Last Thursday, for Tot Art, we did Balloon Painting. Everyone had a blast! We used tiny balloons, but if you want to do this at home, I'm sure any size would work.
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| It's fun to choose paint with two primary colors, so it'll make a new color when they mix together!
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| Little masterpieces! |
Today for Tot Art, we made potato prints. I am not a sculptress, so some of the shapes looked a little rough.
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| This is supposed to be a heart. |
Get excited, dear readers! This Friday, March 2, CMOM is celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday with a variety of activities (from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m.) Kids can make their own elephant ears (like Horton), participate in a scavenger hunt, listen to Dr. Seuss stories...and meet a very special guest! Don't forget to wear red and white like the Cat in the Hat. We hope to see you there!
By the way, here's my favorite Dr. Seuss quote (from The Cat in the Hat Comes Back):
When our mother went
Down to the town for the day,
She said, "Somebody has to
Clean all this away.
Somebody, SOMEBODY
Has to, you see."
Then she picked out two Somebodies.
Sally and me.
Today for Book Worms, we read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. Then we made our own coconut trees using markers and foam alphabet letters. While doing the craft we listened to "Chicka Chicka Funk" (a fun little rendition of the story). It was a blast! Next week for Book Worms, we're reading Clifford, the Big Red Dog. See you there!
The Children's Museum of Memphis is coming to the Memphis Zoo! On Saturday, October 22, CMOM’s director of education Felicia Peat, our maintenance technician Mike Garries, and I will implement several fire safety programs, from 10:30 a.m. until 2 p.m. We are thrilled to display and demonstrate our new Surrey Fire Safety House. We hope to see you there!
Thursday is another snow day for Memphis and the metro area. We are usually a creative and educational refuge for kids (and parents) with the Cabin Fever. However, because of the inclement weather and the impending morning road conditions, The Children’s Museum of Memphis will be closed tomorrow February 10, 2011. But just because you can’t come to CMOM doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy some great hands-on activities at home! Here are a few ideas from the brain trust that is your programs department.
Snowpocolyps 2011 Painting
A fresh snowfall is the perfect canvas!
Go to the kitchen and grab these materials:
* Food coloring
* Bowls or Ice cube tray
* Water
For each bowl or section of ice cube tray use a different color of food coloring. Mix 1-2 drops of water per 2-3 table spoons of water. Use old paint brushes to apply the paint to the outside snow. You can also use spoons to splatter the snow with color if you want a Jackson Pollock look. You’re front yard will look amazing!!!
To change it up, add the food color and water to old spray bottles and spray the snow different colors.
From experience, food coloring is generally NOT washable so either be careful, or wear old clothes that you don’t care about!
Ice Fishing
Don’t wanna venture outside? Try one of CMOM’s popular science experiments and learn about freezing points and the chemical NaCl. When it snows, what happens to everything? When the streets get icy, we call out the salt trucks and they pour salt on the roads. But why does it work?
Here’s what you need:
* Ice
* Water
* Pieces of string or yarn
* Salt
* A bowl
Fill a bowl with ice. Then fill the bowl about a third of the way with water. Take the pieces of string and lay them across the ice cubes. Next sprinkle the salt onto the string and ice. When the hits the ice it actually lowers the freezing point. Do you know what temp water turns to ice? 32 degrees Fahrenheit. The salt lowers that a few degrees so a water and salt solution will freeze at 30 degrees instead of 32.
Next, pull up on the string and see how many ice cubes you caught. The salt lowered the freezing point. It created a pool of water on the ice cube. The water salt solution became more diluted, so the freezing point rose, and the strings froze to the ice cube
Edible Finger Paint
Don’t want to do anything that has to do with snow or the cold? Try this recipe for edible finger paint.
Go to the pantry and grab that box of vanilla pudding. Don’t have pudding? Try condensed milk or cool whip. Mix in a little bit of food coloring. One drop is really enough…but remember the advice from above: food coloring probably will NOT wash out of clothes. If you don’t have old clothes to wear or smocks, try to use fruit juice or powdered jello as your dye.
Enjoy your day in! And send us pictures of your snow day adventures to Loni.Wellman@cmom.com
Meet Tamara is our new Program Specialist. 
October 10, 2009
Hey all!
Thanks for stopping by and welcome! The Children's Museum of Memphis is a hands on learning place for children and adults. Kids play to learn while the adults learn to play again.
So why does a Children's Museum need a Blog? Well, we figured that we have so much time on our hands, that we just had to find something to do.
Ok, that's really not the reason. It's actually quite the opposite. And we'll get into that, but first an introduction.
We are the Program and Education department of the Children's Museum of Memphis. In the last couple of months, we have been changing and improving our programs. And, well we're just so excited about it all that we want to share it with everyone. We've added weekly science and exercise programs. We've also added more Karaoke, art projects and literacy programs. (I call them story times.) Whoo hoo!
We all hope to share with you exciting new programs, stories, favorite moments and more.
Now who's doing all this sharing?
Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Loni (aka Lonski) and I'm the Program Manager for the Children's Museum of Memphis! Whoo! That was easy.
The rest of the staff will acquaint themselves later. Please feel free to leave comments and contact each of us with any questions or just to say 'hey!'.
Thanks, and do stop by soon!
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