Stop-Motion Animation, Board Game Making part of March Fun at MOD

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. — March is National Craft Month. To celebrate, the Santa Cruz Children’s Museum of Discovery is making all of its March Family Fun Nights free of charge! Family Fun Nights happen Fridays from 6 to 7:30 p.m. in the museum at the Capitola Mall, 1855 41st Ave. The museum will be admission-free during these events.

March Family Fun Nights include a Stop-Motion Animation Workshop led by Learn to Discover (March 6), a reading and book signing by children’s author Rose Ann Woolpert (March 13), Birding in Your Backyard with Rhiannon Crain of Yardmap (March 20) and Build a Board Game with UCSC Games Researcher Heather Logas (March 27).

The Stop-Motion Animation Workshop (March 6), run by Learn to Discover, is an opportunity for families to learn the basics of stop-motion animation and create some community-shared movies. There will be figures, props and background scenes to choose from. Children can design their own storyboard or just start filming to bring their story to life using a digital camera, animation software and movie-making techniques. Stop-motion animation develops literacy and math skills through storytelling and sequencing. The nonprofit Learn to Discover, co-located with the museum, brings high-quality technology education to students from pre-Kindergarten through 12th grade.

Rose Ann Woolpert will share her Nearly True Tales on March 13. Woolpert will read from her books, Engine Number Ten and Big Bill and His Little Mixer Truck, during this very special book signing. Woolpert’s beautifully illustrated children’s books tell “nearly true” tales of how some of California’s first roads and homes were built. She spent nearly 25 years gathering stories and family photographs of the Granite Rock Company, which inspired the tales.

Learn about Birds in your Backyard with expert Rhiannon Crain on March 20. Crain, a MOD board member, is the Executive Director of the Yardmap Network Project at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. What birds nest in Santa Cruz County? What kinds of habitats do we have here? Crain will also lead families in creating field journals.

Game artist and researcher Heather Logas leads a Build a Board Game workshop on March 27 to finish out our month. Logas, a graduate of the Playable Media research group at UC Santa Cruz, will be teaching families how to create their own board games using boards, construction paper, dice and rudimentary game markers. Studies have shown that playing board games can help cognitive thinking in children. This free workshop will be capped at 15 children, plus their adults. Members will be able to do limited pre-registration with additional spaces available at the door.

ABOUT THE SANTA CRUZ CHILDREN’S MUSEUM OF DISCOVERY

The Santa Cruz Children’s Museum of Discovery, an independent 501(c)3 nonprofit located in the Capitola Mall, aims to delight, inspire and challenge children by providing an exciting and interactive learning environment. The museum has 8,000-plus square feet of exhibits, classrooms and store space. Its hands-on exhibits bring learning to life by showcasing the wonders of Santa Cruz County: the place where the ocean meets the redwoods, where technology meets recreation, where agriculture meets health. Since opening in November 2014, more than 10,000 children and adults have visited.

The Santa Cruz Children’s Museum of Discovery, located at 1855 41st Avenue in Capitola, is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, and 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. Admission to the museum is $7 adults 18 and older, $5 children ages 2 to 17, and free for children under the age of 2. Learn more by visiting www.sccmod.org