Activity Kits
Hands-On Fun at Home
Bring BCM’s exhibits home by printing our free Brooklyn Children’s Museum activity booklets. Activities highlight themes of culture and community through art-making.
Brooklyn Is Home Activity Kit
Home means different things to different people. It can be tied to a place or a feeling. You may have special feelings about your home because of the people who live with you and the things you do together there. If you call Brooklyn home, you are connected to generations of people from all over the world who have lived here before you and called our borough home. Try the activities in this guide, and tell your own Brooklyn story!
Museum Activity Guide
Our Museum Activity Guide extends the fun of BCM’s permanent exhibits like World Brooklyn, Neighborhood Nature, Collections Central and Totally Tots to your home. All you need are colored pencils or crayons to enjoy the activities in this guide before or after your BCM visit.
Our City Activity Kit
In 2016, Brooklyn Children’s Museum hosted Our City, a group exhibition including local artists exploring New York City. Our City included the work of Aisha Cousins, Elizabeth Hamby, Brooklyn Hi!-Art Machine, James Rojas, Priscilla Stadler and Rusty Zimmerman. We are grateful to the artists for allowing Brooklyn Children’s Museum to use their work as inspiration for the Our City activity guide, which was distributed to 1,000 children along with art supplies and other resources in the summer and fall of 2020.
Block Party Activity Kit
In 2017, Brooklyn Children’s Museum partnered with Crown Heights-based photography Anderson Zaca to celebrate the iconic Brooklyn street festival in its exhibit Block Party. The Block Party activity guide brings the joy of that exhibit into your home through projects and photographs. BCM is grateful to Anderson Zaca for allowing us to use his work in this material.
Did your family create something special using one of our booklets or inspired by these resources? Post it on social media and tag @bcmkids.
Throughout the year, BCM packages print versions of its activity guides with kits of art materials. Kits are distributed through community partners to help ensure that all children in Central Brooklyn, regardless of whether they can visit the Museum in person or have internet access, can experience BCM. To learn more about activity kit distribution at Brooklyn Children’s Museum, contact education@brooklynkids.org.
Activity guides and kits at Brooklyn Children’s Museum are supported by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, The Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the New York City Council. Special thanks to Women in Need, Kingston Family Residence, United for Brownsville, NYC School District 16, NYC School District 17, New York City Council Member Alicka Ampry-Samuel, New York City Council Member Farah Louis, New York State Senator Zellnor Myrie, and New York State Assembly Member Diana Richardson for participating in distribution of activity kits throughout Central Brooklyn.