Inside the CHS

Pop! Celebrate the holidays at CHS with our annual popper craft! Poppers, or crackers, make great gifts, holiday party favors, or New Year’s Eve noisemakers.

Join us for a holiday storytime at CHS! Listen to a reading of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and make a holiday craft to take home.

Discover the stories of your unique history with a family tree activity! Kids and adults will work together to make a family tree of the people and stories that make up their family.

Share the best moments of 2015 with a scrapbook! We’ll provide the scrapbooking supplies, and we invite kids and families to bring their creativity and memorable photos and create a scrapbook of your favorite family moments.

Celebrate New Year’s Eve by making a “good luck bag”, filled with good luck charms used by families around the world to ring in a happy and lucky new year.

Pop! Celebrate the holidays at CHS with our annual popper craft! Poppers, or crackers, make great gifts, holiday party favors, or New Year’s Eve noisemakers.

Instead of buying your Valentine’s Day cards this year, come to CHS to create old-fashioned, hand-made Valentines! Get inspired by Valentines from long ago, then use your creativity to make Valentine cards to give to your friends and family.

Come celebrate Dr. Seuss’ birthday and Read Across America at CHS! Join us for a reading of the Dr. Seuss book The Lorax at 10:45 and 11:45. After the story, make your own Dr. Seuss-inspired invention to take home.

Join us during spring break as we take a close look at historic ART-ifacts! On Tuesday, weave through our exhibits and find the woven treasures hidden in our museum. Then, create your own woven ART-ifact from yarn or paper.

Join us during spring break as we take a close look at historic ART-ifacts! On Wednesday, learn about the designs found in the chairs, chests, and other wood ART-ifacts. Use these designs or invent your own design and stencil a box to take home.

Join us during spring break as we take a close look at historic ART-ifacts! On Thursday, explore the world of elegant costumes and colorful embroidery. Get inspired by the clothing and needlework in the exhibits, then design and “sew” your own kid-friendly needlework.

Join us during spring break as we take a close look at historic ART-ifacts! On Friday, discover how metal is transformed into swords, lanterns, and other metal ART-ifacts. Then, design and make a punched tin lantern to take home.

Can you show someone a sound? Can you “see” objects without using your eyes? Explore how senses work by trying out different activities that investigate all the ways we see, hear, and feel the world around us. Try to guess the items in a mystery box, test out all the different ways sound travels, and create a sensory portrait of yourself or your favorite things.

Kids will have a blast playing at the HSO Instrument Petting Zoo, trying out dozens of musical instruments from the violin and the saxophone to the tuba and the glockenspiel. Come learn how playing a musical instrument is a whole-body experience; you’ll feel each instrument’s vibrations humming differently from your head to your toes!

Get excited to go back to school! Read, write, and play as we try out activities and crafts to explore how learning has changed from the 1800s to today. Try writing on a slate and see if you could pass a 19th-century class. Also, use modern-day craft supplies to make a cool chalkboard decoration for your locker or fridge!

Sold Out! Discover American Sign Language with your family! Join us for a one-time introductory class led by an instructor from the American School for the Deaf. In this kid-friendly class, we’ll learn about Deaf Culture and history, try out simple signs, and play games and activities to practice signing.

Fall into autumn on Free First Saturday! Join us for a kid-friendly decoupage pumpkin craft. After the craft, work with your family to decode and follow pumpkin clues around the building to discover secrets and fun facts about the museum.

Create and (re)create at Free First Saturday! Join us as we get hands-on with the art of printmaking. Kids and their families can try out different printmaking techniques at various stations led by artists and printmakers from the Printmakers’ Network of Southern New England. Stamp, paint, cut, and design to make your own collection of prints to take home!

Celebrate the holidays at CHS with our annual popper craft! Poppers (or “crackers”) were first invented by a London pastry chef in the 1840s, and since then have become timeless favorites. Make a personalized popper to use as a gift, holiday party favor, or New Year’s Eve noisemaker. We’ll also have a variety of craft supplies available for families to create their own one-of-a-kind holiday cards.

Curl up with some cocoa at the CHS during winter break! Join us for an afternoon of crafts, hot cocoa, and a reading of a book by a Connecticut children’s author. On Thursday we’ll read Connecticut native Tomie dePaola’s beloved classic Strega Nona. After the story, create your own colorful pasta art to take home.

Curl up with some cocoa at the CHS during winter break! Join us for an afternoon of crafts, hot cocoa, and a reading of a book by a Connecticut children’s author. On Friday we’ll explore Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. After the story, make your own “wild things” mask and join us for a wild rumpus.

Come celebrate Dr. Seuss’s birthday and NEA’s Read Across America Day at the CHS! Families are invited to join us for a reading of the Dr. Seuss classic Green Eggs and Ham at 10:15, 11:15, or 12:15, where we’ll learn that weird things can surprise us if we give them a try. In the spirit of Sam-I-Am, kids can create wacky colorful “food” of the future.

Join us for the first family program of our new exhibit, Facing War: Connecticut in World War I. Decorate a mason jar and plant a vegetable to take home! This event will also kick off our CHS Victory Garden, so check out our backyard garden and learn more about this exciting summer program!

Meet us at Auerfarm in Bloomfield, CT and spend the afternoon on the farm! Learn how local farms produce food, visit the animal friends, and take a hayride tour of the farm.

Come to Free First Saturday at the CHS and experience what life was like for children in colonial times. Kids and families can participate in a series of colonial games, compete against friends in “chore races,” and make their own whirligig to take home!

Come to Free First Saturday at the CHS to experience life as a factory worker during WWI. Kids and families can try their hands at various factory jobs and then make their own airplane or submarine to take home!

Join us as we learn about Sergeant Stubby, the most decorated dog of World War I, and other animal heroes from Connecticut! Visit with a military working dog and its handler, see the new feature film “Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero” and make a craft to take home!

Join us on Free First Saturday as we remember those who served in World War I and those serving in the armed forces today. Kids and families can create a unique poppy pin, and make a card or postcard to send to military service members from Connecticut who are deployed around the world.

Curl up with some cocoa at the CHS during winter break! Join us for a morning of crafts, hot cocoa, and a reading of a children’s book. On Friday, December 28, escape the winter for a “summer day” indoors, where we’ll read about the amazing adventures that can happen right in your own backyard and make our own mini “gardens.”

Curl up with some cocoa at the CHS during winter break! Join us for a morning of crafts, hot cocoa, and a reading of a children’s book. For fans of the musical Hamilton, come to the museum on Saturday, December 29 for a revolutionary storytime. Learn about the world of Alexander Hamilton and make your own paper tricorn hat!

It’s cold outside, so escape the winter for a day and come warm up at our indoor backyard “pool” party! We’ll have games to play, summer tunes, a kiddie pool to “fish” in, and craft stations to make your own paper sunglasses and sand art.

Instead of buying your own valentine cards this year, come to the CHS and make your own one-of-a-kind valentines! We’ll supply the glitter and glue (and other supplies), as well as samples of vintage valentines and silly love letters from our collection to use for decoration or inspiration.

Calling all artists! All ages and artistic abilities are welcome to join us for First Free Saturday. Learn about a Hartford-born African American artist, then create your own original masterpiece!

Help us kick off Blue Star Museums by visiting the CHS for a special family program! Starting on May 18th, Armed Forces Day, Blue Star Museums will be offering free admission to active military personnel and their families until Labor Day on September 2nd. All are invited to help us honor the men and women who serve this country by engaging in a fun craft and activity.

Help us welcome the Hartford Symphony Orchestra when they visit the CHS for a special Free First Saturday! Kids will have a blast experiencing the HSO Instrument Discovery Lab, trying out dozens of musical instruments from the violin and the saxophone to the tuba and the glockenspiel. The Instrument Discovery Lab is a musical laboratory that gives children the opportunity to see, hear, touch, and play!

Did you know that Connecticut was the first state in America to print a comic book? Join the CHS for a fun-filled journey into the world of superheroes and comic books! Take a look at comic books from Connecticut, and then create your own comic-inspired craft.

Join the CHS as we investigate the history of weather! Learn about some of the largest storms to ever hit Connecticut, and then create your very own “Storm in a Jar” by performing a special science experiment!

Join the CHS as we investigate the history of weather! Learn about some of the largest storms to ever hit Connecticut, and then create your very own “Storm in a Jar” by performing a special science experiment!

Join the CHS as we journey into space! Prepare for the 50th Anniversary of Apollo as you learn about Connecticut’s role in the space industry and how our state helped astronauts travel to space. Then you can create your very own rocket ship! You can also dress up in an astronaut helmet and pose in our special outer space photo booth!

Half a century after humanity’s historic first step on the Moon, the CHS is hosting a screening of Smithsonian Channel’s “The Day We Walked on the Moon.” Join the CHS for a special family screening of this film directly following the family program, “From Connecticut to Beyond!” Families can bring their lunch, along with blankets and pillows to sit on; chairs and additional snacks will be provided.