New Gifts: Keep Busy Boxes

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New Gifts at Tudor Place: Keep Busy Boxes

Support Tudor Place when you purchase a limited edition Keep Busy Box. Each care package includes an exclusive selection of items from the Museum Shop.

Prices include tax and shipping.

 

The Local Enthusiast $50

*Embassy Row Puzzle (100 pieces)
*Cherry notecards
*Homegrown Loofah from the Tudor Place Garden

 

The Tudor Place Fan $30

*Tudor Place Puzzle (54 pieces)
*Tudor Place Souvenir Book
*Blank notecard featuring Tudor Place South Façade
*Tudor Place Magnet

 

The Tea Lover $50

*Blackberry Tea Tin
*C.S. Lewis Mugmat
*Tudor Place Mug

 

The Book Lover $65

*Tudor Place Souvenir Book
*Literary Circles of Washington DC
*The Washingtons by Flora Fraser

 

The Garden Enthusiast $35

*Homegrown Black Eyed Susan and Cleome Seeds
*Harvest Log notepad
*Homegrown Loofah from the Tudor Place Garden

Activity: Architecture Inventor (Girl Scouts Premier Partner Program)

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thornton presentation drawing of tudor place
Step into the shoes of architect William Thornton and design your own houses. Download the activity here. Brownies will be able to complete all activities needed for the Inventor badge.

  • Imagine new ways to use everyday items that are normally thrown away
  • Create designs for a brand new house
  • List the things that a person needs in a home
  • Solve a problem for a housing need
  • Share with someone how you would use your new idea

Time: Up to 3 hours

Materials: Worksheet, recycled items

Find more Scout Programs here.

Taking Time to Notice

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Tudor Place is launching a month-long initiative that will run from April 15 to May 15 as part of City Nature Month, Earth Day and National Public Gardens Week. Tudor Place will post activities and lessons, chat with students in their new home classrooms and share moments captured in the garden.

Look for updates from Tudor Place on the Education at Home portal and on social media.

April 22, 2020 marks the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, a unifying movement of parents, students, scientists and concerned citizens that began when Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson called on Americans to care for both the natural world and their neighbors.

In 2020, naturalists and horticulture hobbyists provide sound advice: go outside and look.

Notice the details and changes in the natural world around. Even if that means just beyond the doorstep.

Tudor Place partners with iNaturalist, City Nature Challenge and the American Public Gardens Association. Each organization embraces the healing power of nature. iNaturalist is a platform that crowdsources professional plant identifications, using photos by everyday citizens to create a worldwide scientific catalog. City Nature Challenge encourages stewardship of the natural world in urban spaces. The American Public Gardens Association is committed to making gardens inclusive public spaces.

These organizations rely on professional knowledge and citizen science – they need everyday observers.

The request, in the end, is simple: sit back, take a moment, and notice.

Activity: Notice on a Nature Walk (City Nature Month and iNaturalist partnership)

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black couple looking at box knot garden

“Citizen science – the collection and analysis of data relating to the natural world by members of the general public, typically as part of a collaborative project with professional scientists.”

City Nature Challenge brings citizen science to the Washington DC area with iNaturalist every year. This year there is a new challenge: what can we notice when we stay at home?

City Nature Challenge asks residents in urban areas to become stewards of nature by documenting the biodiversity around them – even if it’s just outside their front door. Over 10,000 observations have been made in the DMV project since April 1. Northern spicebushes were found about 15 times, and over 50 of our neighbors have spotted an American bullfrog.

iNaturalist is a joint initiative of the California Academy of Sciences and the National Geographic Society with the goal of connecting average citizens and professionals to build a scientific catalog. The app relies on people like you to take photos of wildlife and upload them to the site with a geotag. Then, professionals and hobbyists from all over the world can use the app to identify species of plants and animals.

The result is a huge stash of biodiversity information that iNaturalist shares with scientific data repositories like the Global Biodiversity Information Facility. It is citizen science in action.

Whether you browse and learn how to identify common plants, submit photos from your nature walk, or use your professional horticultural knowledge to submit identifications, iNaturalist, City Nature Challenge and Tudor Place want you to look around, notice nature and share your observations!

More Information

Questions? Comments? Photos to share? Email us with your Education at Home needs: education@tudorplace.org

Find more Education at Home posts.

 

Activity: Playing the Past (Girl Scouts Premier Partner Program)

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We have set the scene for you to recreate life at Tudor Place in 1911! Download the activity here.

Junior Girl Scouts will be able to complete all activities needed for the Playing the Past badge.

  • Read about people who lived over 100 years ago.
  • Choose a character you want to recreate in a play set in 1911.
  • Create a costume to represent the important pieces of your character.
  • Build a set and props to bring your reenactment to life.
  • Play the role in a movie scene, give a speech, write a diary entry, or play 20 questions.

Time: Up to 3 hours

Materials: Worksheet, household props, historical research databases like Chronicling America (optional)

Find more Scout Programs here.

Activity: Plant Yoga

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Finding it hard to stay active? At Tudor Place, one of our favorite activities is plant yoga! Plant yoga is a quick and easy activity for people of all ages to practice balance and movement in your home or yard. You can do it for 5 minutes or you can do it for 30 minutes–whatever works for you! Always seek the advice of your physician or qualified health professional before starting or changing any exercise program.

How to do plant yoga:

  1. Put on comfortable clothes you can move around in. Find an open space where you can stretch in all directions.
  2. Find a plant (or two! or three!) to mimic.
  3. Pose and move around like your chosen plant. Droop like a weeping willow! Plant your feet like roots in the ground!  (More examples in the photos below).
  4. That’s it! Share what you’re up to with us on Instagram and Facebook and tag us #tudorplace, or email us at education@tudorplace.org

Who: Everyone

How Long: 5-30 minutes

Where: Indoors or outdoors

Our staff and their children had a blast doing plant yoga!

Download and share the Plant Yoga Activity.

Questions? Comments? Photos to share? Email us with your Education at Home needs: education@tudorplace.org

Find more Education at Home posts.

Activity: Tudor Place Coloring Pages

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Coloring is one of the great joys in life for young and old. While we cannot paint the exterior of Tudor Place a nice Cape Cod blue nor can we paint the columns on the Temple Portico to look like they are made of marble, we can color these printable Tudor Place coloring pages however our hearts desire! There is no historical accuracy in coloring.

Use these coloring pages to decorate Tudor Place as you would if you lived here. Maybe your Tudor Place will be covered in flowers to celebrate Spring? Or perhaps your Tudor Place is located underwater and there are fish everywhere. The only limit is your imagination!

We’d love to see your finished Tudor Place drawings! Share with us on Instagram or Facebook #tudorplace.

Temple Portico Coloring Page

South Lawn Coloring Page

Pierce-Arrow Coloring Page

Questions? Comments? Photos to share? Email us with your Education at Home needs: education@tudorplace.org

Find more Education at Home posts.

COVID-19 Update

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We consider the welfare and safety of our visitors, staff and volunteers to be our first priority. In response to concerns about the COVID-19 virus,

Tudor Place is closed through July 31.

Check our Education at Home portal for an array of activities, crafts and more updated weekly.

Mark recently participated in a panel discussion about the future of historic house museums in the wake of Covid-19. Organized by Dumbarton House, the panel included their Executive Director, Karen Daly, and Erin Carlson Mast, CEO of President’s Lincoln’s Cottage.

You are a vital part of keeping Tudor Place a site of discovery, curiosity and learning today and for generations to come. In times such as these, we are ever more grateful for our extended network of friends, family and supporters who continue to stand alongside us. Brighter days lie ahead.

Thank you for supporting Tudor Place.

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