‘Tunes With Tina’

That’s Tina deVaron, a jazz musician and singer, whose musical brunch for young people at the Measure Lounge at Langham Place, Fifth Avenue, a hotel in Midtown Manhattan, returns on Sunday for a new season. Ms. deVaron, who often sings show tunes for children, also improvises and gears her performances to the audience. Her opening program is “Back to School With Jazz,” in which young people will learn about this genre and how to scat.

‘Apples and Honey in the Big Apple’

Her stage name may sound as if it belonged on a jar of pasta sauce, but Mama Doni is an indisputably Jewish performer. Doni Zasloff Thomas in real life, she specializes in putting a Jewish spin on all kinds of musical styles. At this concert by the Mama Doni Band at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, she’ll be singing about the sweetness of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year. Before and after, young visitors are invited to make holiday-themed crafts, and they can take a brief tour of the museum’s galleries at 1:30 p.m.

New York Transit Museum’s 21st Annual Bus Festival

Young visitors can board buses for a journey into the past at this festival honoring a venerable form of New York City transportation. More than a dozen vintage buses and trucks will be stationed at the celebration, including Betsy, the oldest in the fleet, a Fifth Avenue Coach Company double-decker that ran from 1931 until 1953, and Bus 3100, a prototype from the same company that was one of the first air-conditioned buses nationwide. Transit historians will discuss the vehicles, and educators from the museum will lead art projects for children — who will be asked to envision the buses of the future — at the festival, part of the Atlantic Antic street fair.

‘Deadpan Alley’

Children may not be able to define either Tin Pin Alley or deadpan humor, but they should easily understand the mixture of comedy, illusion and music that goes into a show by Will Shaw. Harking back to the days of vaudeville, Mr. Shaw’s act juxtaposes his mastery of juggling with hat tricks, clowning and sleight of hand. His one-hour solo presentation unfolds on board the Lehigh Valley Barge No. 79, also known now as the Waterfront Museum and Showboat Barge.

Jeff Koons Family Day

Some artworks by Jeff Koons seem a lot like child’s play, and this weekend the Whitney Museum of American Art is encouraging children — at least in their imaginations — to play with them. In conjunction with the show “Jeff Koons: A Retrospective,” the museum is holding this family day, at which young visitors can explore works like “Balloon Dog (Yellow)” and “Play-Doh!” and make their own art in response. The fun will include charades, balloon animals, a photo station and snacks, and from 9 to 11 a.m., the museum will be open exclusively to families.

‘The Old Man and the Old Moon’

The moon and the man may be old, but the performers are young: freshmen friends from the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama who have gone on to form the PigPen Theater Company. Using puppets, original songs and a folkoric sensibility, they’ve created a 90-minute show for children 7 and older that captures the odyssey of their title character: an elderly gentleman who keeps the moon filled with liquid light — until his wife disappears, and he has to find her.

‘Hansel and Gretel’s Halloween Adventure’

This pair already know how to deal with a witch, and they have encounters with many more fantastical creatures in this puppet production, written and directed by Bruce Cannon and Candice Burridge, with music by Daryl Kojak, at the Swedish Cottage Marionette Theater. Geared to ages 3 through 9 (and appropriately tame), the show, which closes this weekend, is a sequel to the theater’s original “Hansel and Gretel,” introducing characters like mermaids, cute monsters, charming vampires and valiant pirates.

‘Bad for You! Celebrating Banned Books Week’

The New York Public Library is inviting children to do something revolutionary: read a book. They can find out why it’s rebellious at this event, at which Kevin C. Pyle and Scott Cunningham will read from “Bad for You: Exposing the War on Fun” (Henry Holt) a docu-comic on the history of censorship. Honoring Banned Books Week, the celebration will explore why people used to burn comic books and why some places still want to keep kids away from Harry Potter.

‘The Butterfly Girl’

Based on Alan Madison’s book “Velma Gratch and the Way Cool Butterfly,” this breezy musical revival from Vital Theater Company opens the troupe’s 2014-15 season. Also incorporating a way cool science lesson, the show follows the adventures of Velma, whose entry into first grade is complicated by the near-perfect reputations of her older sisters. Michelle Elliott and Danny Larsen wrote the musical, which investigates what happens when something does single out Velma: the monarch butterfly that lights on her finger during a class trip and won’t leave.

‘Go Fish’

Fishing can be a lot of fun, unless you happen to be a fish. These events from the Battery Park City Parks Conservancy turn the experience into a win-win situation. Master anglers will help children cast lines with barbless hooks into New York Bay, and all fish will be placed in tanks and identified and observed before heading back to their homes. The day will also include drop-in fish-related art projects; a bird-watching walk at 11 a.m.; and a 12:30 p.m. performance by the children’s music duo Key Wilde and Mr. Clarke.

Tada! Youth Theater Open House

Broadway dreams start early, and Tada!, the youth musical theater troupe, offers classes for even nursery school divas. The company, whose alumni include the actors Josh Peck and Kerry Washington, will offer sample classes and question-and-answer sessions for tots through 14-year-old students, with classes at 10 a.m. (ages 2 and 3); 10:45 a.m. (ages 4 and 5); 11:30 a.m. (ages 6 through 8) and 12:15 p.m. (ages 9 through 14).

‘A Tale of Your City’: Decorate Free School Supplies

The Museum of the City of New York is inviting children 6 to 12 to take a bit of their favorite neighborhood with them every day when they go to school. In this workshop, each young participant will receive a free pencil pouch to decorate with a cherished city scene. For inspiration, budding artists can view the works in “Cityscapes: Highlights From the Permanent Collection,” a show that captures painters’ views of New York more than a century ago.

‘Sleepy Hollow’

Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman are off and riding again in this musical from Be Bold! Productions, revived for the Halloween season. Inspired by Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and recommended for theatergoers older than 8, this show, by Michael Sgouros and Brenda Bell, focuses on the love triangle and the mystery inherent in Irving’s tale. It also explores a darkness beyond the story’s fearsome woods: that of the human heart.

Mario the Magician

Looking to create amusement as well as amazement, Mario the Magician performs slapstick-inspired routines with an avian sidekick: a dove named Mozzarella. He will engage the young audience in his act, geared to ages 4 through 10 and influenced by classic comedians like Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton.

World Maker Faire

The spelling may be old-fashioned, but the ideas are all 21st century in this festival of do-it-yourself science. First presented on the West Coast by Make Magazine, the fair is coming east again to the New York Hall of Science, which will showcase hundreds of projects combining craft and technology. This year’s highlights include a Fly Zone, with hand-built rockets, airplanes and drones; shows of shooting geysers made by combining Coke Zero and Mentos; a 3-D Printing Village, a Fix It Village and a Lockpick Village; how-to tech workshops; circus arts; and the ever-popular life-size version of the Mousetrap game.

Preservation Detectives: ‘Chocolate Meltdown!’

One of the wishes expressed during Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, is that the coming year will be sweet. The Museum at Eldridge Street, the 1887 landmark synagogue where many Jewish immigrants worshiped, will help assure that the coming holiday gets off to a delicious start with this program, which inaugurates another season of “Preservation Detectives” tours in which children 4 to 12 view artifacts, investigate neighborhood lore and sleuth their way into the past. Young participants will make their own chocolate treats, create art, go on a scavenger hunt and learn about another edible that plays a role in Rosh Hashana: carrots.

‘Somebody Come and Play: 45 Years of “Sesame Street” Helping Kids Grow Smarter, Stronger, and Kinder’

Sesame Street now has an additional address: the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. This new show, which opened on Thursday, showcases more than 250 artifacts related to the beloved preschool public television series “Sesame Street,” including set designs, original sketches for characters, scripts, storyboards, animation cels, Claymation models, videos and, of course, over 20 Muppets, among them Elmo, Zoe and Bert and Ernie. A children’s area includes “Sesame Street” book and activities.

CRY Walk

CRY stands for Child Rights and You, a nonprofit promoting children’s health, education and welfare worldwide. This fund-raising event, organized by CRY America, consists of two events: a five-kilometer competitive race and a five-kilometer “fun walk.” All participating will be treated to snacks, drinks, T-shirts and other giveaways, and children can enjoy dance and juggling.

‘Around the World in 80 Minutes’

Slovenia, Japan, Australia, Brazil — those are just some of the countries to be visited in this whirlwind global tour, whose mode of travel is television. Presented by the Paley Center for Media through Sept. 28, this festival of short films and programming includes an episode of “Knyacki,” a Japanese Claymation show about an earthworm; a comic adventure involving hypnosis from “Round the Twist,” an Australian children’s series; and “Chunga Chui” (“Leopard Beware”), an East African tale about a herdsman and a leopard from Aardman Animations in Britain.

‘Bounce: A Basketball Performance Event’

Basketball and opera don’t usually appear in the same sentence, much less at the same event. But athletics will meet arias on Sunday, when Ardea Arts and the City Parks Foundation present “Bounce,” a musical theater performance and basketball workshop for children ages 10 to 16 at Coney Island. With a libretto by Charles R. Smith Jr. and music by Daniel Bernard Roumain, “Bounce” presents the story of Isaac Harris, nicknamed Ike the Flight, a young basketball player facing challenges both on and off the court. In addition to the performance, children can enjoy a ball-handling session with Shay Berry, head basketball coach at Hunter College, and be filmed as they express what the sport means to them.

Math in Muslim Arts Festival

Many American children are exposed to only negative images of Islam. At the annual celebration of Muslim arts at the Children’s Museum of Manhattan, they can experience the rich cultural heritage of the Muslim world. The museum’s series begins this weekend with Math in Muslim Arts Festival, which includes drop-in workshops to create architectural projects inspired by mosques (10 a.m. to noon); a drop-in storytelling session in which young listeners can learn to count in Arabic (12:30 to 1 p.m.); and a sign-up workshop for children 5 and older, led by the artist Haifa Bint-Kadi, in which she will discuss the importance of geometry in Muslim mosaics, and each participant can design tiles to take home (12:30 to 1 p.m.).

Twilight in the Garden Shadow Shows

Some of the community gardens administered by the New York Restoration Project will have unusual visitors over the next few weeks, including mermaids, a sea captain, space pirates and a dragon. They’re all characters in Twilight in the Garden Shadow Shows, a series of shadow puppetry performances by the theater company Midnight Radio Show. The presentations include live music and storytelling. Friday’s tale involves Captain Mira and her brother, Paolo, who sail dangerously close to mermaids; Saturday’s involves an encounter between a farmer and a sea captain.

Twilight in the Garden Shadow Shows

Some of the community gardens administered by the New York Restoration Project will have unusual visitors over the next few weeks, including mermaids, a sea captain, space pirates and a dragon. They’re all characters in Twilight in the Garden Shadow Shows, a series of shadow puppetry performances by the theater company Midnight Radio Show. The presentations include live music and storytelling. Friday’s tale involves Captain Mira and her brother, Paolo, who sail dangerously close to mermaids; Saturday’s involves an encounter between a farmer and a sea captain.

Kite Festival

This weekend, sailing will take place in the air as well as on the waterfront at Brooklyn Bridge Park. This festival will offer kites for sale, or families can take their favorites from home.

Family Art Lab: ‘A Parade for Ganesh!’

Babar, Dumbo, Horton — children’s tales are full of interesting elephants. But this program at the Rubin Museum of Art, an institution devoted to the cultures of the Himalayas, will introduce one elephant figure young New Yorkers may not have heard of: Ganesh, the Hindu deity. God of wisdom, wealth and all beginnings, Ganesh has the head of an elephant and the body of a man. This lab, for ages 5 and older, will include stories about Ganesh, a hunt through the galleries for his likeness and a chance to make sculptures of his image in clay.

Special Day for Special Kids

This special day comes courtesy of the New York Transit Museum, which will offer three hours of programs specifically for children with disabilities, starting at 10 a.m., when their families will have exclusive use of the museum until it opens to the general public at 11. The plans include a 10:30 art workshop presented with Extreme Kids & Crew, an organization offering activities and support for special-needs families, and a costumed guide explaining transit history.

‘The Love Note’

Sound like a romance? Think again. The title of this new production, billed as a musical for preteenagers, refers to the words of encouragement the mother of the heroine, Jessie, packs into her lunch every day. And Jessie needs all the support she can get: The new girl at school, she has to deal with bullies, the pressures to be popular and the first stirrings of a crush in this show by Gail Phaneuf.

‘The Dancing Fox: Wisdom Tales From the Middle East’

What can Jews and Arabs agree on? One thing is undisputed: certain stories. The master puppeteer and mask maker Ralph Lee discovered this more than 10 years ago when he was researching separate folklore projects, and one result was “The Dancing Fox,” a 2003 production from his Mettawee River Theater Company. The show, now being revived, uses Mr. Lee’s creations to bring to life five tales from these shared traditions. And yes, foxes, dancing and otherwise, pop up in both cultures.

Mid-Autumn Moon Festival

You’ve probably heard of the cow that jumped over the moon, but what about the jade rabbit that actually lives there? That rabbit, a beautiful woman and a brave archer all play roles in the mythology behind the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival, a Chinese holiday being celebrated at the Museum of Chinese in America. In addition to hearing the tale, young visitors can take part in a “Round Is the Moon” scavenger hunt; taste mooncakes, a traditional confection; take part in lantern-making, mooncake design and potion-making workshops; and watch demonstrations of paper cutting and calligraphy.

Film Forum Jr.: ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’

This series from Film Forum, intended to introduce children to classic movies, is opening its fall season with a bang — or maybe we should say the crack of a whip. “Raiders of the Lost Ark” (1981), Steven Spielberg’s action extravaganza, stars Harrison Ford as the coolest archaeology professor ever: Indiana Jones, who puts aside academia to take up his boots, his trusty hat and his whip in pursuit of the Lost Ark of the Covenant, which the Nazis are also after.

Trial Class in Creative Dance

Tiny dancers are sought for this class, one of a Wednesday series in which Rachael Kosch will introduce the basics of classical ballet and modern dance to children ages 4 to 9. Michael Kosch, a composer and Mrs. Kosch’s husband, will provide live accompaniment. The event will include making a sculptural costume piece to take home.

‘Busy Bee Costume Build and Farm Exploration’

Monday starts a week that’s all about bee-ing: a city celebration of honey and the creatures that make it. Children can prepare for the signature event of NYC Honey Week — the Sept. 13 Honey Fest, and its children’s Be-a-Bee Parade at Rockaway Boardwalk in Queens — at this costume workshop and plant investigation at Brooklyn Navy Yard. The organization City Growers will help young participants make buzz-worthy finery and then take them to the roof for a cooking demonstration and a tour of the farm plants that honey bees depend on — and vice versa.

Brooke Jackman Foundation Read-a-Thon

Reading was Brooke Jackman’s passion. At 23, she was planning to leave her job in finance to get a graduate degree in social work and help underprivileged children, but she was killed on Sept. 11 before she could realize her dreams. This annual event, held by a foundation her family established to support her goals, gathers a variety of participants — this year they include Fire Commissioner Daniel A. Nigro, firefighters, the children’s author Stephanie Calmenson and Broadway performers — to read from children’s books.

African Film Festival Family Day Celebration

Discovering African culture will be only a brief ferry ride away during this afternoon of workshops, games, film and food on Governors Island. Presented by the African Film Festival, the celebration will include storytelling, needlework arts, double Dutch and workshops in dance. Accompanied by live percussion, the dance offerings are Zumba and Horton (11 a.m.), Afro-Brazilian (12:15 p.m.), Senegalese sabar (2 p.m.) and Guinean (3:30). The activities will take place at Colonels’ Row from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., while the festival will screen short films from Africa and the African diaspora in the Commanding Officer’s Headquarters from 1 to 5 p.m.

‘Depot Time!’

When the wheels on the bus stop going round and round, where do they rest? The answer in New York City is one of the many depots throughout the five boroughs. In this workshop for ages 5 and older at the New York Transit Museum, whose September theme for family programs is “The Bus of the Future,” children will learn about these huge garages. Then they’ll design their own depots, along with dispatch schedules for personal bus fleets.

‘Solve for XX: A Celebration of Women in Mathematics’

Yes, mathematics is a field filled with people with XY chromosomes, but this event at the National Museum of Mathematics will introduce three prominent professionals of the opposite sex: Marjorie Senechal of Smith College; Reidun Twarock of the University of York, in England; and Jean Taylor of New York University and Rutgers. They will explain their careers, discuss how their work involves shapes as well as numbers (the structure of viruses and crystals) and, the museum hopes, inspire some girls to follow in their paths. A pizza lunch is included.