A Blog for Kids: Summer Fun at Minnetrista!
This blog is for all of our little Minnetrista Museum & Gardens fans, so if you have one nearby, share the screen and read this together!
Summer is an exciting time for everyone. The sun is shining, the gardens are in bloom, and we have some extraordinary signature events to look forward to at Minnetrista. In this blog, we’ll learn about the fun things happening, how you and your family can enjoy them together, and complete some fun activities along the way. Let’s start with a little bit of trivia!
Fun with Faeries!
The answer is Betty! Did you guess correctly?
Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Elisabeth Ball who lived in the Oakhurst Home. Everyone called her Betty. One day, while she was outside playing, she discovered faeries living among the trees and flowers. Wearing her own faerie attire, Betty played games, danced, and skipped through the grass with her magical friends. Every July, thousands of faeries fly back into Oakhurst Gardens for the enchanted Faeries, Sprites, & Lights at Minnetrista, and you can join them! During this event, you and your family can dress up like faeries and come to the Oakhurst Gardens for games, crafts, a theater show, live music and dancing, a bubble garden, and more. With the help of your guardian, find more information and purchase a ticket here.
Activity: Now it’s time to chat! Talk to your reading partner or find a friend to discuss what kind of faerie you want to be. Will you have small or large wings? What color will your wings be, and where will you fly first?
Do You like Robots, Trees, or the Imagination Playground?
If you said yes, then the exhibits in the Center Building are perfect for you. Learn about them below!
The Robot Zoo
The Robot Zoo is exactly what it sounds like: animal robots! You’ll learn how real animals work by looking at the robot versions. You’ll see how a chameleon changes, how a fly walks on the ceiling, play to see if you can reach a fly with a chameleon’s tongue, and much more!
TreeHouses - Look Who’s Living in the Trees
Trees provide homes for so many critters, big and small! In this exhibit, you’ll hang out in a treehouse to experiment with the technology that builds treehouses and conduct forest research high in the treetops. This exhibit will teach you how important trees are in giving life to all sorts of wild things including people!
Shape ‘Scape
Are you a fan of the Imagination Playground? If so, you’ll love this exhibit! In Shape ‘Scape, you’re the architect and you can create the version of Minnetrista that you want to see. Do this with a team or on your own, just be creative!
Activity: Now it’s your turn! Get a piece of paper and something to draw with, then design an exhibit you’d like to see.
Imagine in Glass
We're inviting kids aged 12 and under to see their art come to life in glass! Gather your crayons, markers, paint, paper, and any tools you need to create a design you want to see turned into glass. Check out the directions below.
Activity: Download this entry form and create your own design on a new sheet of paper!
Let’s Go Outside!
Do you prefer to be outside? Minnetrista has just as much fun outside as we do inside. Did you know our entire campus is made up of 40 acres? That’s as big as 30 football fields put together! If you don’t know how big a football field is, let’s use rulers instead. To fill Minnetrista’s campus, you would need 15,681,600 rulers.
Most of these acres are full of gardens! Each garden has a name that helps you know where it’s located or why it’s special. For example, our Bird & Butterfly Garden is named because it has plants that birds and butterflies like! If you visit this garden, you’ll see the happy flyers and the pretty flowers that attract them. Another one is the East Lawn Rain Garden. That’s the name because it’s located on the East Lawn and captures rainwater from storms! It can actually hold water for up to two days to filter back to the plants so they’ll grow! The Backyard Garden is in the backyard of the L.L. Ball Home, where the Bob Ross Experience is located. Visit the Backyard Garden to discover colorful flowers, the goldfish and koi pond, and numerous places to play, enjoy a picnic, or relax!
One place that’s fun to explore is our Nature Area. It’s unique because it has all three of our state’s natural landscapes.
Think: Can you guess what these are? Take a moment to discuss what types of landscapes you see around you. What do they look like?
The three main types are grasslands, which are fields of grass, woodlands filled with trees, and wetlands, which have water. As you can imagine, each animal that enjoys living in those specific landscapes can be found there, so the Nature Area is literally crawling with critters!
If you want tools for your adventure when you visit the Nature Area, you can check out the Nature Adventure Bag from the front desk. Inside this bag are tools to help you explore and interpret the landscape. Use binoculars, identify animal sounds, and catch bugs with a net. There’s so much to investigate, and this bad has everything you need!
Speaking of catching bugs, it’s National Pollinator Week at Minnetrista, and we’re celebrating with free activities for you to do with your family daily. All of these will teach you a bit about the world of pollination and how it affects our environment. Learn more here.
Now that you’ve learned a bit about Minnetrista Museum & Gardens and some of the events we have this summer, let’s plan a visit!
Make the Most of Your Visit!
Become a Minnetrista member today to unlock all of the amazing opportunities for you and your family to enjoy. If the price of admission or membership has ever posed a barrier for you to access our campus, consider Museums for All. Museums for All is a $5 annual membership option for families in our seven-county service region, with no proof of income required. You can find more information on memberships and Museums for All with the link below.