Join us for our special Teddy Bear Picnic, filled with seaside safety fun, including stories, songs, crafts and picnic playtime.

Open to all ages, with no additional charge, our summer holiday activities are included in your museum entry. Don’t forget your teddy!

Wednesday, July 30, August 6, 13, 20 and 27. 

From 10:30am – 12:30pm and 1pm – 3:30pm.

Every Thursday during the August school holidays from 10:30am – 1pm and 1:30pm – 3:30 pm, our 47-foot-long, ‘City of Sheffield’ Tyne Class Lifeboat will be open for visitors to climb aboard. Discover the vital role this lifesaving vessel once played, sit in the very seats used by the crew, and climb down into the boat’s survival cabins to see where rescued people would have taken shelter.

Every Friday this August, we’re diving into the incredible world of navigation; on land, in the air, and at sea!

Join us for fun-filled Fridays where you can test your navigation skills through games and challenges, all themed around how rescuers find their way in different environments. Get hands-on with creative crafts, including the chance to build and launch your very own paper helicopter.

Best of all, these activities are included with standard museum entry, and if you’ve got a year ticket, you’re already covered!

Every Friday during August from: 10:30am – 1pm and 1:30pm – 3:30 pm.

Join us for our monthly Sensory Play sessions, featuring a new theme each month, along with singing and plenty of hands-on activities. Perfect for children under 5, these sessions run from 10:30am–12:30pm and 1:00pm–3:00pm. Drop in at any time to join the fun! No booking is needed, and it’s FREE with a museum ticket.

Friday 29th August: Back to School

It’s Back to School time soon and this Sensory Play is getting you ready for it! Pretend to be a teacher or a pupil at our very own sensory play school and join in with lots of other school based activities too. Following all these activities, there will be a story and lots of songs as well.

Saturday 20th September: Little Heroes

Become firefighters, make your own fire helmet and help to put out the fires with your extinguisher and hose. Create your own group work of art with wheels and paint, sing about the wheels on the fire truck, hear the sound of the fire engine and see the lights. We’ll also learn about how to stay safe when there is a fire and what number to call.

Friday 31st October: Mini Monsters

It’s Halloween at NESM Sensory Play, (we know we are bit early, but we love everything spooky). We’ll be making some peekaboo ghosts, exploring some gruesome things and playing some horrifying games. There will be some spooky songs and a terrifying tale too.

Join us on Saturday, December 13, and Sunday, December 14, as we turn the clock back 85 years and step into a fabulous forties festive wonderland! Join a whole host of costumed characters, living history interpreters, and even Father Christmas for a truly traditional Christmas event.

Our characterful Victorian police, fire and ambulance station will be filled with things to do, see and hear, from sensational vintage sounds to the smell of mulled wine. Join us to experience a truly immersive wartime Christmas.

Experience a wartime Christmas like no other. Enjoy live music and explore a series of interactive living history displays, from life on the line to the home front. Live actors and realistic scenes make for a truly interactive experience as you tour a part of the battlefront, talk to the troops, handle the equipment and take home a piece of history. 

Once you’re done exploring the immersive displays and meeting our costumed characters why not visit Father Christmas? He’s making time in his busy schedule to spend the weekend with us.