Exhibit Prototyping

This week's post is written by Peter Crabbe, Associate Director of Exhibits and Design for DuPage Children's Museum.  Peter will be sharing a series of posts for our readers this month about our Museum's prototyping process.  Leave a comment or ask a question as we look at this process together.

The exhibit prototyping process is one of the favorite parts of my job here at DuPage Children's Museum (DCM).  It's our opportunity to find out if what we have predicted on paper will actually work in practice or  to test out something that we are unsure will work.  Prototyping exhibits helps us to finalize their design to a point where we are confident that the final product is something that children will find interesting and fun, and meets the educational goals of the exhibit.

Children often surprise us, using the exhibit prototypes in unexpected ways.  This helps us to modify what we are doing to better meet their needs, which can mean tweaking what we intended, re-designing or even going in a completely different direction we hadn't intended!

We use the prototyping stage to answer questions about practical issues, such as how high off the ground to make something so children can easily reach it, how to engineer something and the best way to ensure that the exhibit is safe.  Finally, it is a chance for us to invite our visitors to participate in helping us create and improve the experiences at DCM.

How does the prototyping process work?  Once we have figured out what an exhibit is about and what type of exploration we want to encourage in children, we typically do a rough sketch or concept design.  Sometimes we can't answer all our questions, such as how interesting children will find the exhibit, if it will work technically or if people will know what to do with it without signage just from looking at a sketch or drawing; that's when we need to prototype.  Our fabricators will then build a rough prototype in our Museum fabrication shop.  The prototype is a temporary structure made quickly and inexpensively, and left unpainted.  However, any working or moving parts have to be fully functional.  Sometimes the prototypes have a distinctly Rube Goldberg look about them.

Stay tuned!  Find out about our visitor interactions with prototypes in a future post!

"A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words"

This week's post is written by Marcia MacRae, our Interdisciplinary Arts Specialist.  Marcia shares the process of creating a new exhibition in our Good Show Gallery, Chagall Memories.

Young children have the ability to powerfully communicate complex thoughts and deep emotions when given the right vocabulary.  That does not always mean that their message is verbalized.  The incredible artwork in our current Good Show Gallery exhibit clearly demonstrates that, for children, a picture can be the right "vocabulary" - and worth a thousand words.

Work by kindergarten through fifth grade artists at Longwood School in Indian Prairie District 204 vividly demonstrates the importance of quality arts education and experiences for children.  Over 200 students rose to the occasion while exploring the art of famed artist Marc Chagall.  The thought processes they shared while working revealed the deep, personal meaning behind seemingly simple images.

The children understood that the figures symbolically floating through Chagall's paintings were his way of illustrating the characters and traditions that floated through his life.  They used the same visual language to talk about the people, events and ideas that define their lives.

Chagall frequently painted fish as symbols of his father, who worked in the herring business.  Intently referencing their parents' work and hobbies, children portrayed roses, ambulances, fish and books.  A third grade girl drew "Golden light coming out of a church" to represent her mother.  A fourth grader showed herself looking into a mirror, but the mirror showed her mother's reflection, indicating how much of her mother she carried inside of herself.

Children, like adults, have their share of love and joy, fear, anger and sadness. Many choose not to talk about the difficulties in their lives, even if they have the vocabulary to do so.  Utilizing Chagall's joyful, symbol-filled work provided a new vocabulary to express themselves.  Quietly, one girl asked, "Can I do a sad memory?"  The second grader proceeded to draw a rather unhappy scene, but that is not what she turned in at the end of class.  She turned her picture over and completed a happy picture to hang in the gallery.  The fact is, she did not need to complete the sad picture, but she did need to start it.  The process of working out her feeling on paper was more important than the finished product.  Art can give children a powerful vocabulary to stat the thoughts they may not want to speak.  Over the course of nine art periods children drew anger, sorrow, memories of lost relatives and pets and a great deal of happiness.

The rich, thoughtful work in the exhibit did not come out of the blue.  Longwood Elementary is fortunate to have a high-quality art education program.  The children were already accustomed to using a variety of materials to express thoughts and ideas.  All children deserve and need the opportunity to express their thoughts in a wide variety of voices.  Art is language.  Visit Chagall Memories and see what these young artists had to say.

How Do You Play with the Art of Chagall?

The traveling exhibit Chagall for Children is here at the Museum through April 20th. I spent some time watching families explore a few days after we opened. Here are some excerpts of what I saw:

A girl, 4 years of age, was walking near Chagall's The Juggler. Suddenly she heard a horse neigh and ran over to see where the sound came from.  The volunteer, playing with the interactive, showed her the horse on the image and then said, Can you find the violinist?  The girl touched the violinist and the image moved. She heard a violin playing and she smiled. (Note: She got it!  Soon she's exploring many of the detailed images in this interactive.  She noticed art!)

At Chagall's The Circus, a boy, 5 years of age, stood in front of the wall-size replica, mimicking Chagall's interpretation of a circus character on a horse.  As he noticed his image on the screen across from the wall hanging, he pretended to balance on the horse.  (Note: He used his imagination, just as Chagall painted things from his imagination.)

A girl, age 2, was moving the color clings around at Light Garden.  Her mom pointed to the Chagall images above.  (Note:  A lot of Chagall's artworks are very colorful, so the Museum matched a set of clings to these colors.   DCM added three images to Light Garden, for an enhancement to the traveling exhibit.  We replaced Monet's Water Lilies in Light Garden with these Chagall images - L'Envol, Au Dessus de la Ville, and Flowers and Lovers.)

 Both children and adults can immerse themselves into the life and work of this master artist. A grandmother was observed reading facts about Chagall on the reading boards located at adult level while her grandchild napped in her stroller. It is our hope that both children and adults will develop a greater understanding and appreciation of the many forms of artistic expression created by Marc Chagall.  Stay tuned!  More observations are forthcoming!

Exploring the Art of Chagall with Children

The Museum is very excited to offer our visitors the opportunity to explore, touch, listen, to learn about, look at, wonder about and feel the art of Marc Chagall.  Based on the work of this Russian-born French painter 1887-1985, the exhibit includes 15 reproductions of Chagall works, most with interactive elements that allow children to explore their own creativity. The exhibit is located in our Creativity Connections neighborhood from January 15 - April 20, 2011.

"Recurring themes in Chagall's work," according to our Interdisciplinary Arts Specialist, Marcia MacRae, are his love of family, his town and the way he was brought up.  It's those kinds of memories we want to make for our children."

Here are some suggestions for exploring the exhibit together:

Use your senses. Most of the reproductions and all of the accompanying exhibit  interactive components are designed to be explored. Marc Chagall's art appeals to the senses - look with your eyes, pretend to smell the flowers, hear the music or feel the fine textures.

Encourage your child by asking questions. Ask your child to tell you what he sees, hears or feels. Whether he's pretending or describing a real action, these opportunities nurture the development of your child's thinking and inquiry skills.

Cultivate curiosity. Allow your child the opportunity to move at his own pace. Tune in to his interests and then support his discoveries by reading the labels or prompts.

Relate what you see to something familiar. Chagall was struck by the beauty of French flowers. Talk about the flowers in your garden or home. Recall a time when flowers were purchased for a special occasion.

Extend the learning. Where else in our Museum do you see artwork? Explore and talk together. How is the artwork the same as Chagall's? How is it different? Pretend to be one of the characters in a Chagall painting on the main stage in our Interact with Art Gallery, Play's the Thing: Act II, located on the second floor.

Please take time to visit this inspiring exhibit. Leave us a comment or send us a picture through this blog! What did your child notice first? Extend the learning at home by challenging your child to draw a picture as Marc Chagall did.

The Chagall for Children traveling exhibit was developed by Kohl Children's Museum and premiered in July 1996 in Wilmette IL.

Learning to Look

Quality art and design are everywhere you go! Learning to look at art and design not only helps develop art appreciation, but can also foster many important skills children need for lifetime learning! Make it a new year's resolution to look at art and design with your children. Here's some great tips from our Interdisciplinary Specialist Marcia MacRae:

Learning to Look Everyday
Start by hunting for simple colors or shapes with young children. Note every time you see the color red while running errands. You'll be astounded by how much your child will find. Building powers of observation and concentration will go a long way in developing study skills.

Older children are ready to make comparisons and judgments about objects. For example, help your child notice differences by inviting comments of the windows of the houses and shops near home. You'll be surprised at how many different types of windows you may discover in your neighborhood.

Helping children develop judgment and aesthetic sense fosters an ability to form opinions. At any age, point out a building or sculpture and tell your child what you think of it. Ask their opinion and let them know it is OK to disagree. Showing your children that their ideas are worthwhile, even if different from yours, helps them respect the opinions of others.

Learning to Look in the Museum
DCM is filled with art and designs for children to notice. All of our artwork is chosen to make connections with the learning goals of our exhibits. You can count along with Andy Warhol's 100 Campbell Soup Cans in Math Connections; trace the curving design of our cloud-shaped tables in AirWorks; build zigzagging ramps like the three different artistic interpretations of San Francisco's famous Lombard Street in Make it Move; or work on wonderfully textured surfaces in one of the exhibits in Creativity Connections.

Observation, appreciation of design, and good descriptive vocabulary are skills needed in science and math as well as art. Practice taking a new look at these things you see everyday. Talk about them with your children and they'll make new discoveries and connections in the world around them.

Our ninth annual celebration to ring in the New Year (at noon) was a resounding success! I can't think of a better way to ring in the New Year than to watch the delight of children, parents and grandparents creating, celebrating and pretending together.

Singing along with Mr. Singer and the Sharp Cookies

Making a jet-pack to blast-off to 2011

Coloring in the "Galaxy Room"

Countdown to noon with Mayor George Pradel


Ringing in the New Year with bubbles

To view more pictures and read stories about our New Year's countdown to noon celebration, visit the Daily Herald and patch.com/NapervillePatch.

(Pictures are compliments of volunteer photographers Kelly Bridges, Caryn Kolodziej and Rick Beato)

Creativity Builds Thinking Skills

What is the child in this picture thinking? If I were to guess, he is brainstorming the best placement of his scissors for the size of ribbon he needs for his collage resting on the table. Perhaps the ribbon is too thick or not thick enough. In that case, he'll have to search the table for alternate supplies. Maybe his caregiver will make a suggestion and together they will collaborate on the best solution. Brainstorming, searching for alternatives and collaborating are some of the critical thinking skills we need in life to succeed.

Creativity is a confluence of traits, capacities and skills. While some of us may not consider ourselves to be creative in the sense of known artists and musicians, the characteristics of creativity touch on the decisions we make on a daily basis. Here's what some of those characteristics look like from a developmental standpoint:

Infants are nurtured through sights, sounds and gentle touches. They learn to respond to the sounds of the human voice and noises in their environment. Given a stimulating environment and an attentive caregiver, babies discover that they can create change by what they see, hear or touch. Place rattles of varying sounds and textures in a baby's reach and he will explore them in various ways - shaking them, tasting them or dropping them and then exploring them again. In life, creating change leads to innovative solutions!

Crawlers and walkers become more deliberate and purposeful in responding to people and objects. Sing a familiar song or nursery rhyme over and over again. Then sing it again, only this time stop before you get to the last word or phrase. You may hear your child finishing the song for you. Learning to anticipate what happens next contributes toward making good decisions.

Young preschoolers are beginning to form mental pictures as they make sense of the sights and sounds of their world. Recreate some of their favorite story books by acting them out together. This helps build memory, a necessary component in school or work. At this age they may enjoy attending a performance or storytelling event.

When older preschoolers use their imagination with peers, they are learning to hone observation skills as they take their cues from another perspective. The older preschooler may enjoy creating simple performances with puppets and props. In addition, their growing interests in exploring clay and other art materials contribute towards learning to make choices and figuring out how to make things happen. Those thinking skills keep increasing in competency!

By the time your child enters school, he is looking at others' artwork and performance and developing an opinion - another higher level of thinking. Be sure and provide a space where your child can hang his artwork so others can look at and respond to it. You can model the importance of opinions by responding to creative examples in your home and community. What do you like or dislike about a painting or sculpture?

Older school-age children are ready to apply analytical thinking skills through discussions that offer their likes and dislikes about works of art, theater productions, stories, songs and poetry. At this age, they can share a judgment and, at the same time, take on the perspective of what another person may have been thinking. Your child may enjoy collecting music or poetry to share with others.

The pictures in this post were taken during one of our Higher Order Thinking Series™ Classes. These classes are offered to develop creativity and critical thinking skills through hands-on-art processes to build the creative mind. Children can discover more about themselves and their capabilities as they experiment with different art mediums such as paint, scissors and chalk. Click here for more information about our Creativity Classes. Consider attending one of our Tiny Great Performances™. For more information about the arts, read the report by the Task force on Children's Learning and the Arts, Young Children and the Arts: Making Creative Connections.

What Makes a Good Field Trip?

What was your favorite field trip when you were a child? What made it so memorable? Besides being thrilled to be out of the classroom, you probably got to interact with a fascinating guide, creative spaces or new materials in a way you had not experienced before. The interactions you had with your classmates may have helped make it memorable as well.

So what makes a good field trip? Good field trips connect to what children are learning. Authentic experiences that relate to and expand on previous knowledge can make powerful educational connections. For teachers, good planning must precede field trips. Teachers and caregivers should familiarize themselves with the site prior to booking a field trip. Parents want to know that their child will be safe and that the trip serves a planned educational purpose. If parents accompany their children on well-planned field trips, they can support their child's learning at home - and become the best advocates for future visits.

An increasing number of our volunteers under age 30 are reporting their memories of field trips at DCM. In particular, they recount experiences from our learning lab field trips. Our learning labs are memorable because they integrate what children are learning in school with their developmental interests and abilities. Teachers like them because they are well organized and align with the Illinois Learning Standards.

Do you have a favorite Museum field trip memory?. Post a comment with a group compiling those memories here. If you have a favorite field trip memory from DuPage Children's Museum, leave us a comment on our blog.

Consider booking a field trip with us soon!

Grandparent Play

While we value grandparents everyday at DuPage Children's Museum, we celebrate their unique bond with their grandchildren during the month of October. Bonnie Strong, a grandmother visiting from Ohio in honor of her grandchild's 3rd birthday, commented that DCM is a great place for wonderful memories!

Do you remember the bond you had with your grandparent? It's as if time stopped and the world revolved around the two of you when you explored and played together. Grandparents typically have more time to share in the excitement of their grandchild's new discoveries. While all adults can be important in a child's life, grandparents often fill the role of friend, play partner, role model, caregiver, family historian, mentor and a source of unconditional love.

Being a grandparent offers many benefits too! According to an article from Forever Families, the grandparent role provides a chance to participate in a child's growth and development without the level of responsibility that parents have. An added bonus can be a sense of vitality for grandparents who explore and play with someone in a younger stage of life!

(Parts of this post are from Raise Your Play I.Q., a column in the October 2009 Positively Naperville Newspaper, by Jayne Carpenter, Early Childhood Specialist for DCM)

Displaying Children's Art Reaps Powerful Rewards!

The best art openings in town are at DuPage Children's Museum's Good Show Gallery, a special venue for displaying children's works. The artists arrive, some in fancy dress, some straight from hockey practice, all excited to show their families the works they created in a DCM workshop. Pointing out their thoughtful creations to parents and recognizing their artistic efforts hung behind glass in an official art gallery generates tremendous pride. At one artists' reception a father shared that his daughter reminded him of the exhibit opening celebration every single day after she participated in the workshop. That morning she bounded into his room to wake him with, "Don't forget! It's tonight!"
Showcasing children's creative effort has far-reaching results. Beyond encouraging thoughtfulness in the work, gallery showings offer the opportunity to document children's increasing skills and problem-solving abilities. Our Good Show Gallery's mission is to support DCM's Scribbleosophy©, a document honoring the developmental stages in children's growing creative abilities. Displaying the work of entire classes demonstrates to parents the fact that everyone, from gifted Monet to the average doodler, goes through the same stages at roughly the same age. (While not documented, it is likely that even Rembrandt's figures looked like tadpoles at the age of 3!).

While it's cookies and juice at DCM's Good Show Gallery openings, rather than wine and cheese that are provided in Chicago's art district, be assured, the excitement and pride of every artist is a work of art.

This week's post is written by Marcia MacRae, DCM's Interdisciplinary Arts Specialist. For more information about the Good Show Gallery, contact Marcia at mmacrae@dupagechildrensmuseum.org

What's New at DuPage Children's Museum?

We are pleased to welcome our visitors back! After a two-week refresh and cleaning of the Museum, we are open! A Play Facilitator was overheard saying, "Boy, does this place smell clean!" Cleaning and sanitizing takes priority all year round but especially during our annual shutdown. You can read more about our daily and yearly cleaning procedures here and in a 2008 article in Hand to Hand Journal for the Association of Children's Museums (ACM).

A major change during our shutdown was the refreshing of our Interact with Art Gallery, The Play's the Thing, now called The Play's the Thing: Act II. The main purpose of our gallery is to help our young visitors and their adult partners realize that there are many creative ways to interpret the world and that their own interpretations have validity. Like its predecessor, The Play's the Thing: Act II offers opportunities for pretend play, performance, puppetry and set design. Pretend play is a wonderful way to facilitate development of imagination. When children role-play, they often practice taking on the perspective of others.

You will notice that the Main Stage was moved to the other side of the exhibit. A plain back-drop was added so children can manipulate their own props with Velcro®. You will also see a Play Note that prompts the visitor with a performance idea.

The Tower has been transformed into a Rocket, which, along with the Space Station, Space Mural and Saturn Bench, children can use to expand their performance ideas into outer space. For more information about The Play's the Thing: Act II read an article in the Daily Herald newspaper here.

Stay tuned! The Family Resource Center's focus is Stepping into Science. In our next post we'll look at some of those resources and the exploration of science through play.

Creative Thinking Inspires Children's Engineering Abilities

The simplest materials often stimulate the most creative thinking! This summer Line Sculptures filled DCM's Studio for an entire week with colorful abstract designs, representational pictures and inspirational feats of engineering. "Inspirational" materials included paper strips of varying widths, scissors, glue sticks and small rectangular papers on which to work. A few hints on how to shape paper with accordion folds, spiral, curls and pop-up designs were all that excited visitors needed to get going.*

Children of all ages and abilities bring their unique level of skills and vision when basic materials are provided for open-ended activities. The smaller bases offered for our Line Sculptures encouraged preschoolers, who like to work flat, build up into the third dimension. Older children created engineering playgrounds, buildings and gardens, figuring out how to put wider strips at the bottom to support decorative elements on top. Designs and creativity are boundless when you keep it simple!

*One tip: Strips of wrapping paper bring fun sparks of pattern to designs.

This week's post is written by Marcia Z. MacRae, Interdisciplinary Arts Specialist for DuPage Children's Museum.

Art Explorers

As summertime is winding down, so too are our summer preschool camp programs. Our final camp of the summer gave children the opportunity to explore art in a variety of mediums. Whether children are reveling in the wet, bright-colored "squishiness" of tempera paint, creating a vista of lines and curves or thoughtfully poking or smoothing a mound of dough, they are developing artistic expression.

The Preschool Summer Camp children may not know who Jean Dubuffet is; they did, however, explore his sculpture style when we created Styrofoam peanut sculptures as we looked at images of his work. Small pieces of tissue paper, wrapped around the bottom of a dowel rod and glued on a piece of paper, gave us the same sense of color that we saw in Water Lilies by Claude Monet. And a favorite Eric Carle book, Red Fox, inspired some ideas for creating art from recycled wallpaper pieces, Eric Carle style.

Did you know the arts can make you smart? Recent research demonstrates a correlation between the arts and higher academic performance. In the report, “Learning, Arts and the Brain,” seven universities presented several studies discussing how visual arts, music, and dance training and skill impact learning (The DanaFoundation, 2008). Based on the explorations and discoveries during Art Explorers week, we would have to agree!

This week's montage of pictures shows children exploring art activities in our camp room as well as enjoying Museum exhibits with fellow campers. A BIG THANK YOU to Sue Kessler, one of our camp facilitators, for putting this montage (and some of our others) together with thought-provoking music.

Great Big and Teeny Tiny

Measurement is the main way most of us use math in the everyday world. From great big to tiny, measurement begins with noticing differences in size. Although preschool children may not verbalize measurement, they are thinking about it - from how tall they are to comparing how long their teddy bear is next to their friend's bear. During last week's Preschool Summer Camp we used the creative arts to explore size differences. We painted with teeny tiny brushes (and tiny fingers) and large brushes (and large hands). We compared space by using small and large paper. After reading the book Where's My Teddy, a delightful story about a mix-up of two teddy bears, one belonging to a small boy and one to a large bear, we decorated small and large teddy bears. We took small pieces of biodegradable Styrofoam pieces and created large sculptures. A large box filled with shoes, from baby shoes to clown shoes, not only provided for fun make-believe, but also generated conversations about size comparisons.

Using the exhibits in Water Ways and Math Connections, we explored quantity, size and balance. You too can facilitate learning by using early math vocabulary such as small/large or more/less/fewer when playing in these exhibits with your preschooler.

Explore measurement at home by offering varying sizes of paper. Pennant-shape paper allows children to draw naturally and encourages them to create tiny and large designs. Puzzles are another great way to explore size differences. Read more about puzzle play here.

Enjoy this week's montage of pictures. We sure had a fabulous time exploring measurement!

Let's Pretend

During last week's Preschool Summer Camp, the focus was pretend. Pretending is a great way to encourage and motivate children's learning. One of the many benefits of pretending is that it gives children many opportunities to practice using their memory.

We started the week by cultivating our storytelling techniques with volunteer storyteller Joanne Chase. On Monday we created stories with story blocks and then created our own story blocks and story boards. On Tuesday we made up stories with puppets and made puppets to take home. On Wednesday we reenacted the story Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina. We used our imaginations in the exhibit neighborhoods, too: on the Main Stage, in the U-Drive and in the Cat'sTower, which are located in our Interact with Art Gallery, The Play's the Thing. By the end of the week we were making costumes and creating sets. A visit from performers of Cirque Shanghai surprised and delighted us as we watched in amazement with other Museum visitors.

For more information about pretend play, we recommend two of our favorite staff resource books at DCM. Both books can be ordered through DCM's Shop and Grow Program.

Einstein Never Used Flashcards by Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Roberta M. Golinkoff and Diane E. Ayer

Awakening Children's Minds: How Parents and Teachers Can Make a Difference by Laura E. Berk

Cool Chemical Concoctions

Bubble, fizz, ooze! These were some of the results last week at our Cool Chemical Concoction Mini-Camp for 7-9 year old children. At one of the four mini-camps for younger school-age children held this summer, children experimented with common household "chemicals" to learn about the power of CO2 gas, how yeast makes dough rise, how to grow crystals, how to make several different cool slimes and much more!

You don't need to be a scientist to explore science! Because of children's natural curiosity, it's easy to get them interested in science. Visit your local library and look up books about kitchen chemistry. Some of our favorites include Science Experiments You Can Eat by Vicki Cobb, Kitchen Chemistry: A Book of Science Experiments by Evan Moor and Kid Chemistry by Sandra Ford Grove. You can find these books on-line through our Shop 'n' Grow Program.

So - discover what's inside your cabinets for experiments. Don't forget to stand back when you drop the Mint Mentos® into the Diet Coke.

What Do You Know About Air?

During the research for the Museum's AirWorks neighborhood adults and children were interviewed with the statement, tell us what you know about air. Both children and adults talked about feeling air on themselves such as the force of the air when they placed their hands outside of a moving car. Most of us, in fact, understand that air is all around us, that air blows objects around and that we can feel air when it moves.

You don't need to understand air in order to experiment with it. Read more about exploring the science of air by checking out a previous post here . To read more about what adults and children say about air, read a previous post here. You can find tips for playing in our AirWorks neighborhood here.

This past week, preschool children in our Up in the Air Summer Camp explored air both in the camp and in the Museum exhibits. Enjoy this week's montage of pictures! The hot air balloons at the end of the slide show are pictures taken by one of the teachers a few years ago. Her images were displayed on the wall during one of our "Up in the Air" explorations.

Play with Water and Bubbles!

In everyday life water spouts from faucets, drains from tubs and rains from above. And inevitably, if you are a child it spills! During last week's Preschool Summer Camp children redirected, captured, and controlled water. With multiple approaches and myriad of solutions to any challenge, playing with water and bubbles is discovery learning at its best.

For information about the science behind playing with water and bubbles, click here.

Here's some of the learning and fun we had in the Water and Bubbles Preschool Camp last week.

For information about our Preschool Summer Camps, click here.

Make It Move through Play

A child's fascination with moving objects can inspire numerous scientific observations and experimentation with some of the basic concepts of physics. Through active participation with things that move, children gain confidence, make comparisons, problem solve, apply concepts of force and motion, use creativity, work, plan and design.

During last week's Preschool Summer Camp, Make It Move, children worked both individually and collaboratively to experiment with how objects move. We used salad spinners to move paint. We used toy cars and toy trains to observe tracks in water, paint and shaving cream. We even rode a tricycle and pushed a cart through paint and observed the patterns the wheels made. We experimented with inclined planes by rolling items down a ramp to see which one would roll, slide or stay put. We also made our own slides out of tubes and tape. The book, Roll, Slope or Slide: A Book about Ramps by Roald Dahl and Michael Lewis, helped clarify our experiments. Two other favorite stories during the week were Rattletrap Car by Phyllis Root and Jill Barton and Mama Zooms by Jane Cowen-Fletcher.

Want to play at home? Stop and watch goods being moved up and down delivery truck ramps. Then go to a park and try out the varying sized slides. Which slide makes objects and children go faster? Why? Have your child move his big wheel or wagon through water. Turn the wheel and watch the path change. Go along for a walk while your child pulls the wagon or rides a tricycle. Is the road an inclined plane? How easy or hard is it to go up the road?

For more information about physics, force, motion and moving objects, read a previous post here.

Want to know more about our Preschool Summer Camps? Camps run weekly through August 20th. Click here for registration information.

Enjoy some pictures from Preschool Summer Camp, Make it Move!

Preschool Summer Camp

DuPage Children's Museum is a preschool campground this summer. Program staff at DCM are offering a learning through play approach both in the classroom and through Museum exploration. Alternating between low- and high-energy activities that connect learning to weekly themes, children stay engaged with both individual and group process. Although the focus changes each week and the activities change daily, the continuity of a daily schedule supports this age group's best practices for learning. Here's what the schedule looks like:

Focused Material Exploration - A time set aside while children are arriving and may involve children playing alone, alongside another child or cooperatively with one or more other children and/or a preschool camp facilitator. Children are given the chance to test their ideas, themselves, their relationships and the materials.

Welcome Gathering - The welcome gathering helps set the focus for the day. After the teacher reads a story, children can retell the story, ask questions and participate in planning of the rest of their day.

Museum Exploration - In groups of five with a camp facilitator, children explore, invent and challenge creative solutions in the neighborhoods in the Museum. Special emphasis is placed on the neighborhood related to the weekly focus.

Snack Time - A regularly scheduled snack time, not only provides nutrition for the morning but also gives children opportunity to practice emerging social skills.

Focused Activities - At least two activities, based on the theme for the week, are offered daily. During last week's Summer Preschool Camp, Let's Build, children had the opportunity to practice emerging spatial and geometric abilities as they built forts, created sculptures and made graham cracker houses.

Goodbye Gathering - For young children, understanding and making sense of their world is rooted in what they know and the everyday events in their lives. This is an opportunity to share thoughts and ideas about what happened during camp today! Parents, too, are given a play-at-home ideas, related to children's daily activities.

We just finished our first Preschool Summer Camp week, Let's Build.



For more information about Summer Preschool Camps, click here. Some of our weekly camps still have a few openings.