Learn
Teachers
Plan a fun-filled, age appropriate learning experience with a visit to Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park. We offer a variety of affordable field trips, from guided tours and hands-on learning to interactive programs and self-discovery experiences. With educational programs for all age levels, there's much more available than you may think!
Plan a Field Trip
For complete information about planning a student or children's tour, please click the Plan a Field Trip link below.
Plan a field trip
Foremost's Butterflies Are Blooming
Plan a visit to observe more than 40 species of butterflies flying free in our 15,000 square foot conservatory. Throughout this tropical environment, butterflies can be viewed drinking nectar from flowering plants and feeding stations, congregating among stream beds and fluttering about.
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Guided Tours
Sculpture Park
Experience our 35-acre Sculpture Park where quiet walkways and waterfalls with meandering streams surround sculptures by renowned artists such as Auguste Rodin, Henry Moore, Louise Nevelson and Mark diSuvero. Play a search and find game or use Sculpture Park cootie catchers as you experience the park with a tour guide.
Adaptable for all grade levels
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Big Picture
Imagine a puzzle with more than 500 pieces of glass, leaves as big as a car and grass that grows taller than a house; learn why some plants eat meat; and find out how one artist covered his friends head-to-toe in plaster. Discover the secret behind these and other wonders as you focus on big things, big ideas, big vision and big fun.
Adaptable for all grade levels
Special Needs
Hear descriptions of fascinating sights, share touchable objects (such as an actual piece from Dale Chihuly’s amazing glass chandelier) and explore sensory experiences in the arid and tropical conservatories. Led by tour guides specifically trained to work with students who have special needs.
Adaptable for all grade levels
Leaf Lookers
Use nature’s own classroom to learn number skills. Discover a rainbow of colors in fall leaves; determine how many classmates can fit on a 7-foot banana leaf and which leaf is big, bigger, biggest; and leap from one giant leaf outline to another in a fast-paced game of Simon-Says. Leaf shapes, sizes, colors, textures and patterns galore.
Preschool, kindergarten
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Closer Look
Examine a variety of plants and sculptures to discover some amazing things. Find out what’s inside a cactus; meet a plant that eats insects; and see a desert plant that looks just like a stone, a sculpture comprised of rocks from all over the world and a sculpture assembled from 568 pieces of plantshaped glass. Challenge cards and magnifiers are included to promote careful looking.
Elementary
Sculpture Galleries
Explore George Rickey Kinetic Sculpture: A Retrospective during the fall semester, and Art of Africa: Objects from the Collection of Warren Robbins during the spring semester. Tour guides point out background on objects, artists and context, share information about materials and techniques and encourage student interpretation. Critical thinking skills such as observing and analyzing, generating questions and supporting opinions are emphasized.
Upper elementary or adaptable for younger students
Science
Gain answers to questions like why bamboo is one of the fastest growing plants in the world, why carnivorous plants eat meat and why cacti have spines. Understand how plants mimic insects to attract pollinators, why termites live underground and where the double coconut—the largest seed in the world—is found. Information about adaptations, biomes, ethnobotany and pollination is included.
Upper elementary
Surviving the Tropics
Pretend you’re lost on an island. Discover life-saving skills as you search for hidden water sources, create a shelter, find food, fish without a pole and gather materials to make a fire. Then explore exotic flora and fauna and learn how plants adapt to tropical hurricanes and other climate conditions.
Middle school
Art and Sculpture
Learn about tools used to carve an 8-foot sculpture of a stack of books; compare Roy Lichtenstein’s Bonsai Tree sculpture to a real bonsai tree; investigate Dale Chihuly’s giant glass chandelier; and see how an Alexander Calder mobile moves with air currents. The tour concludes with a chance to “rate” pieces of the featured exhibition using voting cards.
Middle school, high school
School Programs
Art of Africa: Objects from the Collection of Warren M. Robbins
Investigate Art of Africa using a special card representing an African child, examine objects used in that child's everyday life, and locate the child's country on a puzzle map. Includes videos; fun, hands-on activities; and a visit to our conservatory.Download PDF
ABCs of Life on a Farm
Work on letter sounds as you collect alphabet cards hidden around the farm. Use fishing poles to hook fruits and vegetables from a giant serving platter and learn the name of each food. Then try your luck at arm chores from the 1930s as you match the chore to flashcard words.
Kindergarten, first grade
Farm Math: Making Things Count
Practice counting at a produce stand using colorful fruits and vegetables and play coins and currency; use a clock to time farm chores like gathering eggs, hanging laundry, pumping water and painting the uthouse; and play a giant board game filled with farm math word problems. Math on the farm can be so much fun!
Early elementary
Sharing Stories
Enjoy a fun activity about adjectives in the beautiful Kid-Sense Garden, create “round robin” stories while sitting in a giant bird’s nest, and write simple poems using sidewalk chalk on the pathway stones in the labyrinth. The Children’s Garden is a delightful setting for this language arts program.
Early elementary
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Making a Splash
The waterfalls in the Sculpture Park provide the perfect spot for activities focused on water. Learn which animals and insects live in water and examine water samples, discover what the water cycle is, and find out how little of the world’s water is drinkable. Then visit the Children’s Garden to blow sailboats from Chicago to the Mackinac Bridge.
Early elementary
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Can You Dig It?
Learn fun facts about rocks with a huge variety of activities such as sorting rocks into categories, digging for fossils in the quarry and investigating a sculpture made from 20 kinds of stone; match products such as car parts, copper pennies and plasterboard to Michigan ores; and have fun arranging talc, feldspar, quartz and diamonds from softest to hardest using the scratch test.
Elementary
Simple Machines: Doing Work on the Farm
Move large rocks using levers, lift heavy weights with pulley systems and carve into wood using wedges. Then go on a scavenger hunt to find 15 farm implements made up of simple machines. This is a wonderful program for making sense out of science.
Elementary
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Michigan Tree Expedition
lumber tycoons and furniture makers had and how resourceful they were in making Grand Rapids furniture city; and discover the many ways Native Americans, settlers and wildlife all used white pines – our state tree.
Great kick-off or culmination to the 4th grade Michigan unit
Wild About Wetlands
Imagine you’re a scientist as you explore our wetlands, record observations, sketch wildlife and perform simple experiments. Discover the amazing variety of plants and animals that make the wetlands home, and the important work that wetlands do from filtering our water to reducing flooding. A wetlands journal and bingo game are included.
Upper elementary, middle school
Fitness Fun in the Sculpture Park
Stretch, lunge, squat, jump, lift and dance your way to fitness using worldrenowned sculpture as a springboard. Walk the mile-long Sculpture Park path stopping at various pieces to participate in fitness activities inspired by each. A truly unique combination of art education and exercise.
Upper elementary, middle school
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You're Hired: Careers at Meijer Gardens
Investigate several careers and participate in real staff tasks. Identify trees from a landscape designer’s blueprint; use professional hand tools to prune plants; and design an exhibition using a tabletop model of the Sculpture Galleries. Then select color for the gallery walls, decide on a font for wall text, design billboards to advertise the show and find a corporate sponsor. At the end of the program, work in teams to create a work of art.
Middle school, high school
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Self-guided Discoveries
Guide your class through the gardens, galleries or outdoor areas. Then select from our self-guided discovery activities to keep your students focused.
Sculpture Park
Audio Tours: Tour dozens of sculptures and then learn about the artists who created them.*
Search & Find: Search for sculptures and solve a mystery sentence.
Sketching: Sketch a sculpture outdoors. Clipboards and sketching stools are available for use.
Sculpture Catchers: Use our unique cootie catcher to learn about our world-renowned sculptures.
Sculpture Galleries Exhibitions
Audio Tours: Listen to information about artists and sculptures with an audio wand from the library.*
Looking Guides: Inquire about what looking guide materials are available for the current exhibitions.
Sketching: Sketch one of the sculptures from our galleries. Exhibition sketchbooks are available at the front desk.
Wetlands Walk
Wetlands Bingo: Test your observation skills and see how many wetlands plants and animals you can find.
Lena Meijer Children’s Garden
Interactive Activities: Experience dozens of interactives from digging for fossils to building a beaver lodge.
Naturalist’s Challenge: Use your senses with ten different challenge signs located along the wetland boardwalk.
Michigan’s Farm Garden
Audio Tour: Discover what life was really like on a farm in the 1930s as you explore all areas of the garden. Fred and Lena Meijer share some of their memories as farm kids.*
Farm Challenge Cards: Try a variety of fun challenges from solving riddles to simple math.
Tool Matching: See how many farm tools you can identify with flip labels and clues.
Conservatories
Audio Tours: Explore the Arid and Tropical Conservatories to learn how these plants survive and why we depend on them.*
Adopt-a-Butterfly: Select your favorite butterfly and learn more about it through careful observation and inquiry. Available in March and April.
*Audio tour wands $1 additional per student
Exhibition Schedule
Art of Africa: Objects from the Collection of Warren Robbins
January 25 - May 4, 2008
View more than 80 objects representing the cultural ideals of approximately 30 cultures of sub-Saharan Africa. Find artistic expression not only in masks and figures, but also in the utilitarian objects of daily life such as furniture, household items, brightly patterned textiles, beautifully beaded clothing, jewelry and ceremonial pieces. In addition to the displays, watch video footage of how these objects are made and used.
Foremost’s Butterflies Are Blooming
March 1 – April 30, 2008
Observe more than 40 species of tropical butterflies from Asia and Central America during Foremost’s Butterflies are Blooming, the largest temporary butterfly exhibition in the nation. Each week, throughout March and April, hundreds of chrysalises arrive and are labeled and pinned in our Butterfly Bungalow until they emerge and are ready to fly in our conservatory. This year discover a beautiful moth from Africa, the Luna Moth.
Degas: The Sculptures
May 30 – August 31, 2008
French Impressionist Edgar Degas is viewed as one of the most important sculptors of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Celebrated for his pastels and paintings, he also created dancers, bathers and horses in three-dimensional form. Seventy-three sculptures including Little Dancer, Aged Fourteen are the focus of this exhibition.
Monet: The Gardener
May 30 – August 31, 2008
Though best known as a painter, Claude Monet was a knowledgeable and devoted gardener. This exhibition honors the spirit of what Monet painted through horticulture displays featuring many of the same species of flowers, colors, textures and combinations that are characteristic of his paintings and gardens. Several areas of the grounds will feature Monet inspired garden displays.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can we bring our sack lunches?
Yes, we have three outdoor picnic pavilions that operate on a first-come, firstserved basis. In addition, we have a classroom that can be rented for $25 per half hour.
What do we do if it rains?
Guests are encouraged to dress for the weather. In the event of severe weather, alternative indoor activities will be arranged, if possible. If necessary, we will reschedule your visit.
How many chaperones do we need?
Chaperone ratios vary. Elementary-aged groups are asked to have one chaperone for every six students; middle school groups are required to provide one chaperone for every eight students, and high school groups need one chaperone for every ten students. Preschools may have up to one chaperone per student.
Do teachers have to pay?
Teachers and chaperones are charged the same $3 school rate as the students. Additional adults beyond the chaperone ratio are charged the adult tour rate of $7. After scheduling their tour, teachers may enjoy a free pre-trip visit to facilitate their planning.
Do families with memberships have to pay?
School field trips are not considered membership benefits. We will waive the admission charge for members who are serving as chaperones.
Can you bill us?
We accept cash, check or credit card payment, but we do not accept purchase orders; and we cannot invoice. We require a single payment for the entire group upon arrival. We will refund any overpayment.
Is a deposit required?
A $50 deposit is required for groups of 100+ students, or when scheduling a teacher-led program. The deposit is non-refundable, and will be applied towards the balance due.
How much time should I allow for our visit?
Most school groups allow two or more hours for a field trip.
What accommodations do you have for groups with special needs students?
Our entire facility—buildings and grounds—is fully accessible. We have manual and electric wheelchairs available at no cost. Personal aides are admitted at no charge.
Do I need to confirm our field trip?
Not usually. You will receive a written/email confirmation approximately two weeks before your arrival date. If that information is accurate, then no further action is necessary. If the information is incorrect, or your numbers change dramatically, notification is appreciated.
Are any scholarship funds available?
We have two funds that operate on a first-come, first-served basis for eligible applicants. One fund helps defray transportation costs; the other assists with admission charges. Applicants must qualify under Title I guidelines.
School Group Registration Form
Click here for the school registration form.
