The other day we held a paper dance party in the Toddler space in the Creative Kids Museum. The first thing we did was clear an area for the children to play. Then we put out old rolls of receipt paper to see if the kids would start playing with them. Some were curious, but most followed the toys and props that we had put away. When we started unrolling the spools of receipt paper several children stopped playing and started helping us. The curls of paper acted like clouds. Kids explored it by stomping, hiding, laying in it, crumpling it, and moving it like a giant blob. Their reactions were as unique as their personalities. One girl hung around for about an hour, trying to roll the paper back up. Another girl kept hiding in the paper over and over again, yelling “Surprise!” as she popped out, giggling out of control. Another girl pulled a tall pile of paper close to the slide and slid down into it. Some quickly discovered how much fun it was to hold the paper and throw the roll. A few of the kids did not want to get too close, but watched the other children play. This is so important for this age group. They are absorbing everything that they see. They are still participating, but in a way that can be harder to recognize.

Parents began talking to one another about where to take this activity. They started suggesting ideas for the children to try, like “make a snow angel!” Several parents commented that they would “never do this at home”. As kids kept exploring, several parents came up to us with suggestions for other materials (balloons, Styrofoam cups). This part really opened my eyes! One parent laughed and said “I better hide all the toilet paper when we get home”. It made me wonder if kids would actually do this at home (they didn’t in the bathrooms here).

We played music as we were discovering in the paper, just loud enough that kids were slightly bopping to it. But not so loud that it became the central focus. When we turned the music off, parents encouraged the kids to say thank you, and they also thanked us for the program. We gave them no other indication that the program was finished.
Paper is the current Material of the Season in the Creative Kids Museum. It comes in many colours and textures. This time we used receipt rolls (some generous person donated them, so we have a lot!). This particular paper was very crisp and made loud noises as the kids played in it. It also maintained its crispiness and curliness for a long time!

While I was researching I came across this:

http://www.ekayasolutions.com/Research/LiteratureGuide/PaperPhysics/AlavaRepProgPhys_06.pdf pretty cool stuff! It is like the PhD version of what we did!

I also came across this and was blown away: http://www.pleatfarm.com/category/paper/

-evelyn

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Check it out the climbing structure it is almost finished! (needs a name though).

It has been designed so that it will take a great deal of strategy to get to the top, think of it as a vertical maze. I remember an episode of “Lost in Space” where the robot grew into a giant and the crew had to go inside him and “fix him”. I probably was 5 years old when I watched it, and the complexity of the inner workings of the robot really stayed with me. I think that memory contributed to the way in which visitors will move through this structure.

We thought about all the ways your body can bend and stretch and move through space, then use those methods as objectives and applied some of them to a three dimensional structure. Also we discussed with children the things that they like to do in a playground: “hide” came out on top! We also spoke to teachers and educators and they expressed giving children a chance to have a different vantage point or perspective, as a very important objective. We put those all together and this is what we got! We also had to add the fact that it is a structure inside a “museum”. It is not a playground – it’s a place to think with your whole body, to physically challenge yourself to get from one place to the next. It may not be for all kids. Some may feel scared or cautious and may not want to go into it in their first visit, and that is ok. Maybe the second visit, maybe after a few months.

Lastly we thought about “rewards” for reaching some of the higher areas, those I will keep to myself and you will have to find them when it is finished!

-evelyn

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Everything about this picture makes me very happy! I really like to see things organized neatly!

The black squares will be the platforms in the climbing structure, the beams will be the support structure, and the brackets will hold everything together (along with a lot of other little strong bits). These brackets are so robust they can stick whole airplanes up in the sky!*

Everyday that passes things get more and more exciting! Pieces are being built every day all over the world. It puts into perspective, 1) how small the world is, and 2) how many individuals are a part of this amazing project.

I can not wait to see children bring this place to life.

*(not a scientific truth)

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Guess what this is:

Looks like a spaceship does it not? It is actually the skeleton of the water table in the Creative Kids Museum, and I am so excited that today it goes from being a drawing to being a real entity! It has taken months to get to this point, tweaking heights, tweaking angles, long discussions on everything and anything that we could think of. We have tested hundreds of scenarios with our visitors, talked to dozens of children’s museums in North American and today in Ohio welders and engineers and all around party people are making this a reality! I cannot contain my excitement! And there are still hundreds of exhibit parts yet to be built! We open in 114 days!! I cannot wait until this is covered in children!

-evelyn

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I have just returned from my trip to Columbus Ohio. Roto Studios are working on the Creative Kids Museum. I could talk a great deal about the amazing things that we have been working on. But today I will focus on one.

The current creative kids museum has a play stage for children. We have used this stage for a million different purposes. We knew from the beginning that this was a vital part of the creative kids museum, and really wanted to recreate it in the new space.

We wanted a plain black box theatre, where the kids brought life and action into the space. I never knew how complicated that could be! Simplicity is COMPLICATED!! The more simplistic you wish something to be, the more COMPLICATED it becomes!!! We want the kids to be inspired, to feel like they ARE on stage, not a play stage but a real stage. There are kids who become superstars when they step up on that stage, parents too! For the last 5 years my office has been next to the theatre and lucky to fire codes I hear everything that goes on in the theatre! It’s magical!

I have also seen and heard the quieter kids, the ones that like to plan, and be in charge but not performing, they are the ones that direct the action, they can come up with commercial break in the middle of a play, they order the actors on proper costume choices, they plan and assess from the wings. We are working with an engineer right now, whom I bet was that kind of child. He has come up with a joystick operated spotlight! This is the perfect combination of intuitive design, collaborative-encouraging design AND is also a little mischievous! If you can reach the joystick, you will know exactly how it works! If your friend is on stage you can follow the action with a simple nudge of the joystick; If the actor goes the “wrong” way you can hint where they are supposed to go by pushing the light in the right direction. OR for the silly mischievous kids that we have fun with all the time, you can recreate this amazing scene from Cirque du Solei’s Verikai

-Evelyn

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For the past year, we have been experimenting with how young children play. This time we wanted to experiment with the way that young children play with Air.

The first pilot we tested was called “Ceiling Waves”,

It consisted of a large piece of fabric was attached to the tower, the other end was down on the floor with a handle so kids could experiment making waves. Objects were placed beside it to see if kids could bounce them.

The kids really liked doing this. It was really powerful to see a small child manipulating such a big object. Many kids tried putting objects on the fabric and bouncing them off. It took about two minutes for one child to have the idea to go to the top of the tower. It was funny, because he forgot to bring up the balls, so once he got up there, he had to come down and get the balls – delayed exhilaration!

Really liked the collaborative aspect of this pilot. While one person was up, the other had to be down, and they had to call instructions to one another. While two children where bouncing balls back and forth, another child went underneath and was delighted to see the shadows of the balls bouncing on them.

Another exhibit that we tried was called “Kite Flying”

We hung a kite and let the kids manipulate how high and low it flies. It was placed directly in front of a wind current for added animation. Kids loved pulling the string, often they didn’t even know where the string went. If kids pulled the string too hard the kite would get stuck on the top beam. I really liked this aspect of it. Having the string as thin as it was influenced the kids to be more gentle with it. Although this caused another problem, as it was hard to see and the kids would trip over it. I really liked seeing a kite flying indoors.

Next we tried a pilot called “Air Pump Table”

  

There were two different sets of “launching” stations: One with continuous air stream, the other with an air hand pump.
The hand pump was really interactive. It made a squeaky sound that the kids really liked playing with. Some kids didn’t stay long enough to try to understand what the pump did, they just ran up to it and pumped it, delighted by the noise it made.

Other children tested different materials to float or make fly with the help of the air. Some kids took the pvc pipe and created an air maze. The kid that was working on this even said, “I like this. It makes me feel like an inventor!”

Reflection Sailing

 
On the surface of the air hockey table are several island pieces which can be moved around to different locations, and a sailboat which is an air hockey puck with a small sail attached.

This didn’t really work, as kids just wanted to play air hockey on it instead of pretending they were sailing from island to island. That was ok. Competitive games like air hockey promote cooperation, among players, which in this case happened to be complete strangers.

Things we learned: air is magical! Ok it isn’t, but because we can’t see it it makes things fly and float, which IS magical, kind of. I also liked how most of the experiences were vertically, most of the things that we tested went up and down, which didn’t take up a lot of real estate and got kids looking up.

We tested a few other pilots which were well received. It was wonderful to see so many kids on a day were we were closed. Thank you to all the homeschool parents and kids that made the long way here on such a cold day!

The question that both kids and parents wanted to know was if these “pilots” were going to become exhibits. That we don’t know, but the behaviors that we witnessed will definitely help to shape the exhibits in the new creative kids museum.

Evelyn

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