Category Archive: MCM at Home

  1. Brain Builders: Super Penguin Facts

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    This winter weather has us thinking about our animals friends.  What animals live in winter weather conditions?  How do they keep warm?  What do they eat?  This week for Brain Builders, we’ll explore some facts about penguins and make our own penguin craft.  

    Fast facts about penguins

    Penguin fact #1:  All penguins live in the southern hemisphere.  They don’t just live in Antarctica, they also live in South America, Africa, Australia and New Zealand.  Penguins even live in warm weather sometimes!  (p.s. polar bears only live in the northern hemisphere, so if you ever see a picture with a penguin and a polar bear in it together you know that picture isn’t very accurate.)

    Penguin fact #2:  Most penguins are black and white—this protects them from predators.  A predator swimming above can’t see their sleek black backs, and a predator swimming below can’t tell the difference between their white bellies and sunlight coming through the water.  

    Penguin fact #3:  Penguins are birds but don’t have wings.  They have flippers.  These flippers help them swim fast.  

    Penguin fact #4:  Penguins have to keep high body temperatures to stay active so they can hunt for fish.  Penguins have thick skin, lots of blubber, and they also huddle together with their friend to keep warm.  

    Penguin fact #5:  Penguins come in all different sizes! 

    • Little blue penguins are 17 inches tall and generally live in New Zealand
    • Macaroni penguins are about 28 inches tall and have interesting feathers on their heads
    • Emperor Penguins are 45 inches tall.

    How tall are you? Are you taller or shorter than the penguins above?

    Make a penguin

    You can make your own penguin at home with some simple household items.  

    Materials needed: 

    • Toilet paper tube
    • black, white and orange/yellow paper
    • glue stick
    • googly eyes

    Directions: 

    1. Measure and cut paper to wrap around the tp tube.  You may want to have a little overlap and you may want to tape this piece.  
    2. Cut out a white tummy and glue on.  
    3. Cut flippers and a beak and feet.  
    4. You can cut a little fringe if you want to make a macaroni penguin! 
    5. Add googly eyes.  
    6. Share what you know about penguins with your friends and family!  

  2. Brain Builders: Glue and Salt and Water Colors, Oh My!

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    Sometimes the best things in life take a little time to create. In this two part project kids first create words or designs with glue and salt and then once those are dry they add color with paint and watch it blend and spread like magic!

    Materials needed: 

    • card stock
    • salt
    • tray and cups
    • liquid glue
    • food coloring and water
    • droppers

    Directions:

    1. Place your card stock on a tray.  
    2. Use your liquid glue to write a word or make a shape.  
    3. Cover glue with salt, sliding it around the picture so all the glue is covered. Let dry. 
    4. Once dry use the droppers to put the colored water onto the salt.  Watch how the salt absorbs the water!  

    *Bonus activity:  After we were done with the salt art it turned into a science activity!  We spent some time using the droppers, mixing colors and pouring.  

  3. Brain Builders: Ice Skating Penguins

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    You know what this winter needs? More ice skating penguins! This fun project is nifty to do and creates a delightful DIY toy.

    Learn how to make this delightful, dancing penguin toy!

    Materials needed: 

    • magnets
    • popsicle stick
    • hot glue gun
    • pie tin
    • salt/sugar/small scoop of snow
    • penguin cut out of cardstock. You can draw your own or copy and print tie image below.

    Directions:  

    1. Print and decorate penguin.  Be sure to leave an extra square piece at the penguin’s feet to glue onto the magnet.  

    2. Glue a magnet to the popsicle stick and to the penguin’s feet. 

    3.  Fill a pie tin with a small amount of salt or sugar or even a small scoop of snow.

    4.  Make the penguin swirl and twirl and dance!  

  4. Why toss a pumpkin to send off 2020?

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    Madison Children’s Museum always has fun with New Year’s celebrations but this year the transition to 2021 is more symbolic—and more full of both hope and foreboding—than ever. It’s been a challenging year for everyone; for some families in our community who have lost jobs, homes, and loved ones, or who have been re-traumatized by police violence, racism, and xenophobia, this year has been particularly painful. 

    The healing power of play

    Children process their world, including traumatic experiences, through play. When a child has experienced trauma or a loss they will often need to “play it out.” To an adult, a child’s drawings of coronaviruses or having their toys “die” may seem ghoulish, but that kind of play is often what children need to understand and cope with big, scary concepts.

    At Madison Children’s Museum, we believe in helping children to learn through play. We also believe in making the healing power of play available to every child in our community. So, for our send-off of 2020, we created an easily recognizable symbol: a big pumpkin with the words 2020 on it—and we tossed it off of our roof to shatter five stories down onto the surface of our former parking lot. We filmed it from multiple angles. We had fun with it. And it felt good… (view the video at the end of this blog post)

    Our 2020 Pumpkin before it took the plunge.

    Why a pumpkin?

    Kids are familiar with pumpkins and, so soon after Halloween, they’re probably also familiar with how pumpkins break and decay. Unlike a ball—which many kids think of as a toy to be protected—kids will understand that it is okay for a pumpkin to break. Kids may also be familiar with the pumpkin as a symbol for transformation, like the one that becomes a coach to take Cinderella to the ball. With the addition of an easily readable 2020 on the pumpkin, it becomes an accessible—and disposable—symbol for the year.

    Why drop it off the roof?

    As any parent or caregiver can tell you, kids love drama and spectacle. Adults may understand that a ball falling down a rail might symbolize the new year. Kids need a somewhat more literal symbol, so we’re not just dropping our 2020 pumpkin, we’re letting it go SPLAT! Seeing the pumpkin shatter on impact helps emphasize that 2020, with all of its hardships, is really and truly over. Unlike a cartoon bad guy who might get defeated only to be back unchanged in the next episode, when kids see the broken pumpkin at the end of our video—and the broom sweeping up the bits—they know that the pumpkin is gone and won’t be coming back. And a heavy dose of humor is the “spoonful of sugar that helps the medicine go down,” making a big, dramatic symbol into something entertaining and graspable.

    Helping kids, helping grownups

    One secret that we’ve learned over the course of 40 years at Madison Children’s Museum is that adults also benefit tremendously from the healing power of play. The light-hearted play and symbolic language that help children recover from trauma and build resiliency also helps grown-ups as we deal with our own stress, trauma, and anxiety. Will everything magically get better when the clock strikes midnight on January 1, 2021? Of course not. Does seeing a big, symbolic pumpkin explode into tiny bits of rind and seed help us celebrate getting through the past twelve months and help us face the next challenge with a smile? Absolutely.
    These are a lot of words to explain why a children’s museum painted 2020 on a big pumpkin and threw it off of our roof. For many kids and grownups, this video might just be a bit of light entertainment with a satisfying mess at the end. But for others, it may be one component in the community effort to help heal from the stress and trauma we’ve experienced during the past year.

    Wishing you joy, laughter, and healing play,
    Madison Children’s Museum

  5. Brain Builders: Suncatchers

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    Now that the sun is setting early we want to make the most of the daylight hours.  You can make a beautiful suncatcher at home.  

    Materials needed: 

    • contact paper or self-laminating sheets
    • construction paper to create the opaque borders
    • tissue paper cut into squares to fill in the borders with color

    You can create any pattern or shape that you want.  You can cut out a leaf shape and fill it with orange and yellow and red tissue paper squares. 

    For this one we cut out strips of black construction paper and made shapes like triangles and trapezoids.  Then filled it to look sort of like a stained glass window.  

    This a great Brain Builder for a wide range of ages.  Infants and toddlers will enjoy exploring the sticky paper. Older children practice fine motor skills and exercise patience as they have to move deliberately as they place the tissue paper squares on the sticky paper.  

  6. ABCs of Halloween Game

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    Let’s move our bodies and get into the Halloween spirit! Make up your own dance by spelling your name or go from A-Z. Maybe you can make a family dance routine! Be safe, make enough room for yourself and others to move safely.  Don’t forget some spooky music to get you in the spirit!

    • A – Say……BOO!
    • B – Growl like a werewolf 
    • C – Spin around like a BIG pumpkin
    • D – Walk like a mummy 
    • E – Crawl like a spider 
    • F- Sway from side to side like a scarecrow
    • G – Wrap your arms around yourself up like Dracula
    • H – Howl at the moon 
    • I – Pretend your hand has a mind of it’s own 
    • J – Walk like Frankenstein 
    • K – Shake like a leaf 
    • L – Pretend there is a spider crawling up your arm 
    • M – Using your hands, pretend to mash up gooey marshmallows
    • N – Say……BOO! (You can never say it too many times!)
    • O – Say Trick or Treat! 
    • P – Say Happy Halloween! 
    • Q – Howl at the moon 
    • U – Stir your witches brew with both hands
    • R – Pretend you are walking on spikey Candycorn 
    • S – Cast a spell with your pretend wand
    • T – Freestyle spooky dance
    • U – Move like a spooky skeleton  
    • V – Pretend your other hand has a mind of its own
    • W – Pretend your legs are stuck to the ground
    • X – Walk forward like you just walked into a spider web
    • Y – Stir your witches brew with both hands
    • Z – Shake like a leaf 
    Our membership manager, Lily, tried it with her family. Check out this demonstration video!

     Try the MCM Halloween Dance! 

    • M – Using your hands -pretend to mash up gooey marshmallows
    • C – Spin around like a BIG pumpkin
    • M – Using your hands -pretend to mash up gooey marshmallows

    Need to take your game on the road? Check out this downloadable PDF version below.

    halloween-abcsDownload

  7. Spooky Lanterns Craft

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    Now that the sun is setting earlier and Halloween is approaching, it’s fun to have a special night light or lantern in your home or in your room. 

    Materials needed:

    • tracing paper,
    • markers,
    • battery-operated votive candle
    • (optional) jar lid to stabilize the lantern

    (Safety note: Do NOT try this with a candle with real flame or a light bulb. The tracing paper is flammable and could fall over onto the flame or the light and catch fire. Safety first!)

    To create your lantern, first decorate the tracing paper. Create your own design or trace something spooky! 

    Tape into a cylinder, optionally taping it around a jar lid for a bit more stability, and place the candle inside. 

    A battery operated tea light is dim enough to be a good, temporary nightlight for most kids. The batteries won’t last forever but for a special Halloween treat (and to ward off fears of ghosties or ghoulies) it will work just fine.

    Happy Halloween!

  8. Make “Boo Bombs”

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    October is a great time to try out some classic science experiments with a Halloween twist!  You can make some Boo Bombs out of items in your kitchen.  

    Materials needed: 

    • zippered plastic bags
    • white vinegar
    • corn starch 
    • toilet paper (it’s a precious commodity but you only need a few squares)
    • baking soda
    • food coloring (optional)

    If you’d like, you can decorate your bags first, with pumpkins, ghosts, witches, etc.  If you have a curious child at home, plan to make at least a few bags as they will likely want to do this more than once.  

    Put about 1 tablespoon of baking soda in a square of toilet paper, fold it up into a square and set aside.  

    Fill each baggie with 1 tablespoon of corn starch and about 1 cup of vinegar.  Mix it around a bit to make sure the corn starch is dissolved.  Add a few drops of food coloring if you’d like too.

    Here comes the tricky part!  Help you child open the bag just enough to drop in the baking soda (tp and all).  Seal the bag quickly and throw it!  Watch as the baking soda mixes with the vinegar to inflate the bag until it pops.  BOO!

    Even very young children love to do this science experiment and will want to do it over and over again!  As you are putting the bag together you can talk about the various components.  How does the vinegar smell?  Do you like the smell?  What do we use baking soda for?  Does it look like other kitchen supplies?  Do yo have any idea what will happen when we mix these together? (Young children often think it will change colors.) 

    You can explain that the vinegar and baking soda will mix together to form bubbles full of air or gas to fill the baggie.  After you have done the experiment ask them to tell you what happened, or what will happen if you do the experiment again.

    Young children may not understand the concepts of carbon dioxide or chemical reactions, but they’ve used their senses to make observations, learned about making predictions, and conducted an experiment.  It’s a great start to science learning and inquiry!  

  9. Froggy Friends Craft

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    October is a perfect month for a froggy friend! 

    Fall is certainly here, and while there is still time to get kids to playgrounds some days you just need a fun activity that can keep kids engaged indoors. This craft is fantastic, because it not only produces a fun bit of art that can even be used as part of Halloween decor, but it also creates a neat toy that they can play with, use in puppet shows, giving it a lot more “longevity” than your average craft project.

    I made my creation into a frog, but change up the colors and add some horns, fur, scales or warts and you could have a very cool monster or dragon, depending on your child’s interests and aesthetic.

    Here are the materials you’ll need: 

    • colored cardstock (a circle and two strips)
    • white cardstock (two small circles for eyes)
    • party blower that rolls (the dollar store has party blowers that don’t make noise!)
    • scissors, glue, stapler, marker
    1. Fold the circle in half.  Staple each side together.  Cut (or hole punch) a small hole in the middle of the half circle on the crease.  

    2. Fold a small portion of the small circles and glue that small portion to the top of your froggy so the eyes will stand up. 

    3.  Give your frog friend some pupils, and crinkle fold some legs. Younger children might have trouble crinkle folding the legs but that’s okay! Encourage them to fold them however they would like.  

    4.  Glue your legs to the bottom of your frog (LET DRY). And insert your froggy “tongue.”  

    5.  What can you catch with your frog tongue??

    *Bonus: this is a great way for children to practice breathing in through their nose and out through their mouth.  Can they make the tongue move fast?  Can they make it move slow?  

    The ability to deliberately control their breathing is a great skill for little kids to cultivate. It can help them regulate their emotions and even make something like a skinned knee not hurt as much. Deep breaths!

  10. Early Explorers: DIY Sensory Board

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    by Heather Davis, MCM Early Learning Manager

    Older babies and toddlers love to touch, feel, and explore. You can make a sensory board with items you have in your home. You’ll need a piece of cardboard, a hot glue gun, and some creativity. 

    Items I used: 

    • Piece of an old bath mat
    • Puff balls/pom poms/cotton balls
    • Straws
    • Clothespins 
    • Sparkly ribbon
    • Card stock cut into shapes 
    • Recycled bottle caps
    • Bubble wrap
    • Tissue paper 
    • Popsicle sticks 

    Other items you might have that you can use: q-tips, loofah, wash cloth, aluminum foil, buttons, dried beans, pasta, egg carton, coffee filters…  What will go on your sensory board? 

    Early Explorers activities are designed with the developmental needs of babies and toddlers in mind. Watch for more Early Explorers activities as part of MCM at Home.