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.

Take Time To Play!

Do you need a little play time? It turns out that play is vital for healthy functioning, even for animals. Gordon Burghardt, a psychology professor at the University of Tennessee and author of the book The Genesis of Animal Play - Testing the Limits has found that play is embedded in species' biology, including the brain. Repetitive play helps stimulate our memories and our flexible thinking. Play nurtures our cognitive and emotional skills. At any age, for any species, that's a lot of power in play!

Take time to play during daily routines. Watching apes play during a recent trip to the zoo reminded me that even during the daily routines of sleeping and eating one can find time to play. During what appeared to be gorilla nap time, one gorilla decided it was time to play. He was doing flips and making ape noises while the three other gorillas were resting. When another gorilla came over to investigate what all the ruckus was about, he joined in the fun too! It looked like a game of hide-and-go-seek had started between the two playful apes. By the time I made it around their enclave, they were resting comfortably with the other gorillas.

Play requires time in order for ideas to take shape and flourish. Aspects of play may evolve and change, but the need for play remains constant. I keep a knobby, squishy ball at my desk. Although it's meant for infant/toddler sensory exploration, I bought it at the Museum's Explorer Store for back support since I spend endless hours on the computer. A surprise outcome, however, has been the use of it as a toy. I like to pick it up and toss it in the air a few times, especially when I need to think. Rest assured I'm back to work after a few minutes of play, but watch out; I may just toss it your way if you walk by my office.

Where do you play? The play environment has to provide a sense of safety and security for one to freely explore. After that, the play possibilities are endless. Play time is not a break from learning; it is learning in action! Play environments should provide tools for further investigation and exploration of things that interest us. During play children explore, probe, experiment, investigate and inquire. Their play is often characterized by concentration and unwillingness to be distracted (Kieff, J., & Casbergue, R. (2000) Playful Learning and Teaching. Boston: Allyn and Bacon).

Watch this little boy's exploration as he plays in our Room for Rhythm, located in Creativity Connections Neighborhood. His concentration and investigations show learning in action!



To order one of the books suggested in this post, click here for on-line ordering through our website. Read a synopsis of Gordon Burghardt's research here. Watch various animals at play and read a more detailed article in the October issue of The Scientist here.

Be sure and take time to play!

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!

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!

Your Child and Sharing

Most of our young visitors are of the mindset, "What's mine is mine and what's yours is mine too!" Some of our grown up visitors may get upset when they see their two-year-old not sharing something in our Museum. You can facilitate your child's understanding by, first, understanding what they are capable of and, secondly, creating an environment that helps children become aware of other children and each other's boundaries.

One way to support this stage of development is to ensure plenty of supplies. This supports a child's sharing abilities while maturation and perspective-taking experiences are developing.

Here's some information about sharing from the Museum's parent support materials which can assist in awareness of your child's changing development and offer tips to support your child's growing understanding of his social world.

Check out other parent support resources here.

Observation through the Use of Photographs

In a previous post we discussed the value of observing children playing and interacting in the Museum. When you sit back and watch your child interacting with materials and other children in the Museum, you may delight in a growing understanding of his ever-changing development, both cognitively and socially.

Observing first before interacting may not always be an option. If you brought your camera to the Museum, you have another tool for finding out what your child can do. You can look at your photos after your visit and discover something you may not have observed earlier. Let's take a look at some pictures and see what they tell us:

These children look as if they are discovering that air blowing through the tubes is keeping the ball (and the attached ribbons) suspended above the tube. The exhibit in AirWorks offered these children multiple opportunities to experiment in ways that may have surprised them. Their obvious enjoyment of the activity looks as if it's keeping their interest. If these two children don't know each other, you may have also discovered your child's interest in sharing the experience with another child.

Looking at this picture together, after a visit, offers opportunities to continue discovering what your child learned. Your child may offer comments about what she thinks about air or how she discovered the surprise of the ribbons standing straight up in the air. Extend the learning by going outside on a windy day and predict what the air outside can do with balls.

In this picture, taken in our WaterWays Neighborhood, this child is exhibiting good concentration as she pours the water into an opening on the top so that the water wheel below will turn. She may be experimenting with how pouring fast (or slowly) affects how fast (or slowly) the wheel turns. We are definitely reminded about how concentration plays a role in learning and completing a task. I wonder what this child is thinking when she's experimenting with water. Perhaps she's making a connection to something she saw outside. Further investigation can happen when caregivers and children look at photographs together.

So the next time you're in the Museum, take time to observe what's happening. Use your photographs to learn more about your child's growing interests and extend learning opportunities for yourself and your child!

Learning to Reason through Play

The ability to reason and predict cause and effect are important components needed for science learning. In her Young Children article, Play: Ten Power Boosts for Children's Learning, Dr. Honig labels this,"if-then reasoning," an important skill needed for experimentation and scientific thinking.

There are a plethora of opportunities for children to practice "if-then reasoning" through play experiences in the Museum. The Large Beam Balance in Math Connections is designed for children to safely experiment with weight and balance. "If you take away some of the blocks, will my end move up?"

Make it Move was designed to be the "cause and effect" center of the Museum. Here, children can create and conduct their own simple experiments with velocity, speed and gravity as they move balls on stationary ramps or incline planes created with blocks.

With the play materials chosen for the water tables in WaterWays, children can experiment and wonder, "Will it sink or will if float?"or "If I fill one container, can I pour it into another container without it spilling over?"




Block building offers opportunities to learn causal and space concepts, suggests Dr. Honig. In the Museum we have over 800 blocks for children to use as they explore equality, comparison and estimation. "If I put the bigger block on top of the smaller block, will it stay in place? I wonder how high I can build before my structure falls down?"

Cooking with your child at home is a great way to enhance "if-then reasoning." Changing something from a liquid (cake mix, for instance) to a solid (a cake) is not just delicious; your child also can discover how some materials change in his or her world. What will happen if you put juice in the freezer? Through these simple activities your child is observing cause and effect and learning to make predictions.

Are you interested in other opportunities to encourage your child's reasoning abilities? Check out some of our winter creativity classes,where you and your child can experiment and problem solve with a variety of materials.

Learn Through Play

What children take away from their play experiences is endless! Through rich and varied play experiences, children gain many learning benefits. In a Young Children article (September 2007), Dr. Alice Honig offers 10 ideas about what children learn through play. Let's explore one of her ideas and see how it relates to playing at the Museum and playing at home.

Play Enhances Dexterity and Grace (Honig, September 2007)
Play offers opportunity for practicing and learning eye-hand coordination. The ability to place an object inside or next to another object takes time and practice. Through manipulation of objects children enhance their hand dexterity. This child is using her small motor movements to manipulate the Magnatiles in our Math Connections neighborhood. Her movements will become more controlled over time.

Learning to control body movements in space is another important skill learned through play. When your child connects the beads in Math Young Explorers or uses the mallet to create sound on the Amadinda (large xylophone) in the Room for Rhythm room, she is developing confidence in her ability to control body movements in space.

To promote whole body gracefulness, visit the Multisensory Room and invite your children to move their bodies as they explore the lights, color, sounds and textures in the room; or attend one of our Tiny Great Performances, where children can sing or dance along with our performers.

At home, you can boost your child's early learning by spending some time outdoors. When children use their bodies in ways that encourage moving their legs and feet, such as riding a tricycle or playing a sport, they are enhancing the coordination of those muscles and developing control of their body movements.

Stay tuned! Next time we'll look at how play prompts children's reasoning of cause and effect, another power boost for children's early learning, as suggested by Dr. Honig.

Play to Learn

What many of us have known all along, that play is crucial to learning, has captured the attention of others , including doctors and scientists. Alice Sterling Honig, PhD, professor emerita of child development, Syracuse, New York, says, "Children gain powerful knowledge and useful social skills through play" (Play: Ten Power Boosts for Children's Early Learning, Young Children, September 2007). Dr. Honig suggests 10 ideas about what children learn through play. During the next few posts we will look at some of her ideas and offer some "Play at the Museum" and "Play at Home" tips that benefit children's learning.

In the meantime, explore the links provided in this post and be sure to visit our Web site and Family Resource Center, located on the second floor in our Museum. In both of these places you can find some of our favorite resources related to our current focus, Play to Learn.

Question, Predict, Try, Analyze, and Retry

The exhibits in AirWorks allow children to use the scientific method involving questioning, predicting, trying, analyzing and retrying. In the last post we looked at the first misconception children have about air - that is children didn't understand that wind is air that moves. They thought air to be magical and unpredictable. Because air is invisible, children may not think or ask questions about it. However, the exhibits in AirWorks provide the freedom to use misunderstandings about air as powerful starting points in constructing new and more accurate knowledge.

During the development phase of AirWorks, we also discovered other common misconceptions about air. Some children showed confusion about the interplay between objects in air. How do objects move in air? There was confusion about why air moves and what air pressure is. A common denominator with air play is that children were learning that air has power. This became a good starting point in developing experiences for children.

Play in the Museum
These children are using powerful air "wands" to move parts of a kinetic sculpture. Not only can they observe the movement, they can also discover that a strong air pressure makes a noise. They can feel the force of the air if they put their hands in front of the air wands.





How strong does the air flow have to be to get an object to float? This child is experimenting with light and heavy objects and making discoveries in our Wind Tunnel.

Research and Redevelopment Never Ends At DCM
Visit AirWorks to see our newly designed Wind Garden. Here children can observe and experiment with how size, shape, and surface impact how objects move in air. We're not done yet! We're still doing observations to see which types of materials have the greatest impact on children's inquiries.

What Do You Know about Air?

If someone were to ask you what you know about air/wind, what would you say? Depending upon your experiences, you might answer that air is invisible, unpredictable, soothing, or playful. You might also predict that wind can be powerful or destructive. These comments are based on your feelings about air and wind. A basic concept, often overlooked, is that wind is actually air that moves.

We asked adults and children questions about what they know about wind and air during the development phase of our exhibit, AirWorks. What we found is that understanding air concepts can be challenging, even for some adults. Our research showed that in addition to not understanding that wind is air that moves, children often hold other misconceptions about air. The first misconception we found through our research was the theory that air was unpredictable, some believing that it originated from fans.


So how do you explore the science of air with children when most children view the complexities of their world as magical? How do you show that air is predictable? A key component in understanding the basic science of air is the opportunity for repeatability when experimenting with air. You don't need to know a lot about wind and air to observe it.

Understanding air and wind begins with feeling air on yourself and then on objects. As children explore, they begin to form hypotheses about what air is, where it comes from, and what it can do. Our research showed that for most children, by the end of the preschool years, they understood that wind is moving air and can be powerful.

Play at Home
Have any ping pong balls at home? Take a straw and have your child blow the ball around on a table or floor. How far does the ball move if you blow softly? Does it move farther if you blow as hard as you can? What else can you use to blow the ball that will turn air into wind? Try an empty squeeze bottle, like an empty dishwashing detergent bottle.

Play at the Museum
Find one of our Air Tables and place a ball on top of an air source. What happens to the ball if you cover the other air sources? How far does the ball float in the air? What happens if you change to a smaller ball?

Stay tuned! In our next post we'll explore other misconceptions we found through our research. We'll look at additional ways children can explore the complexities of air and wind.

Exploring the Science of Air

Children's science inquiries are often based on their curiosity about their world. Exploring air is a natural science inquiry process for children. Their curiosity becomes the starting point to discovering what air and wind can do. Science for children under 6 years of age is more about how and what children feel when interacting with objects or their environment, rather than learning facts.

Air is all around us! You can't see air, but you can observe what air can do. You don't need to understand air in order to experiment with it. Wind and air can be powerful enough to evoke positive or negative feelings. How does it feel to have air blowing your hair? Wind in our faces evokes one type of feeling on a warm summer day, compared to a cold wintry day.

You can learn a lot about air by just playing with it. DCM has an entire exhibit area devoted to exploring air. AirWorks debuted in 2001. The research to develop this popular exhibit was funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation. Eight years later, we are still observing children's experimentation with basic air concepts and fine-tuning our air exhibits to invite their curiosity as they construct knowledge about what air can do.

Over the next few posts, we will look at some of our own active research about children's exploration with air and wind (moving air). In the meantime, do some research of your own. Here are two air explorations you and your child can do together at home. These simple activities can spark your child's interest and promote practice with basic scientific processes.

What do you see on a windy day? Find a flag flying in your community and try to observe it often. Is the flag blowing fast or slow? Is it blowing in the same direction as it was yesterday? Talk about what you see with your child. Every time you drive by the flag, ask your child, "What is the flag doing today?"

Feel the air. Collect empty squeezable bottles. Rinse them well and let them dry out. Have your child squeeze the bottle onto his arm and feel the air being forced out of the bottle. Ask your child "Is there anything in the bottle? What are you feeling on your arm?" (Source: http://www.toddler-activities-at-home.com/preschool-science-activities_air.html)

Be sure to make connections to your "at home" air and wind explorations the next time you visit the exhibits in AirWorks. Stay tuned! In our next post we'll look at some concepts about air and what you and your child can discover together.

Play at Home

The Museum is closed August 31 through September 13 for facility deep cleaning and new exhibit installation. We will reopen on September 14th. Next week, we'll post pictures of some of the activities happening here during our annual shutdown.

In the meantime...learning never goes away. There are many Play at Home activities that support your child's growing brain. Here's some useful information about boosting brain power and some Play at Home activities to try, no matter what your age.

When you come back to visit us after September 13th, check out these two related brain-based learning exhibits in the Museum.

For our younger visitors, explore the Trace Around Exhibit in Build It Young Explorers or the Mini Rollways exhibit in Make it Move.

Both of these exhibits provide experiences for eye-hand coordination, visual tracking and crossing the midline; useful brain-boosting activities that support later skills needed for reading and writing.

Cultivating a Storyteller

Children can be great storytellers
"By the age of four most children can tell complex stories. You would be surprised to learn, however, that the beginnings of storytelling can start much earlier. As early as age two, children begin to tell stories as a way to organize their experiences, hold on to their memories and understand their culture" (Storytelling, Story Acting, and Writing: Essential Language Experience for All Children from Many Paths to Literacy: Language, Literature, and Learning in the Primary Classroom by Rebecca Novick; http://www.nwrel.org/lld/manypaths_storytelling.pdf).

Adults support children's growing storytelling abilities through everyday conversations about past and future events. Using photographs or pictures from magazines can serve as story starters. Very young children enjoy hearing and participating in stories related to everyday events. Creating stories that involve movement will also keep a young child's interest. Preschool-age children will be interested in using their imaginations to tell stories about animals, friendships, and stories about daily events. "Being a hero in the story affirms a child's abilities and creates a sense of adventure," says our volunteer storyteller, Joanne Chase.

Story blocks
Here's a unique storytelling opportunity you can enjoy at the Museum. Story blocks are part of the storytelling experience in the Family Resource Center on Wednesday and Friday mornings. For each story, two to four children are asked to choose a block. Each of the blocks has a familiar picture that children might recognize, such as types of transportation, animals, vegetables, ice cream, etc. Our storyteller uses suggestions for the story from the children who chose the blocks. For instance, Joanne suggests having the children name the animals or describe what the animals can do. This keeps the child involved in creating the story.

Some of our visitors have mentioned wanting to create story blocks to use at home. We purchased unfinished 2.5 inch hardwood blocks online at Wood and Shop Inc. First we rounded the corners with an electric sander. Then we developed a list of pictures that children might recognize. You can use stencils or draw and paint familiar subjects such as animals, favorite foods and things found in nature. The blocks were then coated with a clear wood veneer finish. Joanne has made a set of blocks for each one of her 5 grandchildren. "They have become quite a family tradition," she says. They are sure to last for future generations.

Start a family tradition by visiting the Family Resource Center on Wednesday or Friday mornings for story telling with these creative story blocks.

Enjoy A Good Story with Your Child!

We all know that reading or telling stories is an essential learning opportunity for children. All humans share the universal activity of reading or telling stories. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends making reading and storytelling a part of your family's activities. Not only is reading good for brain development, but it also promotes a strong emotional relationship between you and your child. Sharing and creating a common experience through storytelling aids in the development of a child’s ability to interpret events beyond his immediate experience.

Some benefits of reading and telling stories follows:

• Develops a child’s listening skills


• Introduces a child to language patterns


• Develops a positive attitude on the part of the child for books and reading


• Contributes to the social and cognitive development through shared experiences


• Develops imagination


• Entertains and amuses


• Aids in the development of an ethical value system

Story reading and Storytelling Drop-ins
Related topical books are available in every neighborhood in the Museum. For example, your child may enjoy reading a book about using tools while waiting in line at the Construction House.

Come join us for Imagination Hour in the Family Resource Center on Monday mornings for reading stories and wearing silly hats.

Oral storytelling comes alive on Wednesday and Friday mornings in the Family Resource Center with the use of story blocks, puppets and musical instruments (Wednesday mornings only).

Play at Home
Read to your child often. Be as lively and animated as you can. Read slowly and with lots of eye contact. Use storytelling to share a life experience from your life or your child’s younger years. Children love to hear stories about people who are near and dear to their hearts. These stories become part of your family history. Make up stories with your child about their favorite stuffed animals or dolls. Use the “story to be continued” method, extending the story during prescribed times such as bedtime, waiting for appointments, car rides, etc. Make up “echo” stories where you provide a line or two and the children echo back words, motions or sounds during prescribed times of the story.

Stay Tuned
In our next post we'll tell you how our story blocks are made and suggest some hints for cultivating your child's storytelling abilities! Have you visited our Museum during one of our story drop-ins? We'd love to hear from you. We'll share the story of your visit in a future post. Leave a comment on our blog or drop me a note at jcarpenter@dupagechildrensmuseum.org.

Creating Sculptures with Packing Peanuts

A Creative Sculpture You Can Do at Home

A recent Studio drop-in activity, Zoo Art, invited participants to create an animal sculpture with biodegradable foam packing peanuts. Families with children of all ages had so much fun creating our Museum Zoo that we thought we would share the process so you can try it at home too!

You will know your packing peanuts are biodegradable if they dissolve when they get wet. The Styrofoam packing peanuts will not work for this activity. Save your packing peanuts from packages received in the mail. Our packing peanuts were ordered from a large mailing supply company to accommodate the number of visitors for this week long activity. When individual pieces are moistened on a damp sponge, the cornstarch is released, which causes the packing peanuts to stick together.


Children were asked to create an animal to join our zoo, a large sheet of paper designed with green, blue, yellow and white spaces for the animals. Some children wanted to create sculptures which resembled walls, rocks and food for the zoo. Such creative minds at work!

Many zoo type posters were displayed to inspire some ideas, including the poster Coming to Water by Bo Newell. You can support your child's creative endeavor by asking questions. "What parts of the animal are you making - tails, legs, fins?" Suggest what else your zoo may need - tire swings, pools, trees, etc. Not only does this activity support your child's creative endeavors, but working with solids in three dimensions is also the basis for understanding geometry. Children typically think only in two dimensions, so this activity helps them think spatially. "Even on a simple level, sculpting a zoo animal invites critical thinking about the animal's anatomy, environment and habits," states Marcia MacRae, our interdisciplinary arts specialist, who plans the free drop-in and pre-registered creativity programs in the Studio.

Check out our calendar for other planned Studio activities! View our summer newsletter for descriptions of these free activities with Museum membership or admission.

Grown-ups
You too can be creative, learn and have fun with biodegradable peanuts.
One of our creative Play Facilitators made this sculpture. Can you name the famous statue he replicated?

Puzzle Learning

Have you ever tried to put together a jigsaw puzzle? Puzzle play, at no matter what age, not only is entertaining, but can also provide a variety of learning opportunities.

Puzzles exercise memory. Notice how a child delights in remembering how to put together a familiar puzzle. Children will often verbalize or talk about how pieces go together. The use of verbalization with themselves or a play partner is a way to aid with memory skills. Zbigniew and Matthew Michalewicz in their book, Puzzle -Based Learning: An introduction to critical thinking, mathematics and problem solving, categorize this type of learning as the "Eureka factor."


Puzzles help develop fine muscle movements. The control of fine muscle movements develops slowly and is dependent upon a great deal of practice. Fine muscle skills aid in such activities as writing, self-dressing, using a keyboard, etc. Puzzle pieces should be large enough to accommodate small hands.

Puzzles help eye-hand coordination. Children look for visual cues such as patterns and colors to help match pieces together. This strengthens the coordination of the eyes with the hands and thoughts with actions.

Puzzles increase mathematical awareness and problem-solving skills. A puzzle can teach a child how parts fit together to form a whole. Problem-solving skills can be supported by using verbal directions such as, "All the red pieces go here" or "This piece is curved." The opportunity to practice a skill over and over again enhances problem-solving abilities. The problem solver may feel a sense of reward for solving the puzzle.

Children enjoy puzzle exploration with or without the help of an adult or another child. Very young children will enjoy putting in pieces and taking them back out just as much as they will enjoy fitting them into the right spot. As they grow and learn to rotate pieces to match holes and find pieces that fit, they can handle increasingly complex puzzles. Because most young children are tactile learners, the physical puzzles are especially good so that children can reap the learning benefits by manipulating the pieces in their hands. For all of us grown-ups, puzzles are a great challenge-driven learning opportunity. Try this one; you may recognize your favorite children's museum once completed! (Hint: Be sure and give this puzzle a few minutes to load on your computer.)

Embracing the Mess and the Noise: Seeing the Importance of Sensory Experiences

Does your child love to pour, fill and repeat in the WaterWays neighborhood? Does she enjoy making and listening to the rattle, shake, and hum of the instruments in the Music Room? Does he seem entranced by the colors and music of the Color My Way exhibit?

Children enjoy (and sometimes even crave) these experiences that stir the senses. And while we as adults do not always crave (or sometimes even enjoy) activities that are messy, wet, or noisy, they are foundational learning experiences.

The Sensory Stage of Learning
Sensory activities are appealing to young children because they are fun and answer the important questions-“What is this?” and “What does this do?” For example, children learn that they cannot hold a lot of water in their hands without it running through their fingertips and down their shirts. Similarly, in a previous post, we’ve mentioned the importance of mouthing and how it furthers children's understanding of the world around them.

As children get a little older, they may have a better idea of what can be done with objects but continue to need to use their senses to help them test their theories and better answer questions like, “What happens if?” A three-year-old child might learn “If I hit this drum hard, it makes a louder noise.” A five-year-old may mix two or three paint colors together to learn what other colors he can create.

Exploring the Senses With Your Child
Here are some Play at Home and Play at the Museum activities for you and your child:

Touch:
Too cold to go outside, but tempted to play in the snow? Bring the snow inside for some Play at Home fun. Scoop some snow into a large container and bring it inside to explore. Ask your child, How does the snow feel? (Wet, cold, squishy, soft?) If your child prefers, let him play with the snow while wearing his mittens inside. Don’t forget to save some snow in the freezer to bring out for some summer fun! Using rich vocabulary encourages children to think and talk about the experience.

Vision:
At DCM, the Creativity Connections neighborhood offers many visually stimulating play activities for children. Discover the Light Effects and Shadow Play exhibits and create a light spiral inside the Light Painting Room and your own shadow art in Shadow Lab. Though shadow and light are not objects that can be picked up or handled, these experiences provide opportunities for investigation and exploration of how light and shadows move, bend, bounce and change in our physical world.

Smell:
Make your own batch of smelly play dough. Mix your favorite recipe with any flavor of drink mix (Kool-Aid, Wyler’s, etc.) or cocoa powder to create something scented for your child to sculpt and squish. Not only is smell another way for children to investigate their world, but pounding, squishing and feeling play dough are also appropriate outlets for emotional release.

Taste:
Join us at DCM for our Creativity Program, “Makin’ Munchies,” and explore new foods and recipes. During this program, you and your child can create your own healthful treat to try. Watch your child’s reaction to the new food (facial expression or movements). Don’t forget to ask your child, How does it taste? Cooking experiences give children the opportunity to explore their world using all of their senses.

Hearing:
Inside the Music Room at DCM, children of every age can play and listen to the many sounds created by the xylophones, whale drums and wrenchophone. Using strikers provided, encourage your child to show you what sounds she likes best. You might ask her, Do you like to make loud noises or soft noises? As children begin to play and listen to music, they learn to respond in creative and meaningful ways.

Want More?
In a future post, we will continue this discussion on the benefits of providing experiences that integrate all the senses and share how every experience is a sensory experience at DCM.