This weekend marks the arrival of spring! Three cheers for more sunshine, longer days, and better weather! And since it’s the weekend, let’s have three cheers for that! We’ve gathered up some family-friendly things to do to help you spend your time
Kick off the weekend with the Magnolia Tree Viewing Party on Friday evening from 6:00 PM to 6:30 PM as Suzi Shelton celebrates the release of her new song and animated music video, “Magnolia Tree.” Brooklyn-based family music star Suzi Shelton will release a new song for spring called “Magnolia Tree,” and she is hosting a viewing party for her new animated music video. As part of this “happy hour” of music, Suzi will lead a sing-along and officially unveil the video created by artist Jackie Land and Alcides Urrutia of Pirata Y Luna. Free admission. Suitable for ages 2 to 8, and grownups, too!
Bnai Keshet will host three sessions of Family Passover Fun on Saturday, March 20th from 1:00 PM to 3:45 PM. Enjoy family-friendly outdoor Passover activities. Prospective members are welcome. Ideal for ages 3-9. Sign up online to reserve your space and pick the time slot that works best for you.
New Jersey Youth Symphony will host a Virtual Playathon on Sunday from 3:00 PM to 4:30 PM on WhartonArts.tv. The event will feature virtual ensemble performances, raffles, trivia contests, and interviews with NJYS conductors, as well as a live auction to win the conductor’s baton and the chance to conduct the New Jersey Youth Symphony performing John Williams’ Superman. WNYC’s Weekend Edition and The Christie Tracker Podcast Host David Furst will preside as the event’s emcee. The annual fundraiser raises nearly $100,000 for the organization to support performing arts education, including scholarships and tuition assistance for New Jersey’s largest youth orchestra program. This year, NJYS students are participating in a practice challenge to help raise funds for the event and have logged 279,500 minutes to date. To support music education at the New Jersey Youth Symphony and the 2021 Playathon, continue to give by texting MUSIC to 74121 or donating online at www.WhartonArtsDonate.org.
Morris County Park Commission will host Wild Animal Experts Online: Slithering Snakes. This all-ages virtual program is free and available all weekend. Discover the snakes of NJ through fun facts and meeting the live snakes up close. Once you register, you’ll receive a link for you to log in at your convenience. Registration is required.
On Sunday from 11:00 AM to 11:45 AM, The Newark Museum of Art will present Family Drop In: Burble, Fizz, Kaboom! In this playful performance, Rand Whipple combines chemical reactions, solutions, molecules, and phase changes with a great sense of humor, and is presented with a lot of help from the audience. Families learn how to shatter a marshmallow and what scientists want more than anything else in the world! It’s a fun and informative introduction to science that gets children actively involved—and it doesn’t underestimate the value of a good, clean mess. This event is recommended for children age 7-12. It’s free, but registration is required.
Since spring is a time for growth, this Growing Lettuce science experiment is a perfect activity. It can be done fully indoors, which makes it ideal for when the weather hasn’t quite caught up to springtime expectations. You’ll put core of a head of romaine lettuce into some water in a bowl, using toothpicks to help it stand up. It only takes a couple of days for the lettuce to start sprouting. Once it’s grown enough, you can plant it in dirt until it’s ready to eat! This a great opportunity to talk about how plants grow, make predictions, and try different things like growing lettuce with more sun or less.
There’s nothing better than a craft activity that makes way for another opportunity for play when it’s done. These Pipe Cleaner Bubble Wands are exactly that. These bubble wands are easy enough that kids of most ages can be involved with supervision. You’ll bend a pipe cleaner so that there’s a circle on one end and a handle on the other, then string beads onto it. Then you can use store bought bubbles or make your own!