Field Trip Add-Ons

Looking to make the most of your field trip? Check out our Field Trip Add-Ons to request these additional reservations for your students' visit!

These guided programs, temporary exhibitions, and performances listed below are add-ons for school visits. All of these special opportunities have capacity limitations and require an additional reservation made in advance (at least three weeks prior to your visit date) when booking your onsite field trip. Field trip add-on requests are not guaranteed and are based on availability and capacity. Some add-on experiences have costs associated.

Policy for Field Trip Add-on Equity: To provide an equitable museum experience for all school visitors, we require that all students in your order be booked into any add-on reservation. Additionally, schools are limited to only one add-on per visit (pending availability and capacity) to ensure equal opportunity to all interested school groups booking a field trip to the Museum.

Please note: To prioritize student accessibility to special experiences, chaperones may not be included in add-on reservations (i.e. Ice Age Encounters). Check your confirmation to see if your group is booked for any add-ons.

Guided Programs

Guided programs are engaging, hands-on experiences designed for your students' grade level and led by Museum Educators. View a list of CA State Standards associated with each program.

Available at 10 am and 11 am, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, October 1 – December 19 with advanced reservations.  
Cost: Free!

students circling around and touching a dire wolf skull

Windows into Nature

 

In this interactive storytelling program, students learn about the lives of Ice Age animals: their families, their habitats, and how they survived. Then, students will visit the animal from the story in one of the museum's exhibits to discover what fossils can teach us about these incredible creatures! Our educators will lead interactive discussions through dialogic reading and Visual Thinking Strategies. Students will also have the chance to touch an artifact from their animal, like a coyote paw print cast or pelt!

 

GRADE LEVELS: Pre-K–1 
DURATION: 30–40 minutes 
LOCATION: Museum Galleries (indoors) 
CAPACITY: 20 per time slot (4 time slots per day)
 

Visitors facing and looking up at a mammoth skeleton with curved tusks

Fossil Detectives


Solve the mystery! What were ancient animals like when they were alive? Through observation and questioning, students will fossil animals and their habit to find the answer. Our guides will lead students to practice coming up with hypotheses and recording ideas in a field journal, just like real paleontologists! The foundation of this program comes from a method known as Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS). For more information, visit VTS.

 

GRADE LEVELS: 2-5
DURATION: 45-50 minutes 
LOCATION: Museum Galleries (indoors) 
CAPACITY: 20 per time slot (4 time slots per day)
 

Path with plants with purple flowers on either side and leafy green trees in the background

Paleobotany Discovery Tour


Discover how scientists construct the environment of the ancient past! Through observation and questioning, students will learn about the history of excavations at La Brea and how excavations have evolved over time. Then, our guides will lead students through scientific practices of sorting microfossils and identifying fossil pollen samples. Students will use what they discover to put together an image of Ice Age Los Angeles.

 

GRADE LEVELS: 6-8
DURATION: 50-60 minutes 
LOCATION: Outdoor Excavation Sites 
CAPACITY: 20 per time slot (4 time slots per day)
 

Close up of a saber-toothed skull with curved fang-like teeth

Carnivores Discovery Tour


Discover how scientists construct the environment of the ancient past! Through observation and questioning, students will learn about the history of excavations at La Brea and how excavations have evolved over time.  Then, our guides will lead students through scientific practices of identifying fossil skulls and using fossil evidence to create paleoart. Students will use what they discover to understand the behavior of animals and visualize extinct species.

 

GRADE LEVELS: 9-12
DURATION: 50-60 minutes 
LOCATION: Outdoor Excavation Sites 
CAPACITY: 20 per time slot (4 time slots per day)
 

1 of 1

Windows into Nature

 

In this interactive storytelling program, students learn about the lives of Ice Age animals: their families, their habitats, and how they survived. Then, students will visit the animal from the story in one of the museum's exhibits to discover what fossils can teach us about these incredible creatures! Our educators will lead interactive discussions through dialogic reading and Visual Thinking Strategies. Students will also have the chance to touch an artifact from their animal, like a coyote paw print cast or pelt!

 

GRADE LEVELS: Pre-K–1 
DURATION: 30–40 minutes 
LOCATION: Museum Galleries (indoors) 
CAPACITY: 20 per time slot (4 time slots per day)
 

Fossil Detectives


Solve the mystery! What were ancient animals like when they were alive? Through observation and questioning, students will fossil animals and their habit to find the answer. Our guides will lead students to practice coming up with hypotheses and recording ideas in a field journal, just like real paleontologists! The foundation of this program comes from a method known as Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS). For more information, visit VTS.

 

GRADE LEVELS: 2-5
DURATION: 45-50 minutes 
LOCATION: Museum Galleries (indoors) 
CAPACITY: 20 per time slot (4 time slots per day)
 

Paleobotany Discovery Tour


Discover how scientists construct the environment of the ancient past! Through observation and questioning, students will learn about the history of excavations at La Brea and how excavations have evolved over time. Then, our guides will lead students through scientific practices of sorting microfossils and identifying fossil pollen samples. Students will use what they discover to put together an image of Ice Age Los Angeles.

 

GRADE LEVELS: 6-8
DURATION: 50-60 minutes 
LOCATION: Outdoor Excavation Sites 
CAPACITY: 20 per time slot (4 time slots per day)
 

Carnivores Discovery Tour


Discover how scientists construct the environment of the ancient past! Through observation and questioning, students will learn about the history of excavations at La Brea and how excavations have evolved over time.  Then, our guides will lead students through scientific practices of identifying fossil skulls and using fossil evidence to create paleoart. Students will use what they discover to understand the behavior of animals and visualize extinct species.

 

GRADE LEVELS: 9-12
DURATION: 50-60 minutes 
LOCATION: Outdoor Excavation Sites 
CAPACITY: 20 per time slot (4 time slots per day)
 

Performances and Films

Striped saber-toothed cat puppet behind a cut-out of grass with blue lighting

Ice Age Encounters


Experience a multimedia performance where we dig into the past to uncover the mysteries of some of the extinct creatures who roamed Ice Age Los Angeles over 10,000 years ago. This dynamic show features a life-size adult Saber-toothed Cat puppet, a live performance, and film projections that bring the distant past to life. Ice Age Encounters are 15-minute live, interactive puppet shows provided by our Performing Arts Team.

 

Available at 10:30 am and 11:30 am on Wednesdays and Thursdays with advanced reservations.

 

GRADE LEVELS: 2-6
DURATION: 15–20 minutes
LOCATION: Encounters Theater
COST: $3 per ticket

 

Please note: The Museum’s puppets are very large, realistic interpretations of wild animals, and we recommend specific grade levels for this performance. Prepare small children accordingly. Learn more about Ice Age Encounters.

 

Three mammoths walking towards the camera with snowy mountains behind them

Titans of the Ice Age 2D


A 30-minute informational film providing background information on the Tar Pits.This film experience will transport you to a world lost in time and ruled by giants. You'll encounter some of the Earth's most awe-inspiring mammals, from saber-toothed cats and dire wolves to giant sloths and iconic mammoths that lived 5,000 years before modern civilization. See how these magnificent creatures became trapped in asphalt, preserved in time, and are being unearthed today.

 

Available without prior reservation on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays, August 18–December 19, 2025, excluding school breaks. Entry times are every half hour from 10 am–12:30 pm. The theater is seat yourself on a first come, first served basis. Reservations are required March 2–June 10, 2026.  

 

GRADE LEVELS: All grades
DURATION: 30 minutes
LOCATION: School Theater
COST: Free
 

1 of 1

Ice Age Encounters


Experience a multimedia performance where we dig into the past to uncover the mysteries of some of the extinct creatures who roamed Ice Age Los Angeles over 10,000 years ago. This dynamic show features a life-size adult Saber-toothed Cat puppet, a live performance, and film projections that bring the distant past to life. Ice Age Encounters are 15-minute live, interactive puppet shows provided by our Performing Arts Team.

 

Available at 10:30 am and 11:30 am on Wednesdays and Thursdays with advanced reservations.

 

GRADE LEVELS: 2-6
DURATION: 15–20 minutes
LOCATION: Encounters Theater
COST: $3 per ticket

 

Please note: The Museum’s puppets are very large, realistic interpretations of wild animals, and we recommend specific grade levels for this performance. Prepare small children accordingly. Learn more about Ice Age Encounters.

 

Titans of the Ice Age 2D


A 30-minute informational film providing background information on the Tar Pits.This film experience will transport you to a world lost in time and ruled by giants. You'll encounter some of the Earth's most awe-inspiring mammals, from saber-toothed cats and dire wolves to giant sloths and iconic mammoths that lived 5,000 years before modern civilization. See how these magnificent creatures became trapped in asphalt, preserved in time, and are being unearthed today.

 

Available without prior reservation on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays, August 18–December 19, 2025, excluding school breaks. Entry times are every half hour from 10 am–12:30 pm. The theater is seat yourself on a first come, first served basis. Reservations are required March 2–June 10, 2026.  

 

GRADE LEVELS: All grades
DURATION: 30 minutes
LOCATION: School Theater
COST: Free
 

Permanent Exhibitions

Pit 91
Pit 91
Outdoors
We’re an active paleontological site! Come see how we got all these incredible fossils. From the Viewing Station, you can see deep into Pit 91 where thousands of bones of extinct animals like the western horse, saber-toothed cat, and dire wolf are jumbled together in pools of sticky asphalt.

Looking for other spaces to explore inside (and outside!) the museum? Learn more about our permanent exhibitions and see all that your students can discover on their field trip—no additional reservations for school groups required!