Dozin' with the Dinos at the Field Museum

Jun 09, 2011

Do your kids wonder if Sue the T-rex comes to life at night just like in the movies? Find out for yourself by having an all-night family slumber party at Chicago's Field Museum.

Meet Sue and Her Friends

Have you ever looked into the mouth of a meat-eating dinosaur? Meet Sue, the Field Museum's Tyrannosaurus rex. With 224 of her 321 bones intact and reassembled, Sue's the most complete T-rex skeleton in the world. Sue was named after fossil hunter Sue Hendrickson, who discovered the dinosaur in South Dakota in 1990. Sue is the biggest T-rex ever found, measuring over 40 feet long!

Sue, the T-rex

Upstairs in the Evolving Planet exhibit, you'll find dinosaurs of all kinds, from Antarctica's Cryolophosaurus to Madagascar's Rapetosaurus. Later, you can watch dinosaurs come to life in a digital 3-D movie. For a teachable moment, ask your kids if they can see any resemblance between the raptors and modern birds, which are 'living dinosaurs.'

Snoozin' with the Sauropods

If your kids are between the ages of 6 and 12, your family can lay out your sleeping bags near the dinosaurs! On certain Friday nights after the museum closes, your family or group can get a behind-the-scenes tour and stay over at the museum until after breakfast ends at 9 o'clock the following morning.

Explore Ancient Egypt by Flashlight

Find out for yourselves what happens in the museum at night by taking a self-guided flashlight tour of the Egyptian exhibit or the dinosaur hall. Set out on a family scavenger hunt to see if your kids can spot an amulet, a tomb (called a mastaba), a cat statue (representing the Egyptian goddess Bastet) and the mummy of Prince Unis-ankh. Afterwards, your kids can participate in workshops, write their names in Egyptian hieroglyphs and listen to bedtime stories.

Dino Camp

If your children are still too young to participate in the sleepover, don't despair. You can sign up your kids aged 3-5 for Dino Camp. Over the course of two morning sessions, your future paleontologists will play 'I Spy a Dinosaur' and go on to discover and excavate dinosaur bones themselves. They'll even get to look at a replica of Sue's 5-foot-long skull.

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