Play is learning! Each week, explore new exhibits and materials that support your child's social, emotional, cognitive, and physical development. Hands-on materials, interactive activities, and facilitated discussions identify the different types of learning that happen while children play. Caregiver takeaways and informational resources will help families continue learning at home.
Look for weekly and monthly themes!
All programs are included in general admission and are free for members. Admission can be purchased in advance online or by walk-in at our front desk!
Thank you Westminster College Foundation for supporting Science of Play!
May 1, 2024 9:30 am to 11:00 am
Mastery & Recapitulative Play - Fort Building
Location: Science in Your World
Explore innovative ways to build a strong fort! Learn about force and gravity as you use trial and error to solve problems and discover ideas to create a stable structure using your folding, stacking, clipping, and balancing skills
May 8, 2024 9:30 am to 11:00 am
Mastery & Recapitulative Play - Rhymes and Storytelling
Location: Auditorium
Songs and repetition are ways people pass down lessons and storytelling. Together we will strengthen our minds and memories through nursery rhymes, music, and storytelling.
May 15, 2024 9:30 am to 11:00 am
Mastery & Recapitulative Play - Seeds and Soil
Location: Science in Your World
Repetitive tasks develop transferable skills that are used in many daily tasks! Step into your farm shoes and experience the practice of feeling, digging, and uncovering soil to plant seeds to grow.
May 22, 2024 9:30 am to 11:00 am
Mastery & Recapitulative Play - Darkness and Discovery
Location: Things In Caves (The Dinosaur Gallery)
Explore the caves and master its environment as you see and listen to cave paintings and a star show in the darkness of the caves. Discover the opportunities of endless play even in the dark!
May 29, 2024 9:30 am to 11:00 am
Mastery & Recapitulative Play - Collecting and Categorizing
Develop your motor skills as you build connections with shapes, sizes, colours and themes of objects. Discover your interests and collaborate to categorize them into a museum case!
June 5, 2024 9:30 am to 11:00 am
Object Play - Exploring Objects
Location: STEAM Lab
Explore different objects in our STEAM Lab! Grab, feel, look, and (as is a natural infant impulse), taste! Sensory input from objects during play allows children to discover the object's traits: its dentistry, weight, shape, etc. This opens pathways for hand-eye understanding and creates environmental relationships!
June 12, 2024 9:30 am to 11:00 am
Object Play - Construction & Destruction
Location: Street Where You Live
Build, stack, and line objects up - just to knock them all down and repeat! Discover the joy of building and destroying your creations. See how tall you can build before it falls due to its insatiable construction, or indulge the urge to knock it over!
June 19, 2024 9:30 am to 11:00 am
Object Play - Objects Through Space
Location: My Place in Space
Catch, throw, and launch objects into space! Test your strength and coordination skills by passing objects to friends high or low. Build on gross motor skills, coordination, and spatial awareness - all while having a BLAST!
June 26, 2024 9:30 am to 11:00 am
Object Play - Loose Parts
Location: The Dinosaur Gallery
Loose parts provide endless opportunities to explore new concepts and environments. Uncovers loose parts in our dino pit as you clean and examine, discover if parts match and connect, or sort and find loose parts a new home. Use your imagination, and work on memory, focus, and pattern recognition!
