Long Island museums unveil new fall exhibits for kids

Kids can have a block party, meet a mini-meat-eating animatronic dinosaur and come face-to-face with a giant squid sculpted out of debris from local beaches at Long Island museums. A new roster of exhibits are being unveiled alongside hands-on activities this fall. 

"A hands-on experience provides the opportunity for a museum visitor to take an active role," says Daniel Burke, group learning and volunteering manager at the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Uniondale. Saturdays, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., docents will lead hands-on STEM activities at the museum including helping children build their own paper airplanes, encode messages using signal flags and experiment with gravity. 

Burke remembers the first day he introduced the design-your-own-super-paper-plane activity. "We showed a young girl how to use safety scissors to make elevator flaps that would keep the plane in the air longer," he says. "Hours later, she was still flying her plane around the museum. It was a fantastic day for us all."

Here are five new exhibits with hands-on activities that just might inspire.

CRADLE OF AVIATION MUSEUM

Charles Lindbergh Boulevard, Uniondale

An "Aerospace Engineering Trail" launches this fall. Visitors can be part of a scavenger hunt that will take them through everything from hinges and locking mechanisms found in World War II planes to today’s flight data recorders and liquid fuel rockets traveling in space. To complement this exhibit, watch a "Cities of the Future" film on a dome screen. Viewers will gaze at sustainable cities that include renewable energy, electric flying vehicles and smart bins with sensors that report how full they are. A second film premiering in the dome, "A Super Human Body," will cover ways humans can communicate and stay healthy in space.

Craft STEM activities take place weekly on Saturdays. Museum reopens Sept. 15 following fall maintenance. 

COST $18, $12 ages 2-12

MORE INFO: 516-572-4111, cradleofaviation.org 

LONG ISLAND CHILDREN’S MUSEUM

11 Davis Ave., Uniondale

Enter a new exhibit, "Block Party with Imagination Playground" (Sept. 28-Nov. 3), and find piles of gigantic, lightweight, blue rectangular, square, round and curve-shaped blocks. Kids can build and go inside their own castles, mazes, secret hideouts, blue forests, anything they can dream up. The blocks are blue since research shows a single color can remove distractions and competitions that multicolored blocks can create. A single color enables kids to focus on the design.

Starting Nov. 16 through Jan. 5, transition from blocks to socks in the popular, returning "Snowflake Sock Skating" exhibit. On an indoor rink, pop on a pair of socks and slide, glide, hop or twirl as if you’re skating on ice. The high-tech synthetic polymer surface on the floor makes it possible. A Snowflake Village surrounds the rink where kids can play inside a pretend ticket stand with a cash register and tickets. They can meander inside a gingerbread house play kitchen equipped with pretend rolling pins, cookie cutters, chef hats and aprons. As a grand finale, bop inside a pretend cocoa shop, or gather around a "firepit" and make s’mores.

COST $18 1 and older

MORE INFO 516-224-5800, licm.org 

CENTER FOR SCIENCE TEACHING & LEARNING

1450 Tanglewood Rd., Rockville Centre

A new animatronic dinosaur, the velociraptor, recently joined the other 35-plus animatronic/skeletal dinosaurs at this center. Director Ray Ann Havasy explains, "We added the velociraptor because we want kids to learn not all meat-eating dinosaurs are giants, like the 14-foot-tall T. rexes. We also want to point out some dinosaurs had feathers."

The velociraptor, a small, meat-eating dinosaur has very sharp claws and teeth, is feathered, roars and is fast. "We think small meat-eaters were able to survive because they hunted in packs," Havasy adds. As you walk through the exhibit, puzzles, guessing games and matching games enhance the dino-know-how experience.

Coming weekends in October, a mystical garden featuring fairies, butterflies and flowers will become part of the annual Halloween Spook Fest. 

COST $15, $12 up to age 12

MORE INFO 516-764-0045, cstl.org 

WHALING MUSEUM & EDUCATION CENTER

301 Main St., Cold Spring Harbor

Though sea serpents were once feared by humans, perhaps the tables have turned. Might humans be the new monsters? This question is introduced as visitors enter the "Monsters and Mermaids" exhibit and find a giant sculpted squid made of Long Island beach debris hanging from the ceiling. The exhibit is a mermaid, whale and sea creature adventure explored through legends and maps.

There will be complimentary crafts to enhance themes. Try a true-false guessing game to learn about mermaids. Sniff museum-made whale breath and blubber. See preserved sea creatures. 

Museum reopens Oct. 6 with the new installation. 

COST $8, $6 ages 4-17

MORE INFO 631-367-3418, cshwhalingmuseum.org

THE LONG ISLAND MUSEUM

1200 NY 25, Stony Brook

An exhibit filled with nearly 50 guitars, mandolins and similar instruments built by guitar-maker John Monteleone will be presented through Oct. 13. In his workshop in Islip, he has created guitars for leading rock, jazz and folk guitarists including Eric Clapton and Mark Knopfler. Complimentary exhibit info booklets are offered which include scavenger-hunt-style questions that will help families explore the wonderland of instruments, and ask open-ended questions to discuss at home. A guide to designing and drawing your own guitar also comes with the booklet.

Two art exhibits that celebrate paintings of diverse individuals living their everyday lives fill the galleries as well. Portraits painted by artist William Sidney Mount highlight a wide range of residents during the pre-Civil War era. A second gallery exhibits work by artists highlighting the LGBTQ+ communities on Fire Island. It celebrates freedom of expression and acceptance. Both exhibits run through Dec. 15.

COST $15

MORE INFO 631-751-0066, longislandmuseum.org