field trips

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The Zula Patrol landed their spaceship at CMOR Central on Tuesday, September 13. Their mission: WEATHER.

“The Zula Patrol” is an animated children's show on PBS and in each episode the characters gather in their spaceship and set off to make discoveries about science and astronomy. The characters on the show demonstrate critical thinking skills while also modeling inquisitiveness, observation, collaboration and an excitement for scientific exploration and problem solving.

Many of us can recall growing up reading stories like The Pokey Little Puppy, Saggy Baggy Elephant, and Tawny Scrawny Lion, all bound with shiny golden spines. Well now through April 12th, the Children’s Museum of Richmond is featuring the art of these “Little Golden Books”. This is the only showing of the exhibit on the east cost. It allows children and adults alike to view over 60 pieces of original artwork valued at almost $1 million.

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Field trip season has officially begun here at the Children’s Museum of Richmond! I’m looking forward to meeting many of the groups scheduled for the 2010-2011 school year. One of my favorite programs is Simple Machines Made Tasty! I like this program because students create chocolate pudding using simple machines found in the kitchen – it is a fun and creative way of learning a new concept!

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Just last week I taught the first off-site program for the 2010-11 school year. Yes, that’s right! We can bring our programs to your school if you are unable to plan a visit to CMoR!

I had a wonderful time at Rainbow Station in Boulders Village teaching preschoolers about their 5 senses. We put all of our different senses to work in a variety of ways. We experimented with kaleidoscopes and colored frames, discussed foods with sweet, salty and sour tastes, and used our hands to feel what was inside Ned’s Head! Check out the picture of me with Ned's head, he is a pretty cool guy!

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Today Trevilians Elementary Kindergarten classes came to the Children’s Museum of Richmond for our program “Sinking and Floating Matters.” First we read a story called Who Sank The Boat? by Pamela Allen and talked about which animals we thought might sink the boat. Then volunteers chose a toy to test at the front of the room. We all made a prediction and then tested the toy in the water to see what happened. We found that the heavier items sank to the bottom, while the lighter items floated on top of the water. As we tested, we added each item to our Sink and Float T-chart.

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A few weeks ago, I taught the first field trip program of the school year called Math in Motion. I had a ton of fun with Mrs. Green’s 1st grade class from Victory Christian Academy. We talked about patterns and symmetry. They were very enthusiastic mathematicians who got to “kiss their brains” a lot.

The education department at CMOR has been working on ways to make the museum more accessible to children with special needs. Today we completed a fantastic training on how to adapt activities for special needs children.