Drop-in Days Week 3: FETCH! and Move It! AKA Ruff Ruffman and the Case of the Free Ice Cream!

Week 3 of Summer Drop-in Days was filled with TV characters, animals, cake and ice cream, and cool dance moves. An interesting mix of entertainment, right? Well that's how we like our Drop-in Days- full of variety! This week is no different. Today pirates will be walking the plank, and tomorrow we will be taking the Gentle Giant Staircase Challenge! Come on over and experience it firsthand! If you couldn't make it to our Drop-in Days last week, then here is what you missed!

On Thursday our favorite furry pal, Ruff from FETCH! with Ruff Ruffman, came to visit us! Throughout the day, Ruff bopped down in The Wild Place to take pictures and hand out awesome stickers, bookmarks, and tattoos! He loved meeting his biggest fans, like Hillary and Ashley Browne (left)- some of them even made him cool crafts at our Crazy Concoction Station (right), where we made some coffee ground fossils and puff paint creations!

After you finished up your crafts, you could've headed over to the gazebo for some tasty Ruff Ruffman cake. I have to admit that I had a big piece my self...it was delicious! And what goes better with cake than ice cream? The Mix 104.1 Street Team (below) was nice enough to help us out. They handed out delicious Turkey Hill ice cream to everyone. It was the perfect way to cool off in the summer heat! If you missed out on the ice cream, then you can come next Friday, August 6th for another scoop from Mix 104.1!

It was a great day at the Museum: our favorite PBS friend, Ruff Ruffman, came over, we got to make some kooky crafts, and we were able to satisfy our sweet tooth with cake and ice cream! What more can you ask for?! You are probably thinking "another awesome Drop-in Day like this one!" Well, we've got you covered. Don't miss Ruff on our last Drop-in Day of the summer. On August 27th he will be back to wrap up another great summer at the Museum!

So after indulging in (maybe a little too much!) cake and ice cream, we definitely needed to work it off at our next Drop-in Day! On Friday we busted some funky moves with Nicole, a dancer who trained at the Boston Ballet School! She showed us fun games that got all of our body parts to bend and move. She also taught us some awesome party dances, like the Macarena and the Funky Chicken. I will definitely be breaking those moves out at the next dance party that I go to!

If you braved the rain, then you got to see Matt from Animal World Experience (right) show us how animals move during Locomotion Commotion. He brought along a snake, possum, rabbit, and other wiggly creatures to teach us why these animals move the way they do. Matt's different spin on an animal show made it a huge hit with our visitors. If you love animals, then you are in luck! We still have a few more Drop-in Days in August that will be a hit for animal lovers. Make sure to check out Dog Days of Summer II and Miss Candy's Petting Zoo for more animal fun!

We had another exciting week at the Museum. One day we met our favorite TV character and the next we learned some new dance moves! There's always something fun happening at our Drop-in Days. Be sure to check out our August Drop-in Day schedule to see what we have planned for next month!

-Ashley Balerna

Public Relations Intern, The Children's Museum in Easton

Week 2: Go Wild! and Creature Feature Drop-In-Days

This past week all kinds of creatures were creeping, crawling, and flying around at The Children's Museum in Easton. We had tons of visitors both imaginary and real that live in the wild. The week of animal fun began on Thursday with the Go Wild! Drop-in-Day. Kids participated in the Dino Dig, dissected owl pellets and enjoyed a super fun shows put on by Awesome Robb and Marla Isaac of the New England Reptile and Raptor Exhibits. Friday continued the week of animal adventures with the Creature Feature Drop-In- Day featuring a great hands on program put on by Dean from Curious Creatures and his exotic animal friends.

Awesome Robb's show was a combination of his Go Wild! puppet friends and some pretty cool magic tricks. Robb's lizard friend, all the way from Madagascar, kicked off the show by showing us how he changes colors with his moods, he sure can't hide his feelings, especially when Robb kept yelling BOO! and scaring him until he literally turned brown. He also brought a friend named Floyd. We were expecting a bald eagle as Robb promised but, instead we got a silly and sarcastic duck posing as Floyd who turned out to be very funny with his giant orange beak!

The other part of Awesome Robb's show taught us all about the environment and how we can do our part to help protect it. Robb even wowed us with some magical recycling tricks like using our own hands and crushing noises to turn a bunch of plastic bottles and containers into a little compacted sheet. He also showed us, using magic, how to literally turn yesterday's paper into today's! Robb showed us all the things we can recycle at home along with a really cool book by Sheri Amsel. This book The Everything Kids Environment Book had really cool facts like, it takes 1 million years for a glass bottle to decompose in a landfill, can you believe it? Well I'm not gonna give away all the cool things this book has to offer you'll have to check it out for yourself.

Later on, Marla Isaac put on a pretty cool show about birds of prey. She too brought some feathered friends with her; only her's weren't imaginary! She walked around the audience and got really close to us with some pretty big birds, it was awesome. Seeing the two owls was one of my favorite parts of the show. As we all know owls are nocturnal meaning that they sleep during the day, while all of us are awake, and they come out at night when we are all sleeping! Because of this backwards lifestyle most of us never get to see a real live owl! My favorite part of the show was the Turkey Vulture named Uncle Fester. He was so cool looking with his sleek black body and bright red face. I thought it was amazing when he spread his wings to fly, did you see that wingspan? It was huge! Marla brought along tons of other awesome birds too.

Friday, the fun continued here at the museum with some pretty wild creatures at the Creature Feature Drop-In-Day. Dean from Curious Creatures brought along some slimy, scaly, and even a few furry (and stinky) creatures for us to meet in his exotic animal show. We got to meet all kinds of wild animals that we’ve never seen before! We met an alligator, a lizard and the biggest turtle I have ever seen. Dean also brought a huge hairy spider that crawled all over him and a creepy crawly scorpion, yuck! The cool thing about this program is that we actually got the chance to interact with the animals! Not only did we get to see animals we had never seen (except maybe in a book or on TV), but we could actually get up close and touch them if we wanted. It was a little scary at first but it turned out to be totally awesome! The animals were all very calm and it felt really cool to touch a turtle and see what its shell really feels like. Kids even got the chance to hold a snake, although it took about 10 of them to hold him because his body was so big and heavy. My favorite animal was the alligator, when do you get the chance to see a real live alligator up close? Matt showed us all his big teeth, and held him like it was no big deal, wow he’s brave, the big guy really seemed to like him! Although the alligator looks rough and scaly, really when you touch it he feels smooth and actually kind of soft.

This week was a blast having all these awesome animals visit. But there’s more fun to come as the summer goes on so be sure not to miss out on any of the fun. Come by The Children’s Museum in Easton every Thursday and Friday through August 27th for Summer Drop-In-Days, you don’t want to miss what we have coming up next! For details and a full schedule Click Here!

-Alex Langway

Communications/PR Intern

Summer Drop-in Days- Week One!

We had a great first week of Drop-in Days here at the Children's Museum in Easton. We tie-dyed and met some "top dogs!" Hopefully, you all were able to enjoy one or both of the Drop-in Days- if not, then head over to the Museum any Thursday or Friday for more Summer Drop-in fun!
This past Thursday we kicked things off with one of our favorite Drop-ins, TIE DYE! The Wild Place got a splash of color as people brought their t-shirts down for a makeover. Our volunteers got the process started by spinning and twisting the item up for dying into one of our three featured designs. Whether you picked stripes or the classic spiral, your shirt was sure to have a funky twist. After the shirt was all banded up, you could head over to one of the three dying stations. Here, you had the option of sticking with a few of the classic colors or mixing them together to create a psychedelic masterpiece! We saw some great tie-dying skills from our guests and volunteers, like from Kim and Nathan Levis from Bridgewater (left), and we hope that some more pros come out to Tie Dye II on August 6th!

Can a dog really play musical chairs? Yes they can! This past Friday we had some canine visitors show us what they do when they go to work. Dr. Louise Graham and her therapy dog class started the day off with a round of musical chairs (right). These dogs, along with a dog from Canines for Disabled Kids and Cokie from Therapy Dogs International, have the important job of assisting people who need additional help because they are injured, sick, disabled, etc. These reliable pups are truly a "man's best friend."

While some dogs can give us help when we need it, other times dogs are the ones in need. The Brockton Blue Dog Shelter came by to give us information on how we can help dogs without a home. They had a list of dogs up for adoption as well as ways to volunteer with the shelter or donate to its cause. Not all dogs have a loving owner, but there are ways to help!

Some other dogs that came by also had some different "career paths." Catie Copley and Jim Carey from the Fairmont Copley Plaza visited at noon to fill us in on what Catie has been up to lately. She recently got back from a little vacation, but she's back in Boston to serve the guests staying at the Plaza. Catie was all about the camera, as you can see from the photos here and on her Flickr page. She even shot a quick video for our Facebook page!

But Catie wasn't the only dog in the spotlight. Tara Kennedy and her dog Apache (right)came for a visit, as well. They work at Logan Airport as a part of the Beagle Brigade. Apache has an important responsibility- he sniffs out food products that shouldn't be in people's suitcases! He makes sure nothing comes out of the airport that shouldn't be. Tug and Louie from Shoo,Geese! Border Patrol also have a job that protects us. They patrol landscapes and scare off geese that like to poop all over the place! Their poop can destroy people's landscapes, so Tug and Louie take charge and control this pesky situation! See them in action on their website where they have a featured video of them on the prowl! If you missed this dog show or loved it so much you want to come back for more, then you are in luck. We will be hosting another Dog Days of Summer on August 12th, so make sure to stop by for more canine fun!

We had some dog-gone fun this week at the Museum! We hope that you will join us for some more summer fun this week and the weeks to follow. Tomorrow, make sure to crawl on over for our Creature Feature, as we get up close and personal with some creepy animal friends. Check out our Summer Drop-in Days webpage for more information about our Creature Feature and other Drop-in days to come!

-Ashley Balerna

Public Relations Intern, The Children's Museum in Easton

Summer Drop-In-Days

Looking for something educational yet fun and totally awesome to do this summer? Drop in to the Children’s Museum in Easton for some summer fun every Thursday and Friday July 8- August 27! Each day features a different theme with a combination of special guest performances and hands-on, interactive activities. Some of our favorite themes you will see most often are animals, fitness, movement and music. That’s not to say there isn’t more, so you will have to come on down to check out all of our Summer Drop-In-Days throughout the summer.

If you like animals then you should check out one of our many animal themed days! You can see lots of awesome animal shows and even meet your favorite furry (or even slimey or scaly) friends! Whether you like farm animals or something a bit more exotic there is a day for just about any kind of animal. We start the summer off with a day for dog lovers with Dog Days of Summer I, on Friday July 8th with guest appearances by some of your favorite friends including Apache from the Beagle Brigade, Catie Copley of the Fairmont Copley Plaza and much, much more! Hmm…But, maybe you like something a little more exotic? Join us the following week for two days of wild animal fun! On Thursday, July 15th Go Wild! With Robb’s wild puppet friends and learn all about birds of prey from Marla Isaac of the New England Reptile and Raptor Exhibits. Or, come Friday, July 16th and get to pet a snake, a baby alligator and even more reptiles in our Creature Feature Program. If you were lucky enough to see him in here the spring at our Spring Fling, then come back for more of Matt from Animal World Experience as he shows us how to slither, crawl, hop swim, and climb like some of our favorite animals on Friday, July 23 as part of our Move it! Program. Matt will be joining us again on Friday, August 13 giving you the chance to BEE a POOP detective and meet some “super-poopers” for yourself. These are just a handful of the programs featuring animals so you better check out our schedule just to make sure your don’t miss your favorite animals and the chance to meet some of them right here at The Children’s Museum in Easton!

Not interested in meeting a real live animal? Well kids, we have your favorite Ruff Ruffman from the PBS show FETCH with Ruff Ruffman here not one, but two days this summer! Come on Thursday, July 22 for some crazy concoctions and eat as much cake and ice cream as you want! Or, come end your summer on Friday, August 27 with a special guest cast member from the show. If you love FETCH! and can’t get enough of him, we’d love to have you both days.

Not an animal lover at all? That’s ok we’ve got plenty of other fun activities you can enjoy. So maybe you like sports. Which is your favorite, soccer? Come meet a player from the Boston Breakers women’s soccer team during our Sports, Health & Fitness program on Friday, July 30th. If you like lacrosse, or maybe you’ve never even played, well this too is your day. The Boston Blazers will have a goal set up all day for you to shoot on and will also be giving away lots of free stuff. The Gentle Giant will be there all day too, so try your luck on the Staircase Challenge!

What kid hasn’t wanted to join the circus? There are clowns, acrobats, animals and lots of magic, everything you love! Well you don’t have to travel to the Big Apple to join this circus. Just come to The Museum on Friday, August 20 for Under the Big top and see Awesome Robb perform Magic and try your hand at juggling, hoola-hooping and more of your favorite circus tricks, who knows? You might find your future here.

After you come to our first Drop- In- Day on Thursday, July 8 (which happens to be tie-dye) we know you’ll never want to miss another! If one day of tie-dye isn’t enough, because we know how much everyone loves it, then come back on Friday, August 6 for more! This time Mix 104.1 will be there handing out ice cream! What more could you want on a hot summer day? For a complete schedule of the Summer Drop in Days check out our website, www.childrensmuseumineaston.org/summerdropindays.asp.

- Alex Langway
Communications/PR Intern

2010 FIFA World Cup Experience

Do you have some little soccer fanatics that love playing and watching the game? Well they are not alone! Soccer is one of the most popular sports across the globe, as seen in this year’s World Cup in South Africa. Since 1930 international teams registered with FIFA get a chance to win the championship every four years. This month long competition not only features the skills of the world's best soccer players, but also the passion and enthusiasm from their fans. Watching the World Cup can be a chance for your kids to learn something new about other cultures and about the sport that millions of people love.

With the top four teams in the semi-finals, the 2010 World Cup will soon be coming to a close. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t get in some fun, World Cup inspired activities before the tournament is over. If your family is planning to watch a semi-final game or the finals, then your kids are going to need a flag to wave when cheering for their favorite team. This is an easy craft to do that will get everyone excited about game! All you will need is some paper or poster board, markers, tape, and a “pole” to create your favorite country’s flag. To make the Dutch flag, evenly divide it into three sections; color the top section red, the middle white, and the bottom blue, and attach a pole. Whether you choose Germany, Spain, Uruguay, or the Netherlands, you and your kids can get in the spirit with this easy craft idea.

No sporting event is complete without something yummy to munch on while watching the game. Before the game starts have your kids help make some delicious German Frikadellen, or German meatballs. They will love rolling these little meatballs into a snack, which they can eat during the game. Other German food options include German chocolate or pretzels. Both would be big hits with your kids! You can also make a Uruguayan Chivito, which is the national food of Uruguay. This meat packed sandwich will leave your family full and satisfied.

Besides the flags and recipes, we have some other ideas that you can use to complete your game day atmosphere. Once a few goals are on the scoreboard, you can teach your kids how to count them in one of the languages spoken by the top four teams. Have them count in Spanish, Dutch, German, or all three! It’s a great opportunity for them to learn something new during such an exciting event. You could also play South African music or the FIFA theme song in the background to represent the culture of the tournament’s host country. Whether you incorporate all or one of these ideas into your FIFA World Cup experience, we hope that you and your kids enjoy watching and learning about soccer and the countries that love it. To continue with this cultural learning experience, you can always search online for ideas or visit your local library for books, music, or videos that will give you more activities to do with your kids.

The semi-finals start with the Uruguay vs. Netherlands match up on July 6th at 2:30pm followed by the Germany vs. Spain game on the 7th at 2:30pm. If you can’t watch the semi-finals, then tune into the finals on Sunday, July 11th at 2:30pm! Be sure to visit the 2010 FIFA World Cup site for more information about the teams and the tournament schedule.

-Ashley Balerna
Public Relations Intern, The Children's Museum in Easton