Kid Karaoke Has a New NAME!!!!

Starting July (but probably sooner) Kid Karaoke will only be known as 'Okie Dokie Karaoke'!


What's Okie Dokie Kareoke?

Held at The Children’s Museum of Memphis, ‘Okie Dokie Karaoke’ enables children to creatively express themselves through play, dress-up, and music. Four times a week kids are invited to become a star on the Little Orpheum Stage. They are able to select their perfect jingle and after a brief but encouraging introduction, they can belt out their tune to an adoring audience.
The ability to go before a large group evades most adults. Okie Dokie Karaoke instills confidence in the children at a very young age—confidence that proves to be a vital attribute as the child grows into an adult. The Children’s Museum of Memphis’ Karaoke Program helps to build self esteem in kids by creating a comfortable and encouraging atmosphere. The seed of self-assurance is planted as the child takes the stage. It begins to grow as they sing their favorite song and it blossoms once they finish to a thunderous applause.
The benefits from our program are endless. From math to literature to creative problem solving, many studies indicate educational programs based in music are important. Okie Dokie Karaoke nurtures musical talents. Children who are musically inclined have another outlet to share their art, while kids without a background in music are introduced to musical concepts. In addition to the educational return garnished by general music programs, our Karaoke supports reading. Kids are able to recognize certain words of a song and make the connection on the screen. Check out our Calendar and come give Okie Dokie Karaoke a whirl!

See ya there!

FFF: Josh is talking loud on the phone! :)

Bugs, Bugs, and BUGS!

What's Happening?

Well next Friday and Saturday (June 6th & 7th) The Children's Museum of Memphis will be all about BUGS!!!

Terminix is going to give all the visitors a chance to see, touch and even eat bugs!!! We'll be having a Bug Chef to make some great bug dishes. I dare you to eat one. You'll see me there. I can't pass up a good story! We'll also have a 'build a bug' contest. What king of bug can you make out of our recycle material? The bugs will be judged and a winner will be awarded a fantastic prize! And I do mean FANTASTIC!

So why is CMOM going buggy? The deal is that down in New Orleans they're opening an Insectarium. It'll be opening on June 13th. To celebrate the grand opening, they'll be touring around with a praying mantis. This Praying Mantis will be the final bug added to the Insectarium. It's going to be great. The time is 11am-4pm. Check out the Insectarium Fan Site.

We'll see ya then!!

FFF: While gathering food, a bee may fly up to 60 miles in one day.

Calling all interns!!!

Interested in working with kids? Have a passion for teaching? Like informal settings? Then an internship is for you! The Children's Museum of Memphis is now accepting applications for education internships for the summer, fall, and spring semesters. Just call 458-2678 or email the Education Manager at emily.cutliff@cmom.com for more details. An exciting opportunity awaits!

Happy Tuesday!

So it's Tuesday! Right now Laura is leading My First Book Club and I'm avoiding cleaning off my desk. This Saturday was so fun! There was finger painting, a very wet science and a small orchestra!


Celebration String from Bellevue Baptist Church came to CMOM to play some tunes. It was great! They were all so talented. This Saturday, May 24th we're going to have some more musicaly inclined guests. This time it's going to be the Downtown Piano Players. I love piano's! Can't wait to see (or hear) what it's going to be like.

So what else is happening this week. Don't forget to check out Sparks! I'm working on the Sparks for July and August. Changing some things up, adding new programs. What would you like to see us do? Let me know. You can comment here, or shoot me an email @ loni.wellman@cmom.com

Anyway...This saturday we're going to be planting our garden. Make sure you come by and help out. That's all from me on this fine Tuesday Morning...

wait

FFF: Can Openers were invented 48 years after the can was invented!

Pictures!

Extreme Coke Fountain!!! part deux!

Hey all,

I know it's it been about a month since our "Kidz Spring Fling", but I finally was able to wrangle a couple copies of our CMOM Coke Fountain! And I was just corrected by Jim that it's actually a "Diet Coke Fountain". Anyway, I've done some fancy work and here they are. To everyone who came out to the Kidz Spring Fling, hope you had a good one and we'll see ya next year!!!





btw deux is fancy for 'two'.

Facinating Fun Fact(or FFF): In an average lifetime, a person will walk the equivalent of 5 times around the equator.

Wild and Wacky Wednesday!

Emily preparing for the parade!

IT'S ALIEN SNOT!!!!!!!!!!!!

While the ladies were at there "High Tea" Saturday a few kids and I made some Slime in the Art Smart Studio. Saturday's Home Grown Science was Slime and Ooze!!! The kids got to play around with different polymers such as the protein casein found in cow's milk! To end our lesson on polymers the kids mixed a little glue with a little Borax and water to make their very own polymer- SLIME!!! We had a blast!!! Check out the CMOM website (here) to find out what's happening this week!!!

High Tea with Mommy and Me

First, Happy Mother's Day!!!



Today at CMOM we held our High Tea with Mommy and Me. I'm not sure how many people came, but the Little Malco looked full!

I spent the morning icing mini cupcakes and filling lemon tarts!



And tangling tea bags, then de-tangling them.

Anyway, it was a great Success! Nice job Debbie and Jenny! I think everyone enjoyed it. Here are some pictures of the Little Malco before the event! (click on picture to enlarge)


To Everyone who shared their Mother's Day with us, Thank you! It was very nice. Next year, my mom's coming up from Orlando!

So today's UTF (Useless trivia Fact) should be about Mother's Day, right?

Anna Jarvis spearheaded the campaign to officially observe Mother's Day. After her mother died, she realized that she wanted all mothers to be remembered. In 1914, President Wilson acknowledged Ms. Jarvis' holiday by making it a national holiday. Nine years later, Ms. Jarvis filed a lawsuit to stop the over commercialization of Mother's Day. She lost.

So to every mother out there, especially mine (hi mom), Happy Mother's Day!

Meet the CMOM Program Staff!!! (oh, & Education)

Hey All!

So, CMOM's Art Smart Studio became a tad more colorful today! We've just added a staff wall. I cut out all the circles myself! Ok, a machine kinda helped me! It was something that I was inspired to do while at the Association of Children's Museum's conference in Denver.

BTW, the ACM conference was GREAT! Emily, the Education Manager, and myself learned a whole slew of new things. It really re-energized us!!! The momentum that we brought back will keep going and going until...well we don't have an end date just yet. Check back later!

Anywho, next time you're at the Museum, come by Art Smart and see our Staff Wall. Who knows, you just might learn a little something about us! I sure did! I never knew Josh (or J-Rock as he is known around here) was clumsy. Ok, I kinda knew that. :) Here are our dossier's.

And that's it for this Friday. Come visit us this weekend. Here's the low down on what's happening here this Saturday:

11am Bloomin' Art

12 noon R&R Storytime

1pm Kid Karaoke

3:30pm Home Grown Science: Slime and Ooze!

Hope to see ya!

Oh and I almost for got my useless triva for this post. It'll be brief. Here goes: The dot over the letter "i" is called a tittle. Now you know

Have a great weekend!

Eruption!!!

This past Saturday in Home Grown Science we erupted a volcano on the Little Orpheum Stage. Kids got to help make this chemical reaction occur!!! With roughly forty kids in attendance this activity turned out to be one of our best Home Grown Sciences ever!!! It was so amazing that I headed over to St. Anne School Monday to erupt a volcano there!!! Thanks to Ms. Stanley over at St. Anne for inviting me over.

Animation Station

I had so much fun teaching Animation Station to my 4th grade friends from Lakeland Elementary School. We had lots of fun exploring the history of animation, performing experiments, and making a take-home animation project.

Check out our other Learning Labs at CMOM here.

Can't make it? Our labs will come to you! Check out our Traveling Learning Labs here.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Welcome to May!

Every two months I have the opportunity to refresh the program schedule. May just so happens to be refreshed. New this month, we've got more stories and more art!

We've changed the name of our Super Saturday Science. It is now called Home Grown Science. Hopefully we'll be able to bring back SSS, but till then Home Grown Science will feature simple chemicals that you can easily find at home. With each HMS demonstration, kids will receive a 'cookbook' with recipes that they can try at home. The goal of Home Grown Science is the press the fact that learning does not stop when they leave CMOM. It continues at home.

Josh was great this Saturday with HGS's brand new 'Eruption!' demonstration. You should check out the schedule to see what's next!

So most people would say that I'm full of useless information. I'm pretty sure they mean useFUL information. So I'll try to end each post with a useful fact.

Did You Know that Cinco de Mayo is NOT a celebration for Mexican Independence. It's actually a holiday celebrated in really one state in Mexico. Cinco de Mayo commemorates the Battle of Puebla where Mexican armies beat the French in 1862. Who knew the French were in Mexico??? When is the REAL Mexican Independence Day? That's in September!

That's all for now, till then, we'll be seeing you at CMOM!!!

Garden for Wildlife

Eco Kids Club will be happening soon at CMOM. Ok, it's a few weeks away (check our schedule) but we're preparing for it right now! The next Eco Kids club will be May 24 and the program is titled "Kids Garden".

While in preparation for this program, we came across some information from the National Wildlife Federation. Seems you can create a certified wildlife habitat. So next Thursday the program staff and a few volunteers (hopefully) will bust out our shovels and prep the ground so all our Eco Kids can create a living habitat.

Really excited, will keep you updated!