PlayWatch: Scenes from the Garden

These wonderful pretend play moments were witnessed recently in The Children's Garden:

A young girl, age 5 or 6, was very busy setting up a “birthday party” in Underland. She collected lots of natural materials and enlisted mom’s help in gathering baskets of sand. She laid everything out on the table in the fairy kitchen until it was just right, excitedly chattering to herself the whole time about the impending party.

Credit: John C. Meyers

A woman was walking her “puppy” (daughter, on all fours) on a “leash” (jump ropes knotted together and tied around the girl’s waist). They circled slowly and deliberately through the garden a couple of times, eliciting giggles from the staff who were watching. I said to mom, “Good thing you have her on a leash – you don’t want her to run wild!,” and immediately the puppy took off, yanking the leash out of mom’s hand and sprinting through the cave. Only moments later, the puppy had morphed into a kitten and meowed loudly several times as she passed by.

I love that both of these parents followed their children’s cues to get involved in and support their play, and gave them the freedom to have these deep pretend play moments!

– Megan Fischer, Communications & Marketing Director

PlayWatch: Painting the Rabbit

This story was shared by Exhibits Director Robin Meisner. 

Walking out into The Children’s Garden, I noticed a girl – about 4 years old – instructing two other young children in how to “paint” the rabbit. They had lined up their materials on the ground next to the rabbit – small wooden pots from Underland filled with water and a larger bowl with sand. With a paintbrush from the sand pit in hand, the girl instructed the others, “first, you dip the brush in the water, then in the sand, then you paint the bunny.” She demonstrated dipping, then painting in long slow strokes following the direction of the rabbit’s fur. The others joined in, each getting bits of advice on proper painting techniques.

A short while later, I watched as the same girl and a young boy approached the fountain with their empty water containers and paintbrushes. They climbed onto the rocks surrounding the water, soaked their brushes and filled their pots. They then started to make their way down from the rocks but quickly discovered that climbing down with water was tricky. My first instinct was to offer my empty hands, but I held back and observed. After a few moments of fidgeting, the girl handed the boy her water, set her brush down and jumped off the wall. She then reached up and took the two filled containers and both brushes from the boy. He climbed down carefully, gathered his supplies and they made their way back to the rabbit – no adult help needed.

I followed the pair and watched as the painting continued. New children approached, got their lesson and painted for a few minutes before moving on. And, hours later after all the kids were gone, the rabbit was still specked with painted sand.

Get Out!

Unstructured, freely chosen play promotes children’s healthy growth and development, but many kids don’t get enough free play, especially outdoors. The warm summer months invite kids to indulge in more carefree, active, outdoor play that is not as available during the school year. This summer, we're offering an array of powerful outdoor play experiences on the Museum's grounds and well beyond.

Splash in the fountain and soak up the sun in the Museum's native Children’s Garden – a perfect place to play, explore and take a break with a picnic lunch. Wriggle and stretch through the sculptural two-story-high Climber, an enclosed maze of undulating platforms. Adventure through the whimsical subterranean world of Underland and discover root systems, worm tunnels and critters’ burrows. A selection of toys – including jump ropes, hula hoops and bouncing balls – promotes active, physical play.

Explore the Museum’s great outdoors during active programs all summer long:

• Get Out! – Try fun hands-on activities each Tuesday in July and August from 1:00 - 3:00 PM. Use the power of air to send rockets soaring, mix up mud pies, build channels to move water, and more. Learn more.
• Wheels at Work – Climb aboard a different working vehicle on Wednesdays in July and August from 10:00 AM - Noon. Learn more.
• Bubble Blowout – Blow bubbles big and small and experiment with different bubble-blowing techniques on July 28 and 29 from 11:00 AM - 2:00 PM.
• Worm World – Observe how worms wiggle and investigate a wormy habitat on August 10 and 11 from 11:00 AM - 2:00 PM. 

Check the calendar for additional details and plenty of other hands-on fun, and stay tuned to learn more about our new "pop-up play" initiative. Have a playful summer!

Take the Children's Garden Challenge!

Last month, we announced a new texture hunt, created by AmeriCorps Museum Educator Jackie Frole to encourage visitors to explore the Museum's great outdoors. This week brings Jackie's latest creation: The Children's Garden Challenge!

Get out and search, solve and play – try out these fun things to do all summer long!

Where in the Wild?

Museum visitors can explore our great outdoors as they wriggle and stretch through The Climber, tunnel through Underland, and try fun-filled outdoor challenges in The Children’s Garden all day on Tuesdays and Thursdays in May and June.

One of the playful challenges is a texture hunt, created by AmeriCorps Museum Educator Jackie Frole – check it out below. Spot any objects you recognize?

Stay tuned to learn about other outdoor explorations. Happy hunting!

Garden Reflections

A follow up to our previous post - some reflections staff have shared following their time in the garden this summer.

Cool Climber
After having seen an indoor climbing structure at another children’s museum, I reflected on Janice’s assessment of The Climber as “kid space” and realized there’s something about the design of our Climber that makes it especially powerful. I think it’s partly that it’s REALLY theirs – grown-ups are welcome but don’t often venture in – and partly that you can see all of the kids at once. It’s concentrated vertical space instead of a structure that disperses kids in a way that takes them out of view, so you can see them moving and playing as individuals and as a whole. Kids bring this intriguing work of art to life – watch for just awhile and it’s clear that it really works!
– Megan Fischer, Marketing & Public Relations Manager

The Garden as Park
If children’s museums are the new ‘town square’, then our Children’s Garden is the new ‘city park’! At least that’s the feel of things now that we have installed The Climber and Underland. Recently when a preschool group was visiting, a teacher with the group remarked, “There is something for every child in this garden...most of mine can be in The Climber but five of them can’t be, so they are over in the sand, digging and playing quietly, because that’s the way they like it.”

I looked around and realized she was right and that it felt to me a bit like a park. Adults on benches, just glad to sit and feel the breeze, knowing their children, scattered about, were completely engaged and safe. Children darting in and out of Underland’s entrances, stopping only for a second to share their plan of where-to-next. Some of them ended up at the toys, picking up a hula-hoop to whip around their tummies or their arms. Some ran to The Climber for an adventure up among the treetops. “Look, I can see the city,” one cried and others darted into the tunnels creating another scheme to ‘get away and not be found!’

So, I just stood there taking it all in. Caregivers and children eating lunch underneath the birches, birds flopping in the fountain to cool their wings; toddlers sifting sand at the sand flowers. It all had the feel of a busy park, that here in the middle of the city, we were providing just what a park does: a bit of nature and a gathering place for children and their families and friends...a safe and joyful place that says, ”Come in, scamper like a squirrel, slip down a hole, encounter a worm, or better yet, climb up, up, up to the top of the world!” Found here in our Children’s Garden, a play experience for children where they have the comfort and security of knowing that adults are nearby but feel entirely on their own, away in a tunnel or on the top of their city!
–Mary Hackman, Early Childhood Program Developer

Scenes from the Garden

Wow, what a summer – beautiful weather, two incredible new outdoor play spaces, and thousands of families to enjoy them! Before summer is officially over, we wanted to share some of the wonderful moments staff observed in our Children’s Garden over the past few months:

I saw a mom in The Climber with her daughter – both having a blast. The daughter coached her mom on ways to stretch her body to move over and under the platforms.
– Jennifer Laurelli, Development Director


• Five kids of different ages were fully engaged in a hula-hooping contest while their grown-ups watched. They were really good! One of the girls, about 7 years old, twirled four hoops at once, around her neck, waist and arms.
• During a field trip, a wave of young Head Start children joyfully scurried over The Climber, excited by their discovery.
• A mom was seated on the stone wall, practicing her ukulele while her kids climbed. I loved that she was giving them time and space to play and explore on their own!
– Megan Fischer, Marketing & Public Relations Manager


Sand Diver
A little girl – about 3 – perched on the edge of the sand pit wearing the paleontologist goggles. She bobbed up and down, flexing her knees. "Ready?" she said. I said "One. Two. Three. Go!" She held her nose and jumped headfirst into the sand pit. I applauded. "Again!" she said clamoring out. "One. Two. Three..." In she dove again.

This went on for a number of sand dives. At one point her face landed pretty deep in the sand and she emerged with sand covering her nose and mouth. She wiped it off and gamely jumped again, but was more careful to keep her head up a bit after that. Clearly she was mastering beginning swimming skills and transferred her new abilities to a different medium – sand!
– Janice O’Donnell, Executive Director

Stay tuned for some staff reflections on what our garden and its incredible new environments have meant, for us and for our families.

PlayWatch: Kids Take Over the Garden

This post was contributed by Museum Executive Director Janice O’Donnell.

One of the best things about the new additions to The Children's Garden is how much intense child-directed play we see there. And when kids are in charge, their play isn't always exactly what we had in mind.

A fluid group of five or six kids – oldest ones about 8 or 9 with a couple of 4-year-olds doing their best to keep up – were chasing each other through the tunnels in Underland, popping out of different openings and diving back in and making a lot of joyful noise. I noticed the older boys were pointing wooden utensils at each other, accompanied by sound effects: “Bang! Bang! Bang!” We made those gracefully carved wood pieces for pretend cooking and stirring, not lethal weapons, but I've mellowed over the years. I know that kids will pretend sticks – or almost anything else – are guns and still turn out just fine.


An older child crawled out of the tunnel, followed closely by a little one. He handed her the stick (gun) and said, very seriously, “Cover me,” and sprinted to The Climber. The other kids emerged into the sunlight, conversing intently in a language I couldn't begin to identify. It sounded like something out of “Star Wars” and was spoken in robot-type voices. Whatever it was, they understood each other perfectly and apparently devised a plan because suddenly they fanned out. They ran in every direction, jumped off the stone walls and took cover behind bushes, until one spotted their prey. She shouted (in that strange language of theirs) and pointed toward The Climber.

Photo by Susan Sancomb

And, like a wave, they streamed up The Climber, which became the site of a scrambling, shouting, sliding chase. There were grown-ups around but the kids seemed oblivious to us and no one interfered with their play. It was such good play ­– that deep, intense play where catching or eluding feel like life and death. And it was all theirs, even if it was inspired by a movie or TV program. They were embodying their characters and inventing the twists and turns of plot.


I am so pleased that we – the designers and developers of the new spaces – decided early on that additions to the garden had to be open-ended. We set out to create environments to inspire and encourage play, but where play would be directed by the kids. Kids would make the stories, determine the possibilities, push the limits, invent new uses for whatever we provided. And they do. To me, that means total success.

SO Much Summer Fun!

Yes, we have two fabulous new outdoor play spaces, but there's a bunch of other summer fun to be had at the Museum, including these exciting summer series:

Wheels at Work
Wednesdays in July & August
10:00 AM - Noon

Kids get behind the wheel when fascinating vehicles roll up to the Museum during this special summer series. Climb aboard a fire truck, sit atop a giant digger, examine the equipment in an ambulance and meet the drivers who operate them. Explore a different vehicle each week!

July 7: Kids learn how a digger truck does its digging from a Narragansett Bay Commission operator.

July 14: Explore an ambulance and learn how technicians from Rhode Island Emergency Services for Children help injured kids.

July 21: Climb aboard a giant tow truck from Coletta's Towing and learn how it rescues broken cars.

July 28: Meet a Providence Police officer and explore a police cruiser.

August 4: Inspect a fire truck! Providence Fire Department firefighters teach kids how the vehicle helps put out fires.

August 11: Check out the giant digging bucket of a Cardi Corporation backhoe loader.

August 18: See WPRI-12’s Pinpoint Weather Mobile and learn how it helps meteorologists track the weather.

August 25: Get behind the wheel of the city’s biggest truck, the Providence Department of Public Works' 10-wheeler.

Eco Explorers
Tuesdays in July & August
1:00 - 3:00 PM

Kids create from natural materials, blow enormous bubbles and meet live animals. Get out and play in The Children's Garden and try different activities exploring the wonder of science and nature each week. Ages 3 - 11

July 6 & August 3: Meet a Worm
July 13: Mud Play
July 20: Animal Trackers
July 27 & August 17: Bubble Blast
August 10: Underground Critters

Nature Art

Fridays in July & August
10:00 AM - Noon

Kids print with natural materials like pinecones and mushrooms and paint with natural dyes. Drop in for a different activity each week; check our calendar for details. Ages 3 - 8

Seen and Heard in the Garden

What’s up in Underland? (Or “Underworld,” as we’ve heard it called many times now!) Here’s what Museum staff and volunteers have seen and heard:

• I observed two boys about 8 years old preparing "acorn soup" for each other in the Underland kitchen. Once the soup was ready, they carefully selected their wooden bowls, sat across from each other at the stump table, and enthusiastically ladled out the soup - exclaiming how good it was going to taste, and what they'd cook up next.
  – Jennifer, Director of Development

• “Lets eat,” said the rabbit to the cicada, while the salamander jammed on the marimba. A child said, “Sit down. I’ll make the food.” She busied herself with pine cones and acorns stirred in hollowed out wooden bowls with carved sticks. The rabbit hopped up. “I’m getting some real food,” he said, dashing outside. He returned with some leaves and mulch bark.
  – Janice, Executive Director

• An 8-year-old girl: “You know how in the movies when they have music to show emotions? That’s what I was doing on the xylophone in there, but it was hard to sound like I was feeling.”

• A 4 or 5 year old made a bridle from a jump rope for the bunny as she rode on its back.

• A mom said to a small child, “Look, are those dinosaur ribs?”
  The child responded, “Dinosaurs love ribs, they eat them all the time.”

And heard from kids in The Climber:

• “I’ve never been so happy!”
• “I tried to go up two times but I was too scared. But then I went back again and I made it all the way to the top!”
• “That was AWESOME!”
• “I’m like a caterpillar on a giant leaf!”
• From one of the platforms: “This is my island! You can come here too.”
• “Wow, I can see the whole city from here!”
• Heard coming from the top: “I can see my house!” “No you can't!” “I can! Look - it's over there!”
• “We can spy on people!”
• To those on the ground: “You look so tiny!”
• A 10-year-old boy asked his mom, “Do you have your phone? Time me from up to down!” She cheered him on the whole way. One minute 5 seconds – not bad!
• “Want to see me go higher?”
• “At this exact point in time, I'm at the tippity-toppest part!”
• “This is my third time going up! The second time is harder, the third time you get better.”

Shared by Merideth, Outreach Program Developer:

• Children climb like monkey trapeze artists – the grace and assurance of their bodies navigating the space combined with the playful, quick movements of monkeys. They don’t seem to be bothered at all by the laws of gravity!
• Kids hold onto one platform to swing down to the one below, using their momentum to slide and wriggle through another platform or two.
• When a space fills up with kids, they help push one another along, flipping their feet over or pointing out which way to go next, negotiating their space and movement.
• There is not one way to go up or down – I’ve seen feet first, head first, side first, even splits!
• After making it up and down once, they do it again and talk about having to go another way because they had already tried this one. One child asked, “How many ways could we get up this thing?”

The Climber and Underland are NOW OPEN!

Children swarm up 18 feet to the top of The Climber and flow back down again, like water spreading in all directions. Like water, only noisy! “Awesome!” “Extreme FUN!” “I can see the whole entire city from up here.” “We can spy on people.” “I want to stay up here forever!” They climb past and around and over each other like puppies, point out ways to get up or down, boost each other up to the next platform, call out “Coming through!”

In Underland kids scuttle through the tunnels, chasing and hiding from each other, then pop out from unexpected places. Screams of surprise and delight! Meanwhile, a child in a bunny costume stirs acorn “soup,” which he serves to his friend the cicada. A marimba-playing salamander provides the dinner music.

The exciting new play spaces in The Children’s Garden are open at last! It’s been years of planning, designing, fundraising, building and anticipating. But no matter how much planning and anticipating we do, there is nothing like the thrill of actually seeing children using – and loving – the environments we create. It’s the best, most satisfying feeling ever.

We are so grateful to the hundreds of donors to the Museum’s Play Works Campaign for Kids who made it possible to create these amazing new play spaces. Thanks to your generosity, the campaign surpassed its $1.5 million goal by more than $250,000. That’s pretty satisfying, too!


On behalf of all of those climbing, pretending, running, noisy, happy children - THANK YOU!

Janice O’Donnell
Executive Director

The Finishing Touches...

Whoa, we are SO close to ready for kids to come play in The Climber and Underland when we open our new garden play spaces on Friday!

Here’s a look at the last week’s action:

Chris (exhibit designer) moved the musical sculpture he and his crew handcrafted from wood and other natural materials into Underland. It’s really beautiful!
They also installed this cool worm ceiling – giant, backlit rubber worms! –
which Carly (exhibit developer) and Janice (executive director) admired.
Carly installed cases of skulls, rocks and other objects found underground
and Chris and crew member Zach nestled our clay critters into their burrows.
The critters are the creations of local sculptor Marly Rogers – my favorite is the adorable star-nosed mole!After some serious cave cleaning, we set up the hand-carved Underland furniture and natural materials in the underground kitchen.
And outside the “cave,” the mastodon was installed in the sand pit,
where Hillel gave it a bath and a beautiful paint job!
Masons built a stone wall around the mastodon and then the pit was filled with sand, ready for kids to come with tools and do some excavating. (Staff had to play, of course!) Stay tuned for more about the creation of the mastodon.
Staff and AmeriCorps members tended to the rest of The Children’s Garden to get it ready for visitors. James (building manager) power washed all surfaces
while Mary (early childhood program developer) added some new native plants.
Oh, right, The Climber is complete! Staff scrambled through for a preview
And then we had kids here to test it and Underland and they had an absolute blast!
Check out the action here:



Wondering “how in the heck did they DO that?” Find out in this time-lapse video that details the installation of The Climber - see the whole thing built and crawling with kids in less than 2 minutes!



So we’re almost ready for you - come play with us on Friday!

What's Going On in the Garden

This week was a flurry of activity in our Children’s Garden in preparation for the opening of our new play spaces on June 11 – just a few weeks away! Some of the highlights:

The steel frame of The Climber arrived on Monday and was put into place.

Then the supporting cables were attached – climbing platforms will be added next week.

The cave structure went from a surreal white carved foam environment….

to having a layer of concrete applied to give it texture and durability.

Then there was cave painting! Underland is taking on such an earthy, underground look – so very much like the drawings we’ve seen for so long.

We also got to see the work commissioned for Underland from some local artists: this chipmunk by sculptor Marly Rogers, which will be part of the burrow wall,

and one of the sculptural steel sand flowers by metal smith Lu Heintz.

The beginnings of the worm tunnels were laid out in our shop,

and staff got to leave their mark!
Coming this weekend and next week: rubber flooring around The Climber and in Underland, construction of the sandpit, curvy green climbing platforms added to The Climber frame, installation of individual Underland components…and so much more.

Click here AND here to learn more about the process of creating Underland. Also check out this article by Museum director Janice O'Donnell for the big picture of our plans and stay tuned for more photos and updates!