Games to Learn and Play  -  A one-hour program available all year at the Museum or in the classroom.  It is adaptable for grades K-12.  Ever played Mpuki Ekala?  Teachers, you might remember the game as Streets and Alleys or Cat and Rat, but in Cameroon, it was Mpuki Ekala.  Many of the games we will teach are traditional and cultural, and may have a connection to games we play here.  Children will have fun exploring the ways children play in other places on the globe.  This will give you a lesson plan book full of games to play for the rest of the year.  Just right for a Family Night or carnival, festival, special school celebration.

Immigration, Then and Now - A 1.5-hour program available all year at the Museum.  This is especially geared to grades 3-12 for those studies of immigration history.  The old Union Depot where the Children’s Museum lives was a busy train station during one of the largest immigration periods in our region’s history.  Take a look at immigration during the early 1900’s and learn about immigration today.  Children become the “immigrants” who are “coming to a new land.”  There’s an opportunity to meet special guests who will share their immigrant experiences of recent times.  Ideal for grades 3-6 but older youth and adults would enjoy this, too.  Works well with the Museum’s publication Growing Up In My Family workbook published by the Museum in the early 1990’s.  Please call well in advance for scheduling due to the guest speakers involved.  

Folktales Around the World:  An Interactive Storytelling Experience -  Fun for K-12 grades and available all year at the Museum or as outreach.  Using the curriculum guidelines of The Drama of Color by Johnny Saldana, this program is designed to enhance children’s ethnic literacy through drama.  Children will explore multicultural folklore in improvisational telling and re-telling of folktales.  They will use discussion, question and answer, discovery/inquiry, and personal reflections to build trust, find universals, and celebrate differences.  This program can be designed as a 3-hour class (morning or afternoon) but really fun as a 1-week residency*.  For questions and a discussion of logistics, please call the Museum.

Animal Friends: A Humane Education Program – A collaborative program with Animal Allies Humane Society, beginning in January, 2006.  This is a one-hour visit with people and animal friends who share their stories and the ideals of kindness, respect, responsibility, fairness and honesty, care, citizenship, stereotypes.  Discover how relationships with animals shape our relationships with people.  Animal friends help us as we discuss these principles, learn safety around our four-legged friends, and bring home the ideas to classroom and neighborhood interactions everyday.  Learn about AAHS’s work in adoptions of animals.  The DCM and AAHS have been around since 1930 and 1957, and know that children and animals have a relationship like no other.  It’s popular with preschool – high school and adults as well.  NO FEE CHARGED.

Go Figure! Classroom Fun – This program is available especially for preschool – kindergarten students.  Storytelling, adventures in measuring, numbers, counting, and playing with numbers is what this program is all about.  Using the Go Figure! exhibit from the Minnesota Children’s Museum, we’ll bring children hands-on activities and interactive story time as we explore the patterns, shapes, and more about math in a creative way.