Photos from the Fire House tour!

Thank you very much to our neighbors at the Lake Avenue Fire House for giving us two wonderful tours of their station!

Tomorrow: Tale of Peter Rabbit Puppet Show!

The popular Dorothy Nolan Elementary Puppet Club returns to present the Tale of Peter Rabbit for SaratogaArtsFest! Come early, because space is limited! 

Friday, June 10, 4:30 pm to 5 pm. Free with museum admission, membership, or to guests with a SaratogaArtsFest Pass. Please note, the museum will not be open for playing during the performance.  

Art in 3D

The Children's Museum at Saratoga is holding a special workshop during Saratoga Arts Fest Weekend, Art in 3D. This workshop will take place Saturday, June 11 and Sunday, June 12, 2011 from 1:00pm - 3:00pm. Art in 3D is a two day workshop of three-dimensional maedia on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday's workshop will be clay building for younger children and paper mache for older kids. In continuation with Saturday, Sunday's workshop will be decorating and finishing the clay and paper mache objects.

This workshop is free with an ArtsFest Pass, museum membership, or normal museum admission.

Bike Safety

We had a blast last Saturday at our bike safety event. The kids had tons of fun riding their bikes around our outside obstacle course, and children and adults alike learned a lot about safe bike maintenance, proper helmet fitting, and using signals while biking. Thank you very much to Dan Lynch and Dr. David Spingarn from the Saratoga Healthy Transportation Network for joining us and providing us with their knowledge about bikes and bike safety!

Dan shows us how to signal a right turn, with our left arm bent at the elbow.

Your helmet straps should be tight enough that you can only fit two fingers between your chin and the strap. It should also come down over your forehead so you can just see the top.

Remember to obey all traffic signs!

Thank you's all around

Thank you for bearing with us as we've had some unusual hours the past week. Come by soon to see the exciting changes! Here's a sneak preview...

Thanks to exhibit designer Sandra Capecci for her wonderful work on our new Pond Life Exhibit!

Thank you to Key Bank employees for donating your time during Neighbor's Day. Check out the beautiful colors in the Community Room.



And finally, thank you to Saratoga Springs High School seniors for their annual give back day!

Colored rice is nice!

For some families, the Children's Museum is synonymous with "rice table." When we pull it out during Tuesdays for Tots, the children and parents alike love the sensory experience of playing in a table full of rice. For extra fun, we mix plain white rice with rice that is dyed with liquid watercolors. It's easy-- just give a few squirts of the watercolors to a bowl of plain, dry white rice, mix it with your hands, and spread out on a flat surface to dry. You can use the same technique to color uncooked pasta, like the noodles we used for our Mother's Day necklaces.

A rainbow of rice

Splat!

The drops of rain falling today remind us of one our favorite ways to paint: splatter painting! Nothing beats throwing droplets of paint, but here's an easy activity to have creative fun during these spring showers while staying dry (and clean!) inside.

To make your own splatter paint in the style of the messy master Jackson Pollock, visit http://www.jacksonpollock.org/.

Your computer mouse becomes your paintbrush, and clicking the mouse allows you to change colors. To begin a blank canvas, just press the space bar.This activity is fun and engaging for children of all ages, from babies as young as 6 months old (who'll love the high-constrast stimuli) to adults.