As families gather together to celebrate Thanksgiving the Long Island Children's Museum has come up with several solutions to that ever-nagging question – What are we going to do with the kids for the long holiday weekend? The Museum is closed on Thanksgiving Day but has a jam-packed weekend planned, including this program.
Part of the museum's newest exhibit, Toys: The Inside Story, children will craft their own spinners with a playful carousel theme! The button spinner is an example of one of the earliest whirligigs, objects that spin or whirl. String is threaded through a button and then twisted on each end to make the button spin; Native Americans used clay, bone, and strips of animal hide to create their versions.
- Ages: 7 and up.
- Fee: $3 with museum admission ($2 LICM members)
Families can spend time together exploring Toys: The Inside Story until January 2. Peek inside some common toys while exploring the basics of pulleys, cams, gears, linkages, and circuits. Twelve different hands-on stations are featured illustrating the simple mechanisms commonly found in toys, and lets visitors create their own toy-like combinations. Exhibits are free form and open-ended; offering visitors the opportunity to figure out how to spin a ballerina, free "Jack" from his box and make Elmo dance. Toys: The Inside Story was created by Montshire Museum of Science and funded by the National Science Foundation. Local exhibit support is provided by Astoria Federal Savings.
