Arts and Culture

The Power of Bubbles (and How They Help Little Ones Handle Change) 

What is it about bubbles?

Something about them makes us want to stop, stare, marvel, pop, and play—whether we’re two, 12, or 60.

One thing that makes bubbles so special is the fact that they’re temporary—they float through their course before they pop and vanish. At Chicago Children’s Museum, we believe there’s a powerful lesson there—for our littles, and for us.

Embrace the Mess with Sensory Play!

This week we’ve been embracing the mess. Because let’s face it—our littles are messy—and that’s one of the best parts of play.

One of the best ways to embrace the mess is through sensory play! When little ones explore their senses, they often make a mess—with paint, water, dirt, or whatever other materials they’re using—but they also learn some powerful stuff.

Glitter Jars: Your New Parenting BFF

Stress, especially in the time of COVID-19, is incredibly challenging to understand, and even harder to manage—which is why Lead Art Educator Liz Rosenberg has created this week’s incredible at home activity: Glitter Jars.

How to Bring More Music Into Your Children's Lives

Chicago Children’s Museum is a huge believer in the power of music for little ones. If you're a parent or caregiver looking to bring more music into your child’s life, here’s a roundup of Chicago Children’s Museum approved activities, resources, and more.

At Home Activity: Nature Prints

Running out of ways to play outside? Today’s activity gives you and your kiddos another reason to be outdoors—and has the added bonus of encouraging them to deeply inspect the grooves and veins of leaves, petals, and other parts of nature.

At Home Activity: Upcycled Bird Feeders

Is anyone else going through groceries like never before? Staying at home means more meals at home, and more meals at home means more empty containers.

That’s where today’s at-home activity comes in. It shows how you and your littles can take an empty milk carton, egg carton, or even a clean takeout container and create a bird feeder. From there, your little ones can be in charge of refilling the feeder and keeping track of which birds visit it.

Chromatography: Uncovering the Hidden Colors in Markers

A clear juice glass holds a paper towel with purple marker ink; a clear jar holds a paper towel with blue marker ink; a clear vase holds a paper towel with orange marker ink.

Did you know that inside every water-based marker lies a whole world of painting possibility?  

Today’s at home activity explores those possibilities through the use of chromatography, otherwise known as “color writing.” 

When you stick a water-based marker into a cup of water, the different pigments (or colors) inside the marker will actually separate based on their density (or weight). Some pigments will sink, some will float, and some will land somewhere in-between.  

By using water and a paper towel, your kiddos can explore this fascinating phenomenon, all while creating a beautiful piece of art.  

Goals

  • Recognize that a single color of ink is made up of other colors 

Children will: 

  • Use water and paper towels to map the hidden colors in water-based markers. 

  • Note how two markers of the same color may consist of different hidden colors.  

What you’ll need: 

  • water-based markers of as many colors and brands as you can find 

  • paper towels. 

  • Clear containers, for instance plastic or glass jars or drinking glasses 

  •  tape (masking works best) 

  • Some scrap paper in a light color.   

How to: 

 Choose the colored markers you’d like to investigate.  Cut a paper towel into narrow rectangles for each color.  The rectangles should be at least one inch taller than the container you plan to use. 

• With one marker, draw one thick horizontal line with each of the colors one inch from the bottom of the paper towel rectangle. 

Stand each rectangle up in the container so this line is close to the bottom.  Fold the blank extra inch at top over the rim of to the outside container.  Secure it with tape or a binder clip. 

•Carefully pour one half inch of water into the jar, so it’s just below the line.  Make sure it’s enough to wet the bottom edge of the rectangle.  Keep the rest of the rectangle dry.  

•Watch!  The water at the bottom of the container will quickly climb up the paper towel, taking color pigments with it.  

•When the water reaches the top of the paper towel, pull out the wet paper towel and lay it on a light-colored paper or washable surface.  (The wet rectangles may leave some color on the surface underneath). 

• Repeat this process with several more markers. Which color markers have blends of different pigments? What colors do you see? 

•Compare the results of two or three markers of the same color, but from different sets or different brands. What do you notice? 

 

At Home Activity: Stamp Art with Found Objects

Today’s at home arts activity for kiddos brings a whole new meaning to the phrase, “Put your stamp on it!”

By looking around the house, yard, or other places for mess-friendly, interesting objects, your kiddos can create their very own stamp. It’s an easy way to create a DIY art project, explore different shapes and textures, and learn more about how to make a pattern.

At Home Activity: Make a Pattern

What comes next?

We’d all love to know the answer to that question right about now. Luckily, today’s at-home activity is one way you and your little ones can explore predictability by making patterns. Because even if we don’t know what’s next for us right now, we can still rely on certain patterns and order in the world around us.

At Home Activity: Crystal Painting

At Home Activity: Crystal Painting

Epsom salts are great for grownup bath time—but did you know that they also make for an easy, low maintenance art activity for your kiddos?

Today’s at home art activity for children takes everyday materials you have at home and turns them into a sparkly painting experience.

At Home Activity: Whoop-de-doo Roller Coaster Sculpture

At Home Activity: Whoop-de-doo Roller Coaster Sculpture

In a lot of ways, the roller coaster feels like a spot-on metaphor for the parenting and caregiving process—especially during COVID-19.

Today’s at home activity lets you and your little ones dig even deeper into what makes a roller coaster the fun, thrilling, terrifying ride that it is. Talk about what makes rides scary, then build your own with everyday, easy-to-find materials.

At Home Activity: Bump-It-Up Paint

With today’s at home activity, you can combine a few easy-to-find ingredients to make your own textured paint. Your little ones will satisfy their inner chemist by creating their own paints, then use those paints to create three-dimensional works of art.

It’s an easy, fun, win-win art activity for your whole family.

At Home Activity: Whirl Its AKA Thaumatropes

Today’s at home activity involves a $10 word: thaumatrope.

What’s a thaumatrope, you ask?

It’s an optical toy with a picture on each side that, when spun fast enough, appear to blend into one because of persistence of vision.

At Home Activity: Cardboard Beads

Staying at home gives us a lot of opportunity to reimagine what might otherwise be, well, boring.

Take cardboard, for example.

We’re exploring the different ways you and your kids can use the cardboard lying around your houses for fun, valuable play time, like today’s art activity, Cardboard Beads.

At Home Activity: Shadow Play

At Chicago Children’s Museum, one of our favorite things about play is that you really don’t need much to make it happen.

Today’s at home activity shows how a sheet, a lamp, and a flashlight can make for hours of fun—plus fine and gross motor development.

Growing Gratitude

Whether it’s for an aunt or the next-door neighbor, parent, or community helper—take time to create a thank you card or sign for healthcare providers, mail carriers, grocery store employees, or anyone else deserving of gratitude, inside or outside of your household. Your kids will work on their literacy and creative skills, plus you’ll be teaching them the power of gratitude.

At Home Activity: Puppet Parade

Let’s throw a parade in our honor. We deserve it, don’t we? The homeschooling, the working from home, the socially distant Zoom birthday parties, and constant hand washing—we are all something to celebrate.

Trouble is, who do we celebrate with?

Today’s at home activity is all about making your own crowd. Gather some puppets, stuffies, and toys— and throw yourselves a parade.

At Home Activity: Marionette Play

By taking a familiar toy or stuffy (one with limbs that move easily) and turning it into a marionette, your little ones will have a whole new way to play. They’ll work on their hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills, plus their sense of self expression and creativity will come alive.

So grab a flexible toy and some string and let your littles be the puppeteers.

At Home Activity: Tear It Up

Look at your little one’s hands. Yes—they're adorable (and maybe a little sticky), but did you also know that they’re working really, really hard?

That’s because our hands grow the most when we’re between ages 0 and 5 years old. And as a result, our little one’s hands do a lot of work to get stronger, more flexible, and more adept at skills we eventually need... like using scissors.

Today’s at home activity video is all about enhancing those skills.