Exhibits

Exhibits for Every Age and Interest

Created to encourage hands-on play and discovery, Boston Children’s Museum’s three floors of exhibits make the Museum an environment designed for novel experiences, rich interactions, and opportunities for creative expression.

With varied spaces, materials, and challenges, the Museum invites children and families to play, explore, and create.

The Power of Play

Play is the work of children. Critical to healthy development and stimulating children's natural curiosity and creativity, play nurtures confidence, emotional wellbeing, and cognitive development.

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First Floor

Bubbles

Investigate

Kid Power

KidStage

New Balance Foundation Climb

Raceways

Second Floor

Art Lab

Arthur and Friends

The Common

Countdown to Kindergarten

Fantastic Forts

Fenway Farms at Boston Children's Musuem

The Gallery

Johnny’s Workbench

Kid Power (2nd Floor)

Peep's World

PlaySpace

STEAM Lab

Third Floor

Construction Zone

Dinos in Space

Japanese House

You, Me, We!

Japanese House Gallery

Bubbles

Age: 4-5, 6-8     Category: STEAM

Wave, swirl, blow, pull, float, and even stretch—there is so much to discover about bubbles! One of Boston Children’s Museum’s most beloved and enduring exhibits, Bubbles gives children and adults a chance to experiment and investigate together by creating bubbles that are giant, tiny, and everything in between. With a variety of bubble-making tools to explore, this exhibit encourages children and adults to experiment side-by-side and share discoveries.

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Investigate

Age: 4-5, 6-8     Category: STEAM

Investigate with all your senses! Examine natural objects, engage with hands-on science activities, and crawl under a turtle tank to get a belly-eye view of our resident turtles Frida and Georgia. In Investigate, children and adults can explore the natural world together and come up with questions to keep investigating back home.

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Kid Power

Age: 4-5, 6-8      Category:Health and Wellness

In Kid Power, children discover that active bodies and healthy foods make them powerful people! Pedal fast to activate the Kid Power sign, shoot some hoops, climb up the walls, and hop and bounce on power pump seats. Making healthy choices is easier when families have fun doing it together.

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KidStage

Age: 4-6, 6-8     Category: Performing Arts

Take the spotlight and shine! KidStage is a one-of-a-kind, kid-sized theater designed to introduce children to the wondrous world of performing arts, giving them the chance to experience the wonders of the stage. Actors, musicians, dancers, and Museum staff can often be found in KidStage, performing theater shows, singing songs, playing music, dancing and inviting visitors to join in the show.

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New Balance Foundation Climb

Age: 6-8      Category: Health and Wellness

Climb and explore, find different paths, and challenge yourself to go higher! Estimating space, planning moves, and healthy risk taking are all part of the learning in the Climb. Adults can climb too, or encourage their children to find their way and try different paths.


The first of its kind, the Luckey Climber was constructed for Boston Children’s Museum in 1985. In 2007, it was reimagined as the New Balance Foundation Climb. The unique design encourages kids to explore new heights, problem solve, and rely on their inner ability to navigate the three-dimensional maze with ease.

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Raceways

Age: 4-5, 6-8      Category: STEAM

In Raceways, children can explore the laws of motion by rolling golf balls on a wide variety of tracks. How far can the ball launch off of a ski jump? Does the shape of the jump or the length that it drops make a difference? Children and adults can investigate these and other questions on loops, roller coasters, giant spirals, and many more unique tracks.

Second Floor Exhibits

Art Lab

Age: 4-5, 6-8      Category: Visual Arts

Explore collage, printmaking, clay, paper, fabric, and more while finding out about artists and art from around the world! The Art Lab offers multi-sensory art experiences that emphasize self-expression and experimentation. Children and families can explore, create, play, and make art together, side by side in the lab.

Learn more about the Art Lab.

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Arthur and Friends

Age: 4-5, 6-8      Category: Play!, School Readiness

Arthur™ and Friends uses imaginative settings to bring you inside the world of Marc Brown’s beloved books and cartoon character, Arthur. Serve as co-pilots on a cross-country plane trip with Buster, or dance on an interactive screen with Arthur and his buddies! Arthur and Friends promotes important skills like reading, understanding feelings, creative problem solving, and connecting with friends and family.

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The Common

Age: 4-5, 6-8      Category: Play!

The Common is a space for play of all kinds! Children and families can create colorful patterns on the light table, or play musical chairs with seats that sing. Learn new games and play old favorites on the giant chessboard and tic tac toe tables. Check the calendar for special events happening in this space, from dance and music performances, to live animal meet and greets.

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Countdown to Kindergarten

Age: 0-3, 4-5      Category: School Readiness

Countdown to Kindergarten is a model classroom that invites children and their adults to engage in activities and skill-building experiences that help kids get ready for school. Ride a school bus, pack a backpack, make friends, practice taking turns, and gather around for storytime. The classroom includes a math and science area, dramatic play space, a reading and writing corner, and a creative arts area. Experiences in this space are designed to support children’s curiosity, social and emotional skill development, and other school readiness skills.

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Fantastic Forts

Age: 4-5, 6-8      Category: Play!

Build big structures and even bigger ideas! In Fantastic Forts, families are encouraged to use their imagination and collaborate with others to build their very own environment for play and exploration. Experiment with differently shaped panels and connectors to build a home, a castle, a cave, or even a command center on another planet! Fantastic Forts encourages children and adults to use their imaginations to explore, create, test, try again, and enhance their creations through rich dramatic play.

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Fenway Farms at Boston Children's Musuem

Age: 6-8      Category: Natural Environment, STEAM

Explore soil, leaves, veggies, fruits, herbs, worms, and more in Fenway Farms at Boston Children’s Museum, a replica of Fenway Park’s own rooftop garden installed right here at the Museum! In Fenway Farms, visitors can connect with a farmer educator to ask questions and learn about local plants, observing how they change through the season. Children and adults will be invited to reflect on their backgrounds and histories with food and gardening, and share these reflections with others.

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The Gallery

Age: 6-8      Category: Visual Art

The Gallery is a dynamic space showcasing the work of local artists. Get a close-up look at the innovative, beautiful, and inspirational work created by the talented New England art community. Installations are thought-provoking and child-friendly, encouraging children’s creativity and observational skills. Gallery exhibitions change every few months, so there is always new art to experience!

Learn about the current Gallery exhibition.

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Johnny’s Workbench

Age: 4-5, 6-8      Category: STEAM

Twist screws, turn a hand drill, and operate a saw! Johnny’s Workbench provides space for children and families to safely explore and use hand tools together. The exhibit is a place where children can investigate the form and function of tools they may have seen used in real life, but don’t typically get the chance to try themselves!

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Peep's World

Age: 4-5      Category: STEAM

Explore the waterfall in Catfish Creek, and make your very own silly shadows in the Deep Dark Woods! In Peep’s World, children and families travel into the world of the characters from WGBH’s Emmy award-winning science program “Peep and the Big Wide World.” Observe, compare, and predict throughout this fantasy land.

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PlaySpace

Age: 0-3      Category: Play!

Designed specially for young children, PlaySpace is just for little ones ages birth to 3 years and their adults to play, discover, connect, and wonder! From cooking up a pretend snack and driving a toddler-sized jeep, to climbing hills and crossing a wobbly bridge, PlaySpace is where very young children learn about themselves and the world around them. Infants and crawlers have a special spot too—a shoes-off area for the very littlest learners and their adults to explore together!

Learn more about PlaySpace.

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STEAM Lab

Age: 4-5, 6-8      Category: STEAM

The STEAM Lab is a space for hands-on science, technology, engineering, art, and math activities that are specifically designed to foster creativity, curiosity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. Program a robot, design your very own light-up bug, build a marble maze, or make an ornament with help from our laser cutter! The STEAM Lab is a great place to try out a tool or technology you haven’t seen before, learn something new, and make a fun project in the process!

Learn more about the STEAM Lab.

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Construction Zone

Age: 4-5, 6-8      Category: STEAM

In Construction Zone, children are encouraged to build, climb, and tear down! Construction Zone is a child-sized world inspired by the real building projects all around the city. Pretend to drive a real Bobcat, operate a jackhammer, and deploy a team of trucks to a construction site. A wide variety of block and construction toys throughout the exhibit give grown-ups and children a chance to create, build, and explore together.

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Dinos In Space

Age: 4-5, 6-8       Category: Play!

How far can your imagination take you? It’s dinosaurs in space! And it’s just as fun, creative, and silly as you imagine. Enter a space dome and create a landscape for dinosaurs, design a new constellation, send an inter-galactic message, and dress up a dinosaur for a space flight. Start with the question “What if…?” and see where your imagination and creativity go next!

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Japanese House

Age: 6-8     Category: Culture and Identity

Welcome to the Japanese House! Walk down the street, take off your shoes, and step into an authentic two-story silk merchant’s home from Kyoto, Japan. The Japanese House was transported piece by piece from Kyoto and reconstructed here in Boston by Japanese carpenters. Families can explore every corner of the fully-equipped home. Japanese family life, customs, ceremonies, art, architecture, and seasonal events are all highlighted in this fully functional 100-year-old house inside the Museum. This house was a gift to the City of Boston from the City of Kyoto on the 20th Anniversary of their sister city relationship in 1979. Come explore this rare and very special landmark.

Learn more about the Japanese House

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You, Me, We!

Age: 5-10, adults      Category: Identity

This engaging exhibition space encourages families to connect with each other around questions of fairness in the world, and express themselves through guided identity exploration. You, Me, We  addresses an urgent need in our society for self-reflection, in order to disrupt bias and build empathy for one another. In response to and in support of needs identified by parents and caregivers, You, Me, We offers adults thoughtful guidance and tools to more deeply engage with children in their lives as they begin to perceive, explore, and question topics such as identity, stereotyping, discrimination, and more.

For more information, click here.

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Japanese House Gallery

Age: 6-8      Category: Art

Adjacent to the Japanese House, an authentic 1880s house from Kyoto, Japan, this gallery space explores contemporary stories of Japan, especially of the vibrant and multifaceted lives and expressions of youth. Using art and culture as vehicles, local and international artists, storytellers, and curators co-create a culturally responsive gallery space that invites visitors to build empathy. Shared narratives are authentic and complex, bringing more appreciation to the lived experiences of each individual. Children and their grownups are encouraged to experience imagination and belonging in the Japanese House Gallery. This small space has a large mission!

Learn about the current Japanese House Gallery exhibition.

Kid Power (2nd Floor)

Age: 4-5, 6-8      Category: Health and Wellness

In Kid Power, children discover that active bodies and healthy foods make them powerful people! Pedal fast to activate the Kid Power sign, shoot some hoops, climb up the walls, and hop and bounce on power pump seats. Making healthy choices is easier when families have fun doing it together.

Next Exhibit