Our family of five lives in New York City, and we love exploring our city together on the weekends. The most recent adventure was visiting The Met with kids. Our afternoon was inspired by our oldest daughter’s class field trip to The Metropolitan Museum of Art. She was excited to show us some of the exhibits that her class viewed with a tour guide.

Tickets to The Met are available online, with discounted tickets for seniors and students, free tickets for children under 12, and pay-what-you-wish tickets for NY residents and NY, NJ, and CT students. We love exploring The Met with kids!

Art Scavenger Hunt

The Met is a beautiful and expansive art museum. There are over 1.5 million art pieces, so there is a lot to explore! We have a picture book about The Met, so we decided to use it as an art scavenger hunt.

You Can’t Take a Balloon

You Can’t Take a Balloon Into The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a wordless picture book about a little girl who goes to The Met with her grandma. She leaves her balloon outside while she and her grandma explore the museum. The balloon goes on a parallel adventure that mirrors the artwork she is seeing inside the museum. The book is filled with works of art reproduced from the collections of The Met. The back of the book also includes a list of the art titles and artists, which is helpful for the adult guiding the hunt.

We previewed the book together at home, and looked at the artwork. Then as we walked through The Met, we used the illustrations as a scavenger hunt and looked for the art that was pictured.

Using the book as a scavenger hunt turns visits to The Met with kids into an exciting exploration. We can explore the exhibit spaces, and then are delighted each time we find a masterpiece depicted in the book.

The Ancient Playground

The Met is located on the perimeter of Central Park, and The Ancient Playground is next door. The Met’s collection of Egyptian art inspired the playground’s design. It feels like an ancient city, with pyramids, an obelisk, a sundial, tunnels, and bridges. It also features a sandbox, a variety of swings, multiple slides, and even a water feature during the warm seasons. It’s a fun playground to explore before and/or after a visit to The Met with kids!

MET Roof Garden

The Met Rooftop Garden is open from April – October and features a new art installation each season. You can visit the rooftop garden free with museum admission and it offers expansive views of the Manhattan skyline and Central Park. The elevators to the rooftop are on the second floor of the museum. We asked The Met staff to help direct us to the correct elevators, and then were transported to the impressive outdoor garden!

City Adventures

We love adventure afternoons at The Met with kids. Before your next visit, be sure to grab a copy of You Can’t Take a Balloon Into The Metropolitan Museum!

Thanks for pinning: The MET Scavenger Hunt

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