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Boston Children’s Museum has a few tricks in store for a happy COVID-era Halloween

Boston Children's Museum will offer a full week of socially distanced Halloween-themed events.Lex Piccione/Boston Children's Museum

Does the thought of trick-or-treating with the little ones have you scared?

The Boston Children’s Museum may be able to help: During the last week in October, the museum will take a sharp turn toward the spooky, bedecked with pumpkins, cobwebs, spiders, and all manner of spine-chilling creatures.

Throughout the week — or, as the Children’s Museum is calling it, HallowEEK! — visitors are encouraged to wear costumes to the museum, which will feature (not so) spooky programming, costumed staff, and its Explore-a-saurus exhibition re-imagined as a hair-raising adventure for the kids.

“We’re going to be turning it into a fun little walk-through, where the dinosaurs have gotten out of the exhibit and are causing some problems,” said Josh Baker, event manager for the museum. “So you’ll have to walk through and try and help us wrangle these dinosaurs without getting too spooked.”

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Other activities the museum is planning include laser-cut string art, spooky coloring, and a chance to create your own “slime monster.”

But the real fun comes on Oct. 30, Friday night, when the museum will keep its doors open late for the Halloween SPOOKtacular, offering 13 Halloween-themed activities, such as pumpkin putt-putt, a candy corn toss, a costume contest, and, of course, trick-or-treating.

“We’re going to be doing safe social-distanced trick-or-treating with a fun thing we’re calling treat extenders,” Baker said. “So all of our staff will be masked and gloved handing out candy with either scoop extenders or candy chutes and slides. It’ll be a fun way for the kids to enjoy trick-or-treating, while keeping everybody safe and healthy.”

The night of the Halloween SPOOKtacular, each visitor will also receive a “Scare Package” filled with treats and a variety of craft activities: dancing spider kits, ghost streamers, and everything you need to make a pumpkin lantern.

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“To keep everybody safe and healthy, all the materials and supplies the kids are going to need are going to be in that package. So they’ll have all the glue dots, all the paper supplies, everything they need,” said Baker, who added that each project comes with instructions. “So they can do it at the museum with help of staff, or they can take it to have a fun Halloween at home.”

Since reopening during the pandemic, the Children’s Museum has been operating under curtailed hours. Open Wednesday through Sunday, the museum admits guests during a morning and an afternoon window, allowing staffers to give the exhibitions a good scrub in between.

For the Halloween SPOOKtacular, the museum will offer a third admission window from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Tickets should be bought in advance ($25 per person) and admissions will be limited to 250 people.

Baker added that while many Halloween celebrations are still up the air, “the museum wants to celebrate Halloween in as safe a way as we know how.”

“We’ve been open for three months now, and we’ve proven that we’re a safe place for families to play, learn, and explore,” he said. “So we want to add that in with Halloween.”

HALLOWEEK!

Oct. 28-Nov. 1. Boston Children’s Museum, 308 Congress St. Tickets must be purchased in advance via www.bostonchildrensmuseum.org



Malcolm Gay can be reached at malcolm.gay@globe.com. Follow him @malcolmgay.