ALL ABOARD: WE’RE GATHERING STEAM
06/07/2021
Source: wisekidneticenergy.ca
Founded in 1990, WISE Kid-Netic Energy is the largest community outreach program offered by the University of Manitoba, with support from the Price Faculty of Engineering and the Faculty of Science. They offer hands-on, curriculum-based science, engineering, and technology deliverables for youth in Kindergarten through Grade 12.
Scroll through WISE Kid-Netic Energy’s collection of cluster booklets filled with fun, on-the-go STEM activities like colouring, puzzles, design challenges, experiments, and more! Their booklets are offered in French and English. Plus, open up any booklet to meet Esiw the Friendly Robot, who loves to talk about all things computer science!
SHOP FEATURE 5
05/07/2021
(For the week of July 5, 2021)
Check out this week’s Feature 5 – a list of top-selling products from Shop, the Children’s Museum’s gift store, now with FREE shipping in Winnipeg on orders over $25!
Again! Again!
Price: $22.99
Just two words, but they say so much. Two words that give us a glimpse into how our children see and feel about the world. This journal was created to capture those priceless moments – the funny, sweet, and unexpected things your kids say and do… in a way that only they can. Inside you’ll find plenty of space to record who was there, what was happening, and all the other details you’ll want to remember in the years to come.
Published by Compendium, illustrated by Jessica Phoenix.
Snappys
Price: $9.99
These bright and cheery plush Snappys by Aurora Baby are safe and easy for little hands to grasp, and help develop fine motor skills with a variety of assorted snaps. Sold individually, each measure approximately 6”.
Suitable for ages 18 months+
Discover & Sense Station
Price: $16.99
Encourage your little one to explore multiple senses, with the PlayGo Discover & Sense Station featuring a variety of colours, textures, and shapes for little hands and grips. Suction-cup design helps stand firm on smooth surfaces, providing hours of entertainment as your baby relaxes while reclining comfortably in the swing or car seat.
Suitable for ages 6 months+
Jungle Fabric Activity Ball
Price: $15.99
Early learning has never been more fun! Rattles are a classic toy to offer to your baby to help develop motor skills. Indeed, object prehension is first expressed as a grasping reflex, and this lightweight activity ball rattle is designed with a handle and a teething ring that will perfectly satisfy this instinct and enable very easy grasping. Its bright colours and round shape train babies to follow the rattle with their eyes when it is shaken, helping develop their field of vision. Covered with a soft fabric, the rattle bounces like a balloon as it falls without making noise. The flexible teething ring may be easily and safely hung from strollers, car seats, cribs, and more.
Suitable for ages 3 months+
Learn & Wonder Tablet
Price: $20.99
Explore and learn while playing! This tablet introduces letters, words, colours, animals, and more to your little one while encouraging language development skills, hand-eye coordination, and imagination. Includes over 314 songs, melodies, sounds, and phrases and offers three interactive and entertaining levels of play to challenge curious little minds.
Suitable for ages 18 months+
CREATION STATION: ROCK GARDEN CATERPILLAR
04/07/2021
Source: nelliebellie.com
This fun rock craft is a great way to get your kids excited about the garden! Creating their own garden rock caterpillar to “guard” the garden is a fun activity for the whole family. It’s also inexpensive and easy, and children can help gather up the needed supplies.
Materials
- Disposable brushes in various sizes
- Rocks
- Craft paint (if your caterpillar will be sitting outside, use an outdoor paint)
- E6000 or equivalent glue
- Twigs for the antennae
- Black sharpie or black paint and q-tips for the faces
Directions
- Paint your rocks. It’s recommended that you paint them multiple colours, but you can certainly paint them all one colour if you like. Be prepared to take some time on this part. You need to paint one side, let it dry, and then paint the other, and they may need multiple coats. It is not difficult, just a bit time-consuming, so it’s a great time to watch a favourite movie and have some snacks. Be prepared, this is going to get messy (and fun).
- Draw the face on your caterpillar’s head. One of the easiest ways to do this is with q-tips and the paint you are currently using. Or, you could pull out some permanent markers. Be sure to wait until the paint on the rocks has properly dried before adding your face.
- Assemble the caterpillar after the paint has properly dried. Put the head in place and then balance the remaining rocks onto one another. Often you will want to prop up the rocks with a paint container, another rock, or whatever works, as you figure out how they’ll be connected to each other.
- Attach the “antennae” (twigs) with your waterproof glue. You need to attach your antennae to the first rock on the body. Use rocks, bottles, books, whatever you can find to prop them up while they dry. Let dry for several hours.
- Let your whole caterpillar dry and cure overnight, then place in the garden!
LOVE LOCAL: SPARK CREATIVE LEARNING ONLINE
01/07/2021
Source: Manitoba Music
As Winnipeg approaches another Canada Day, The Forks has announced that they’ll be presenting a virtual online show for the second year in a row. Join The Forks online on both Facebook and YouTube today at 1:00pm for a free 30-minute virtual program featuring some of Manitoba’s best performers:
- Sage Percussion and Emily Solstice
- Fortune Block
- Plé Collective (Theatre Piece)
- Rainbow Tornadoes with Sandi Bay
- Mattmac with Boogey The Beat
- Bîstyek
- The 12/21 (O Canada to Fireworks)
In showcasing the rich and diverse talent found in our province and striving to acknowledge the history of the site and its origins, the Forks’ Indigenous Curator, Dr. Niigaan Sinclair, will offer some thoughts at the beginning of the show, which will be followed by a moment of silence to honour the children lost and now found.
Elders Barb and Clarence Nepinak will provide a blessing. Hosts Debbie Patterson and Ryan Guy Richard will kick off the show, and the show will wrap up with a virtual fireworks display.
ALL ABOARD: WE’RE GATHERING STEAM
30/06/2021
Source: nypl.org
The New York Public Library offers lots of ways for you to explore STEAM concepts and develop your skills! By having fun with STEAM activities and programs, you’ll learn concepts and gain skills that can set you up for creative, scientific, and collaborative thinking now and in the future.
Access the New York Public Library’s archive of weekly steam projects on their Vimeo channel, and check out their upcoming virtual programming schedule.
SHOP FEATURE 5
29/06/2021
(For the week of June 28, 2021)
Check out this week’s Feature 5 – a list of top-selling products from Shop, the Children’s Museum’s gift store, now with FREE shipping in Winnipeg on orders over $25!
Brain Games: Big Book of Boredom Busters
Price: $17.99
Calling all fans of the National Geographic Brain Games TV show! Exercise your mental muscle with awesome challenges, wacky logic puzzles, optical illusions, and brain-busting riddles. Write-in pages include both games and short explanations of the neuroscience at work. Have fun and challenge yourself as you unleash your inner creativity and become the genius we all know you are.
Suitable for ages 8+
KidzLabs Crystal Geodes Growing Kit
Price: $22.99
Grow your own beautiful sparkling crystal geodes inside a crystal shell with this fun and exciting chemistry experiment. Enjoy the moment when you reveal your crystal geode. Includes a specially designed container for growing quality crystal geodes and contents for making two complete sets of crystal geodes.
Suitable for ages 10+
I Didn’t Know That Some Cars Can Swim
Price: $10.99
Did you know that some cars have wings? That Formula One pit-crews can change tires in seconds? That the first car had three wheels? This exciting book reveals these facts and many more as author William Petty explores the world of cars throughout history, examining the ways cars are built, how they work, and what kinds are available today.
Suitable for ages 8+
Engino Inventor Girl Model Kit
Regular Price: $75.99
Sale Price: $37.99
Build 30 different models! Foster interest in construction building and engineering with this colourful modelling kit. Linking imaginative play with 3D model creation, kids learn key STEM concepts while creating structures, vehicles, and more. Kit includes printed instructions for 4 main models, with downloadable 3D instructions for all 30 models available online via Engino’s website or free apps (available for Android, Apple, and Windows mobile operating systems).
Suitable for ages 6+
KidzLabs Magnetic Racer
Price: $6.99
Fun and learning unite dynamically in this Magnetic Racer. Learn about the mighty power of a magnet and how it can be used to drive the racer – without electrical energy or a driver! Contains u-magnet and magnetic racer.
Suitable for ages 5+
2020 Impact Report Available Now
The Children’s Museum is pleased to announce the publication of its 2020 Impact Report. To view a PDF-version of this document, please click here.
CREATION STATION: SHOE FISH
27/06/2021
Source: kinderart.com
Use the outline of your shoe as the template for making a school of fish!
Materials
- Shoes
- Pencil
- 9×12 paper (or bigger if you want to make an aquarium)
- Crayons or markers
- Watercolour or tempera paint (optional)
Directions
- Have the kids take off one of their shoes and trace the bottom of it onto paper. Or, you can also use a shoe template.
- Then, using the shoe outline as the fish outline, have them create fins, gills, eyes, mouth, and scales on their fish.
- When the drawing is complete, have kids colour the fish with markers, or create a crayon resist drawing.
- Optional step: You can have the kids cut out their fish and glue them on a huge piece of paper, and then have them draw a background. This looks like the fish are swimming in an aquarium.
LOVE LOCAL: SPARK CREATIVE LEARNING IN MANITOBA
24/06/2021
Watch the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra web series Manitoba Mosaic online now! In this series, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra RBC Assistant Conductor (and new Manitoban) Naomi Woo takes a journey to discover what makes Manitoba the unique and wonderful place that it is – the people, the places, the music, and the seasons. Watch all four episodes on the WSO’s Youtube channel.
Manitoba Mosaic is part of WSO’s Adventures in Music program, a comprehensive program designed to introduce students in grades 1 – 6 to the amazing world of symphonic music.
ALL ABOARD: WE’RE GATHERING STEAM
23/06/2021
Source: science-sparks.com
Celebrate the start of summer with this exciting bottle rocket experiment that demonstrates Newton’s Third Law of Motion! Make sure to read through the directions from start to finish before you begin this activity, and make sure an adult is supervising while making and launching the bottle rocket.
Materials
- An empty plastic bottle
- Cardboard made into a cone and four fins
- A cork
- A pump with a needle adapter
- Water
Directions
- Push the needle adapter of the pump through the cork. It needs to go all the way through, so you might have to trim the cork a bit.
- Decorate the bottle with the cone and fins.
- Fill the bottle one quarter full of water and push the cork in tightly.
- Take the bottle outside and connect the pump to the needle adapter. If your rocket doesn’t stand up on its fins, you can rest it on a box, but if you made some strong, stable fins, it should stand up by itself.
- Make sure all spectators stand back. Pump air into the bottle – it will lift off with force after a few seconds.
**Please make sure an adult is around, as the rocket takes off very suddenly and forcefully. Do not approach the rocket once you have started pumping even if it looks like nothing is happening.**
Why does the water bottle rocket launch?
As you pump air into the bottle, pressure builds up inside. If you keep pumping, the force of the air pushing on the water eventually becomes strong enough to force the cork out of the bottle, allowing water to rush out in one direction, while the the bottle pushes back in the other direction. This forces the rocket upwards.
Space rockets work in a similar way to the bottle, but instead of squirting water they burn fuel to make a powerful jet of hot gas. The force of the gas downwards pushes the rocket upwards. This is a great demonstration of Newton’s Third Law.