Come learn with us!
Brookside Gardens is a wonderful place for the whole family to engage with botany, gardening, and wildlife. Learn more by clicking on each section, below.
Featured Program: Yoga Sprouts!
Yoga Sprouts: Ages 3-9 with adult. Click below for more info or to register for a specific class:
Featured Programs
- Outdoors, ages 3-7 with adult, $5.
- Weekend and Monday classes in fall and winter
- Click here for more info and register: Storytime in the Garden
- Outdoors, weather permitting, ages 3-9 with adult, $7.
- Select fall Saturday classes
- Click here for more info and register: Yoga Sprouts!
Brookside Gardens offers a variety of programs for youth of all ages. Sign up for activities, classes, and events online by clicking: ActiveMontgomery.
All of Brookside’s programs are listed in our digital magazine on this website: Fall and Winter 2025/2026 Cultivate Program Guide
School Field Trips
*Submit a field trip request for the 2025-2026 school year: Field Trip Request Form.
All Field Trips are completely outdoors.
Field trip programs are offered Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday mornings by reservation only. Most 90 minute field trip programs run from 10:30 am -12 pm. Field Trips DO NOT include tickets to the Butterfly Experience.
Read more about the program options below.
Plants & Pollinators: Grades PreK – K
- Learn about plants with a guided outdoor exploration and pot a plant to take home. Designed for young learners in Pre K (ages 4+) and K. (60 minutes, outdoors)
Plants & Pollinators: Grade 1 and Up
- Learn about the structure and function of plant anatomy and the pollinators they depend upon with a guided outdoor exploration and pot a plant to take home. *Select this option for any Plant and Pollinator Program for grades 1-12. (90 minutes, outdoors)
Erosion & Water on the Landscape: Grade 4 and Up
- Use a map and make observations about erosion, native plants, and the water cycle. Make and take home native seed balls. (90 minutes, outdoors)
Water Quality in the Watershed: Grade 5 and Up
- Use chemistry to test the health of our namesake “brook” and learn about the Chesapeake Bay. (90 minutes, outdoors)
Service Learning: Grades 9 – 12
- Bring your students to work on a service-learning project pulling invasive plants. Along the naturalized borders of our property, learn to identify some common invasives and get hands-on experience managing their spread. (90 minutes, strenuous, outdoors)
*Submit a field trip request for the 2025-2026 school year: Field Trip Request Form.
All field trip programs are completely outdoors and all participants should come prepared for the weather on their scheduled field trip day. All field trip programs are aligned with Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). For questions or more information, please email Liz.Bullock@MontgomeryParks.org
Field trips must be scheduled and confirmed with the Youth Education Team at Brookside Gardens at least 10 business days in advance. Service-Learning field trips must be scheduled and confirmed 20 business days in advance.
Field Trip Programs DO NOT include tickets to the indoor Butterfly Experience.
Children’s Day
Sunday, September 21, 2025, 10 am – 2 pm
Explore the science and art of gardening through child-driven art projects and engaging science activities. Participants will rotate through outdoor activity stations designed to educate and entertain. Bring your friends, family, and picnics (only allowed during this special event). Registration encouraged, but not required. Drop-ins welcome.
Read the Social Story describing the event experience on this website: Children’s Day Social Story
Performances:
- Beech Tree Puppets will perform in the morning inside the Visitor Center Auditorium.
- Mr. Gabe, the ‘pied piper of Takoma Park,’ will perform outside on the Visitor Center lawn in the afternoon.
Outdoor Children’s Activities Including:
- Potting your own plant to take home, while supplies last.
- Create Botanical Art with watercolors.
- Learn how to use the iNaturalist app to participate in community science with your phone.
- Learn about soil science.
- Meet and take photos with the Montgomery Parks mascots.
- Try yoga led by our expert “Yoga Sprouts!” instructor. Mats are available to borrow.
- Meet community partners like Politics and Prose and author Ann McCallum Staats. See how many amazing facts you know about plants while exploring her new book about Fantastic Flora.
This event is proudly sponsored by Friends of Brookside Gardens.
Explore la ciencia y el arte de la jardinería a través de atractivas actividades científicas y proyectos de arte orientados a los niños. Los participantes rotarán por estaciones de actividades al aire libre diseñadas para enseñar y entretener. Traiga a sus amigos y familiares. Se permite hacer pícnic solamente durante este evento especial. Recomendamos registrarse, pero no es obligatorio.
Experience a special garden space made with our youngest visitors in mind. Children can play and explore nature alongside their adults. Some exciting renovations are underway to refresh the Children’s Garden this fall and visitors can still enjoy most of the space while the updates are installed.
Check out the native plants and the container beds crafted like birds’ nests before following the path to a version of a nest more human-sized. Don’t miss the repurposed and freshly painted farm house, as well as the balance logs and garden-friendly motorcycle crafted out of reused lumber from Montgomery Parks’ Pope Farm.
We hope to see you in the Children’s Garden soon!
Brookside Gardens offers a variety of programs for youth of all ages. Sign up for activities, classes, and events online through ActiveMontgomery.
Click this link to access the Fall and Winter 2025/2026 Cultivate Program Guide.
We would love to hear from you! Did you recently visit for a program or event? Follow this link to take our Feedback Survey.