Top Things to Do with Kids in Brooklyn this May

Looking for fun and free/low-cost things to do with kids in Brooklyn? We've got the scoop on the top family events in May, including a sheep shearing festival, Memorial Day fun, and cool, kid-friendly shows.

May 6

Tramps Like Us

Most kids have no inkling about Charlie Chaplin. The same can be said for many of their parents. Chaplin, of course, was one of the true pioneering geniuses of early cinema, a comic actor/director/film composer who proved that dialogue and live sound were secondary to the visuals, particularly when an actor of his brilliance could impart such a broad range of emotion to an audience. Nearly 100 years after the silent film era in which Chaplin accomplished his best work, Brooklyn Public Library’s Silent Film Series brings two Chaplin works to the screen that perfectly capture his essence. A Dog’s Life finds Chaplin in his Little Tramp persona, negotiating a pauper’s life in the big city accompanied only by his faithful dog. Next is The Kid, which costars Jackie Coogan as an orphaned little boy who is discovered and cared for by Chaplin (also in Little Tramp persona). Through it all, Chaplin’s affinity for pathos and sentimentality try the audience’s emotions. Modern-day kids rarely get a glimpse of cinema masters like Chaplin, but there would be no Pixar without innovators like him. (FREE!)

May 6

Are You My Bulldozer?

P.D. Eastman’s adorable picture book, Are You My Mother?, tells the story of a newly hatched baby bird who falls from the nest while its mama is hunting for its first meal. As most of us know (because most of us have encountered this great story at some point in our lives), Baby Bird is lost and confused, knowing that it indeed has a mother but thinking perhaps it may be in the form of an excavator. This production, performed by the talented ArtsPower theater group at the College of Staten Island Center for the Arts, was adapted for the stage by playwright Greg Gunning, and it ably shows children and adults how loss can be turned into empowerment and the importance of friendship in the face of adversity.

May 12

Bring Your Own Kazoo

Have you ever been to a concert and wanted to jump onstage and grab a guitar? Have you ever wanted to jump onstage and grab a guitar and then smash it? This program can’t help you with either of those desires, but Radia and Sonic Smithy does offer you and your child the chance to jam along with some of Downtown NYC’s well-regarded musicians and composers and, collectively, create an on-the-spot composition. The show is the brainchild of violinist and composer Nicole Federici, who has successfully bridged a path between young musicians such as herself with more established avant-garde musicians and composers, among them Butch Morris and William Parker. For this particular sonic free-for-all at Roulette, in which audience members become performers, acceptable instruments include electronic beeping devices, cellos, saxophones, newspapers, trumpets, kazoos, plastic bottles…and if you want to strum a guitar, that’s okay, too.

May 20

Dancing Queen