Our first commercial!

In case you missed it on our website, on facebook, or youtube, here it is one more time!

Coasters for a Cause

We're celebrating the 2011 season opening of The Great Escape & Splashwater Kingdom with an opportunity to raise thousands of dollars for our organization.

Here's how it works:

Tickets to Coasters for a Cause are just $19.99- a savings of $26 off of the main gate admission price! The tickets are valid any of the following days: May 28-30, June 1-5, June 8-12, and June 15-19. Each ticket we sell earns our organization $5!

Everyone who attends receives:

• A full day of unlimited rides, spectacular shows and incredible attractions - there's something for everyone
• A special "C'mon Back!" ticket to revisit the park any day during the 2011 season for just $15, plus tax
• Opportunity to upgrade to a season pass for only an additional $34.99, plus tax

To purchase tickts over the phone with a credit card please call The Children's Museum at Saratoga at (518) 584-5540 for more information.

Thank you!

Explorations in Art!

Join us in our new workshop series, Explorations in Art, starting next week! This new workshop will be every Thursday starting March 3 through April 7, 2011, 4 - 5 PM. Each week of this six week workshop series, we will explore different periods of art history, artists and media. The workshop series will be run by Andrew Aven, a student at SUNY Empire State College, who will transfer to Sage College in the fall to study art therapy.

This event is $12 for the whole 6 week session ($2 per class) or $6 for members ($1 per class). If you are an Arts Pass holder, you get the members rate for the workshop. This workshop series is for elementary aged children, kindergarten through fifth grade. Pre-registration is required.



Happy Presidents' Day!

Happy belated birthday to Mr. Lincoln (his 202nd birthday was February 12) and early birthday wishes to Mr. Washington (he turns 279 years young tomorrow)! With the week off from school, now's a great to time engage your child in some civic duty. Try starting a conversation about presidents. Ask questions like, "would you want to be president?" or "what would you do if you were president?" Or, go through your loose change and talk about the people behind the faces on our money. Younger children might have fun sorting the coins too, building some early math skills.
At Story Art last week, we made presidential collages inspired by the book What President's Are Made Of by Hanoch Piven. In the book, Piven tells interesting facts about some of the presidents (did you know Thomas Jefferson once greeted important diplomats in his pajamas?) and with collages of materials that relate to each president. Collage art, because it is open-ended, is a great medium for expressing personality!

Using Technology to Link the Virtual and Real Worlds of Play

The Children's Museum at Saratoga has recently increased its efforts to use the dynamic technologies available to us today. In addition to our constant contact e-mails and our Facebook page, we have this blog and you can now follow us on Twitter.

While we believe in unplugging from all your electronics and enjoying the simple pleasures of learning through play, we believe that technology can complement your experience at the Children's Museum. As you may have noticed, we recently introduced Parent Guides in most of our exhibits (look for the yellow diamond!) that give suggestions for how you can engage with your child in the exhibits, building vocabulary and important skills. The next step is to take these parents guides further--to a digital platform.

 Soon we will try out posting QR (quick response) code tags with the parent guides.  A QR code is a two-dimensional bar code that can be scanned with a smart phone, instantly linking you to websites, videos, and more through your phone, connecting real life to the digital world. We will be creating QR codes using Microsoft Tag. You can download the tag reader application for free on most smart phones by visiting http://gettag.mobi on your phone's browser. Have an app for reading QR codes? Great! Check out how we're using it by scanning this tag:

The possibilities for using these tags in the museum are endless and will be ever changing. In addition to linking to parent guides, we'll include new information, activites to try at home, scavenger hunts, video, and more! Look for the tags in exhibits soon. However, nothing can compete with the joy of learning through
play with a child in a place that's all his or her own.

Friendship with Project Cameron's Story

At Tuesday for Tots today, our projects were focused on friendship in support of Project: Cameron's Story. The goal of Project: Cameron's Story is to support the bonding of parents with their premature babies in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), through the use of children's literature and storytelling. They strive to empower parents to form unique and profound connections with their babies within an environment that is often uncertain and intimidating. Their mission is to place a brand new, quality, children's book in the hands of every parent of a premature baby upon admission to the NICU at Albany Medical Center.

Now through February 20, The Children's Museum at Saratoga is collecting new children's books for donation to Project: Cameron's Story. One of Cameron's favorite books, The Rainbow Fish, is a classic story of friendship and inspired today's craft.

 

Project: Cameron's Story is hosting a "bookraising" event at the Saratoga Barnes and Noble tomorrow, February 16, from 4 to 7 pm with stories, crafts, face painting, and Blue from Blue's Clues. For more information on the event, visit http://www.projectcameronsstory.com/files/eventsb_nsaratoga.pdf

Special Guest at Alphabet Soup

Last week at Alphabet Soup, Dr. J from AAC Family Wellness Center joined us for the letter P, for posture. Dr. J, a chiropractor, taught us why good posture is important for your spine and health.

Dr. J shows us where we find our spine.

Thank you Dr. J for visiting! Look for more information about AAC's doctors joining us soon at one of our Friday programs. Coming up, Erin from Essential Living with stop by Alphabet Soup for letter T for toxins.

Gingerbread Man Puppet Show and Valentine's Day Art

Thank you to Debbie Craig and the Dorothy Nolan Elementary Puppet Club for a wonderful performance of the story of the gingerbread man! We had a great audience, and hope you'll be able to join us for the Puppet Club's spring show, the Tale of Peter Rabbit.

This week at Tuesdays for Tots (which is twice every Tuesday!) we experiemented with painting without paint. All you need is art tissue paper (it should be "bleeding," not non-bleeding), watercolor paper or cardstock, a paint brush, and water. Cut shapes from the tissue paper, arrange them on your watercolor paper, and apply the water with the paint brush. The color from the tissue paper magically bleeds onto the heavier paper, revealing your design when you remove the wet tissue paper. Overlap shapes for the colors to run together for a tie-dye effect. Here are our results.

Happy Chinese New Year!

With the winter weather approaching, it's a good time to remind you that the Children's Museum at Saratoga follows suit with the Saratoga Springs City School District with weather cancellations and delays. So, if you're planning a visit tomorrow, please watch our website or the school closings!

Putting together a tangram puzzle.

Chinese New Year begins this Thursday. To welcome the year of the rabbit, here's an activity we did at Tuesday for Tots that you can try at home. Tangrams, as these puzzles are called, were originally invented in China. Print the template below and cut apart the seven shapes along the lines. Then, try rearranging the shapes to form animals, buildings, or any thing your child imagines.

What kind of shapes can you put together? Making a template for your child to place the pieces might be helpful for younger children. Here are some animal ideas.