Family Area

Get a blues name and design your own guitar just like B.B. King’s Lucille, using paper cutouts, paint, markers, and yarn.

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Make your own paper-bag puppet, and write a script to act out with your puppet on the Story to Stage exhibit.

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Tell your family story by creating a family tree and a family crest using photos, drawings, symbols, and favorite memories.

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Create a button just like the ones people wore during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.

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Learn traditional Choctaw beading by making a key ring out of pony beads and leather string.

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Design your own Globe Poster, the iconic fluorescent posters known for promoting blues, R&B, soul, go-go and more in the 20th century.

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​Dig into sensory bins filled with sand, rice, beans, and packing peanuts. Develop motor skills while having fun.

Test your skills at traditional games that have been played by the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians for centuries.

 

Challenge a friend to a game of stickball and see who can hit the pole with the stickball using a pair of sticks to catch and throw.

 

Try to hit the bullseye on the target with a blowgun and dart in a shooting gallery-style setting.

 

Learn traditional hunting skills through the rabbit stick throw—choose the right-sized rabbit sticks and aim for the stuffed toy rabbit.

The National Folk Festival is all about storytelling! Visit the Mississippi Children’s Museum’s Story to Stage Exhibit throughout the weekend to hear and tell stories.

 

Young festivalgoers will act out their own plays with their paper-bag puppets.

 

Read with a National Park Service ranger! Saturday and Sunday at 1:30 PM, NPS rangers from the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument will read stories about folklife, festivals, and movement.

 

Sit in one of the exhibit’s bean bag chairs, or lounge on the rug, while immersing yourself in one of the books from the exhibit’s bookshelf.

All About STEM

Visit with Mississippi State University’s cyber-education team in their STEM trailer and learn about virtual reality, 3D printing, coding programs, gaming, and more!

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Become a Junior Ranger

Earn an official, special-edition National Park Service / National Folk Festival Junior Ranger badge by completing an activity sheet about the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument (for all ages). Get “sworn in” at special pledge ceremonies on the Family Area Stage.

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Say Hi to Ed Said

Be on the lookout for Mississippi Public Broadcasting’s Ed Said as he roams the Family Area, ready to share his love of fruits and vegetables through songs, raps, and rhymes. For kids of all ages, and adults, too!

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Explore Mississippi Wildlife

Learn about Mississippi’s agriculture and forests. Get up close and personal with live education animals, plus furs, skulls, and other specimens.