
- Groups without an advance reservation cannot be accommodated at this time.
- Please note: Sound Field is closed to group visits, including school groups, as the exhibit requires staff facilitation and cannot accommodate large groups.
Self-Guided Visit
2 hours
Title 1 schools: $7 per student
Private schools, Non-Title 1 public schools: $9 per student
Lunch space: $50 per group depending on availability
Additional self-guided time in the Museum: $50 per each additional half-hour
Educator-Led Program and Self-Guided Visit
2 hours: 1 hour Program, 1 hour Self-Guided
Title 1 schools: $10 per student
Private schools, Non-Title 1 public schools: $14 per student
Lunch space: $50 per group depending on availability
Additional self-guided time in the Museum: $50 per each additional half-hour
Each educator-led program can have a max 30 participants.
Educator-Led Programs
Join a BCM Educator to participate in an engaging arts, culture, or science program. Choose from the following programs below.
Amazing Animals
Whether they can regrow a tail or lift 1,000 times their weight, our animal friends at Brooklyn Children’s Museum have super powers! All animals, including humans, have unique gifts that help us to survive, grow, solve problems, and live our daily lives. Students explore the science of adaptation and expert survival skills with reptiles and insects and other BCM animal friends. Inspired by what we observe of our animal friends, students move their bodies and reflect on their own superpowers.
Beautiful Us
People around the world use different materials to adorn our bodies and to tell stories about who we are. Beautiful Us is a cultural collections investigation and art-making workshop in which students explore the unique and universal reasons we adorn ourselves. Students investigate cultural adornments from our collection and then make their very own body adornment that expresses themselves.
Growing Ideas
In this ecology-based program, students explore some of the issues of climate change that impact our everyday lives such as global warming, pollution, and renewable resources. Students interact with fossils from the Museum’s collection and get their hands in the dirt through a class planting project that continues growing in their classroom and make an artwork that expresses the ways they envision becoming the next generation of earth champions.
Speak Up, Speak Out
Say it loud, say it now! Changemakers of all ages impact our communities every day. In Speak Up, Speak Out students are encouraged to find their voices, practice listening to others, and express themselves through art. In this workshop, students are inspired by artists who use their practice and techniques to advocate for their communities. Students will learn about collage and weaving, and create an expression quilt that channels their advocacy through art.
Me and My Super Sense Self
Activate your senses through looking, listening, and hands-on exploration of highlights from the Museum’s collection. Students will interact with a live animal, investigate a cultural object, and design a kaleidoscope that changes their perspective.
Our Littlest Neighbors
Whether it’s a nest, a shell, a hive, or a burrow, all animals create unique homes. Through exploration of objects from BCM’s natural science collection, students investigate the ways that animals create shelters and how these homes offer protection and enable them to grow and thrive. Students consider the everyday needs of an animal of their choosing, and will then use natural materials to create a mini habitat and describe the animal who could make a home there.
Brooklyn Voices
Using the Brooklyn Voices exhibition as a classroom, students will learn about people who have lived in Brooklyn in the past through investigating their first-hand stories and objects. As students discover the ways that Brooklynites can be both similar and different, they gain insight into the ways they are part of a larger New York story.
K–2nd grade
Students will create their own Brooklyn Book, which makes personal connections to their family histories, the place they live, and each other.
3th–4th grade
Students will learn about different forms of historical sources such as photographs, artifacts, oral histories, and maps that we use to tell the stories of history. They will create an approach for conducting their own oral history collection and create an artwork that expresses their own Brooklyn story.
ArtRink
For an additional $60, your class can reserve an hour of skating on BCM’s outdoor rink (30 students max). All students, chaperones, and teachers must have a signed waiver on file to be in the rink.
School groups can reserve ArtRink for one hour Wednesday through Friday, during the hours of 10 am–1 pm. BCM cannot guarantee skate size availability for all students, though we do have a large assortment. Shoe booties (sock skating) are available as an alternative. You may bring your own skates; we recommend making sure your skate blades are sharp for an optimal skating experience.
District 35 Schools
Public schools in Brooklyn’s 35th City Council Districts may be eligible for free field trips thanks to support from Council Member Crystal Hudson. Please let us know if your school is part of District 35 when you reserve your slot.