Skip to Content

Families

Bring creative learning experiences inspired by the museum’s collections into your home.

 

Family Guides

Download a family guide to enhance your visit and help engage children with observation, discussion, and activity prompts.

Lasting Impressions: People, Power, Piety Family Guide

All ages | Explore Byzantine seals with your family using this guide designed to enhance your visit or support children's learning at home with close looking, drawing, and writing activities.

Margaret Mee: Portraits of Plants Family Guide

All ages | Explore botanical artworks with your family using this guide designed to enhance your visit or support children's learning at home with close looking, drawing, and writing activities.

 

Activities

Bring creative learning experiences inspired by the collections and historic garden into your home.

Byzantine Seal Cookies

All ages | Make sugar cookies stamped with your own monogram or animal impressions.


Signed, Sealed, Delivered: Letter Tutorial

Grades 4 and up | Write an official letter to friends or family secured with your own Byzantine seal.

Creature Foil Impression Tutorial

Grades 3 and up | Design your own Byzantine creature seal and engrave it in foil with this craft tutorial.

Creature Collection Worksheet

Grades 3-5 | Learn about animals and mythological creatures on Byzantine seals in this matching and drawing worksheet.

3D Byzantine Seal: Write a Story Worksheet

Grades 6–8 | Look closely at a 3D model of an eleventh-century Byzantine seal and write a story about the figure based on your observations.


Monogram and Inscription Foil Impression Tutorial

Grades 6 and up | Learn about monograms and inscriptions on Byzantine seals and create your own design engraved in foil paper with this craft tutorial.

Heliconia Pencil Topper Tutorial

Grades 4 and up | Learn about pollination and co-evolution with this paper craft tutorial.

Botanical Coloring Sheets

All ages | Bring nature inside with these coloring pages of plants, taken from works by botanical artists of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Hummingbird Mobile Tutorial

Grades 6 and up | Learn about hummingbirds and the plant-bird relationship with this paper craft tutorial. Students will read about hummingbirds and create a hummingbird mobile by scientist and artist Amy Lamb.


Read & Create: Zonia’s Rain Forest

Grades Pre-K–2 | Listen to the story “Zonia’s Rain Forest” and learn about ecosystems and botanical art by Margaret Mee. Explore ecosystems around you and gather leaves to create your own botanical prints! Available in English and Spanish.

Read & Create: Run, Little Chaski!

Grades Pre-K–2 | Listen to the story “Run, Little Chaski!” An Inka Trail Adventure and learn about khipus with a hands-on counting activity using simple knots. Available in English and Spanish.

Pre-Columbian Jewelry Word Search and Wari Textile Exercise

Grades 6–8 | Learn about materials and subjects in Pre-Columbian jewelry, and search for colors, shapes, and lines in a Wari textile.

Read & Create: Jacob the Juggler

Grades Pre-K–2 | Listen to the story “Jacob the Juggler” based on a French legend from the 13th century and create story puppets or print coloring pages inspired by the tale.