Educational Pre-School Programs

Summer Garden Program for Youth and Adults

Through hands-on gardening and an art-making experience with teaching artist, Rachel Ferrante, participants enjoy nature while learning about life in the past.

Dig it! Plant it! Eat it! garden program offers a variety of experiences:

• Cultivate and care for a kitchen garden
• Create art with teaching artist Rachel Ferrante
• Explore history and nature in the historic 2-acre garden

All ages. Children must accompanied by an adult.

FREE but pre-registration is required. Pre-register online through the website Event page. Dates are posted each Spring.

Program made possible through the generous funding of The Astle-Alpaugh Family Foundation.

Lunch with the Librarian returns Wednesdays in July and August at 12:00pm. Pre-school children and their caregivers are encouraged to bring lunch and enjoy stories under the Museum’s magnificent beech tree. Please enter the garden through the side gate. In the event of inclement weather, the program will be held in the MHHM’s Center Hall. In partnership with the Morristown & Morris Township Library.

This program is free and no registration is required.

Macculloch Hall Historical Museum is pleased to offer Growing Good Health, a historic garden-based program focusing on:

• gardening
• healthy eating
• exercise
• creative time outdoors
• sustainability
• history
• community

Programs held onsite in our garden and classroom:

• Maintenance of the kitchen garden June through July
• Activities engaging preschool groups and after-care programs September through May
• Ready, Set, Grow! A Garden Visit: Enjoy time outdoors in a 2-acre landscaped garden with pollinator beds, vegetable beds and flower garden on land once owned by George Macculloch (1775-1858). Activities include helping tend and harvest vegetables and herbs, and learning how food was prepared. Program length: 90 minutes. Available June through September.

Programs held offsite in your classroom:

• Honeybees: Alive in the Hive sharing the wonders of the honeybee and offering activities such as storytelling, building a honeycomb model, trying tools of the Beekeeper, and making a bee book.
• Earthworms: Healthy Soil, Healthy Food learning about the life of an earthworm: their love of soil and their role in sustaining healthy plants and produce, offering activities such as storytelling, observing live “red wigglers,” preparing food for the earthworms, and learning about composting
• Color by Nature: Natural Fibers & Plant Dyes learning about how cotton, wool, and flax are transformed from fiber to yarn using early textile tools and offering activities such as storytelling, preparing plant material for solar dyeing activity, and discovering natural fibers.

Program length: 45 minutes to 1 hour

The goal of Growing Good Health is to engage the full community with the historic gardens in a sustainable, integrated garden experience through creative learning and volunteer opportunities.

Initial development of Growing Good Health was supported by Morristown Medical Center, Atlantic Health System.

Programs are available to community partners but must be scheduled. To schedule a program, please fill out our inquiry form here: https://maccullochhall.org/learn/education-inquiry/.