SCHOOL GROUP TOURS AT THE CHILDREN’S MUSEUM OF CLEVELAND PRESCHOOL & KINDERGARTEN

Group tours are aligned with the Ohio State Educational Standards
and are led by early childhood experts trained in experiential learning techniques.

All tours are 90 minutes in length and include learning and playing in three of the following exhibits:

Splish! Splash!

The Urban Water Cycle is explored through a catchy song and the flowing currents of our water table. Students may even become a “raindrop” in the water cycle climber

Bridges to My Community

Students are in charge as they role-play their way through a day in our community: drive the RTA bus or Kohl’s Kids Care© safety car to the house, Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital, grocery store or bank.

Big Red Barn

In Big Red Barn students role-play their way through a day on a farm. When children explore the exhibit they will be developing critical skills through dramatic play in a friendly farm setting. Composed of several distinct areas, Big Red Barn focuses on the development of fine motor skills of young children.

Special Seasonal Exhibits!

Young Architects: Designing the Future

April 28, 2012 through September 30, 2012

Imagine your child being the next great architect, following in the footsteps of Frank Lloyd Wright, Thomas Jefferson, Frank Gehry, Ieoh Ming Pei, or Zaha Hadid.  In Young Architects: Designing the Future this dream can come true!  Young Architects is divided into three main areas – live, work and play – with each area highlighting one or more renowned architect accompanied by photographs of their iconic buildings.  As children observe these various structures, they will be challenged to contemplate such questions as: Why does it look the way it does?  What is it used for?  What materials were used in its construction?

Included within the exhibit will be hundreds of assorted building blocks – wooden, plastic, foam, and more in a huge variety of colors, shapes and sizes – inspiring children (and adults) to either attempt to replicate the amazing designs illustrated or to let their creativity soar as they design and build a structure that is uniquely their own.  By participating in this open-ended, hands-on, creative learning opportunity children will become more meaningfully involved with the concepts of math and science, as well as experience the ways gravity, compression, and tension affect their building’s construction and stability.

Centuries of Childhood: An American Story

October 13, 2012 through November 25, 2012

In this exhibit, children will connect the stories of American history to their own experiences by learning about the lives of five historical children and their families. Each historical character will have its own distinct environment based on the time period and location in which they lived. By creating immersive environments with replicas of artifacts, home settings and traditional dress, children and families will feel like they are stepping into another time and place.  By introducing American history in a format that is familiar to young children, they begin to answer “Who am I?” and “Who are you?” They will also begin to develop respect for people who are different from them.

Historical periods depicted are planned to include:

• An Iroquois Girl in the 1700’s
• A Colonial Apprentice in the 1740’s
• A Pioneer Girl in the 1850’s
• An Immigrant Boy in 1900
• A Boy of the Great Migration in the 1940’s

This exhibit will be a hands-on, interactive setting to introduce children (primarily 8 years and younger) and their families to American history.

SANDasaurus

December 8, 2012 through April 7, 2013

Upon arriving in the exhibit, children will be invited to grab a backpack and tools and become a make-believe paleontologist as they search for fossil clues about ancient life in over 60 tons of sand.  Exhibit components include:

• Base Camp – this campsite will let you explore what life is like on a daily basis for a paleontologist away from home.
• Dig Site – use tools to uncover a fossil buried in the sand.
• Paleo Lab – learn about the special tools a paleontologist uses to prepare fossils.
• Dino Dress Up – dress up in a dinosaur costume while you pretend-play with your friends what it would be like to actually be a dinosaur.
• Dino Playground – develop your gross motor skills as you maneuver through this fun area.
• Sand Sculpture – Cleveland’s own Carl Jara, one of the nation’s top sand artists returns to create another of his one-of-a-kind masterpieces.
• And much more …

While the main focus of SANDasaurus is to provide young visitors with a unique, hands-on learning experience, the many “extras” help provide a dramatic, immersive environment in which important skills and concepts can be taught to children of all ages and abilities through creative play.

Ohio Academic Content Standards

Pre-School Standards

Science: Earth and Space, Life Science, Physical Science, Scientific Inquiry, Scientific Ways of Knowing
Social Studies: Cultures, Geography, Economics, Citizenship Rights and Responsibilities, Social Studies Skills and Methods
Language Arts: Phonemic Awareness, Word Recognition and Fluency, Research, Communication: Oral and Visual
Mathematics: Mathematical Processes

Kindergarten Standards

Science: Physical Science, Scientific Inquiry
Social Studies: People in Societies, Government, Citizenship Rights and Responsibilities,
Social Studies Skills and Methods
Language Arts: Acquisition of Vocabulary, Reading Applications, Communication
Mathematics: Patterns, Function and Algebra