Autumn Experiments

Monday, Oct. 28, is a Teacher Work Day, so school is out! Instead, come play and learn at the museum. We will be exploring science of the season, starting with learning why leaves change color. We'll do a chromatography experiment and check out some demonstrations to see just how that works.

Later, we'll dive into biology, looking at fall fruit. We will investigate pumpkins and apples. What is inside each of these fruits? What makes them different, and what is the same?

This full day program will run from 9:00-3:00 and is best for ages 4-8. We will provide a snack and kids should bring a packed lunch with them. Registration is required and the deadline will be Wednesday, Oct. 23. The cost is $60 for members and $70 for non-members. Call (434) 977-1025 to register today!

Meet a Police Officer

Have you ever wondered what it takes to be a police officer? At 10:30 this Saturday, Officer D.E. Williams from the City of Charlottesville Police Department will answer your question! Stop by the museum for a short class on safety for kids. See his badge and uniform and learn about how police officers work to keep us all safe. Officer Williams may be looking for a few new Junior Officers! This program, which is part of our Meet Me on Main Street series, is free with admission to the museum and is open to all ages with an adult.

Glaciers, Volcanoes, and Tornadoes... Oh My!

Did you know that school is out next Monday? That's right! Charlottesville and Albemarle County Public Schools are not in session on September 30. Why not drop your kids off at the museum for the day instead? We have a full school day program for kids ages 4 to 8, packed with exciting activities, crafts, and learning, all about Glaciers, Volcanoes, and Tornadoes, Oh My!

Come discover the world of polar bears and penguins as we journey to the North and South Pole and unlock the mystery behind the formation of glaciers. Then away we will go to learn all about volcanoes and tornadoes. From the top of Mt. Rainier to the planes of Oklahoma, we will study what makes lava flow and twisters blow.
 
Snacks are provided, but kids should bring a packed lunch. The program will run from 9 to 3 and costs $60 for members and $70 for non-members. Pre-registration is required, so call Diana at (434) 977-1025 x9 today!

Summer Camps

The VDM staff has been hard at work creating our best camp line up yet and we just can’t wait for summer to start! Don’t miss out on your chance to share in the good times… call to register today. This summer, the Virginia Discovery Museum will host seven interactive and educational summer camps. All camps are for children ages 4-7 and run Monday through Friday, 9:00am to 12:00pm. These fun-filled camps are $150 for members and $190 for non-members. To register, call 434-977-1025 and ask for Diana or email vdmprograms@vadm.org. Sign up today!

June 24-28: We’re Going on a Trip in our Favorite Rocket Ship -Not quite old enough for NASA’s camp? Come learn about the final frontier while building your own rocket and practicing to be an astronaut. We’ll make a model of our solar system and blast off on a trip of our own!

July 8-12: Underwater Explorations - Let’s take a dive in our very own bathysphere and investigate the mysteries of the deep! We will explore the oceans and marine life through thrilling science experiments and make our own versions of oceanic creatures.

July 15-19: Myths and Legends - From Hercules and Medusa to Bigfoot, join us to learn about the myths and legends of yesterday and today. We will be diving into the lake of the Loch Ness Monster and flying high into the sky with Pegasus. Learn all about a world of magic and mystery!

July 22-26: Art Detectives - Put on your detective hats and get out your magnifying glasses! Let’s discover why the Mona Lisa smiles and which artist painted a masterpiece on his back. We will solve clues and investigate popular artists and styles, creating our very own masterpieces along the way.

July 29-August 2: European Adventures - Let’s travel to a different country each day! Trekking across the continent, we will look at art, taste food, and discover what makes each country unique.

August 5-9: Welcome to Broadway- Do you love to dress up and put on plays? Let’s put on a show! Come be in the spotlight as we build a set, design costumes, and act out our own script.

August 12-16: Sailing the Seven Seas - Ahoy matey! Let’s look through the spyglass to learn about Blackbeard and his crew. We are going to swab the deck and batten down the hatches as we go in search of buried treasure. 

Journey to Camelot

It will be spring break before we know it, so we're getting ready for our Spring Break Camp! This is your chance to get a taste of our summer camps the first week in April. Our camps are for ages 4-7 and run from 9:00 to 12:00, Monday to Friday.


This year, the theme will be Journey to Camelot! Come and create your very own kingdom. What was it like to live in the times of knights and princesses? What did they eat? What did they wear? What games did kids play? Journey with us to explore the medieval world of Camelot and castles and dragons. From jousting tournaments to running the gauntlet, help us rediscover this long lost world.

Camps require pre-registration and cost $150 for members and $190 for non-members. Call us today at 977-1025 to sign up!

Meet Spike the Porcupine

This Saturday, March 9th, is the next installment of our popular program, Meet Me On Main Street. This program brings guests from our community into Little C'ville, where kids and families can learn more about what they do.
 
This week, we will get the chance to meet Kristin from the Blue Ridge Poison Center and her poison safety puppet, Spike! Spike is a porcupine and the main character in a short poison safety video that will be shown at 10:30 in the Back Gallery. Kristin and Spike will then share a game, a craft, and lots of important information about staying safe around potential poisons. Young children are at greatest risk for unintentional poisonings, so join us for this fun and important program. This program is free with admission.

Kid*Vention

 Kid*Vention was so much fun! We had about 1200 visitors learning from 32 community and university organizations about all different types of science. Thank you to all of our exhibitors and visitors, as well as Panera, who provided lunch for our exhibitors, the City of Charlottesville for their help with using the Key Recreation Center, Les Sinclair from Lite Rock Z95.1 for publicity and music at the event, Barnes & Noble, who donated our raffle prizes, and all of our wonderful volunteers from the Junior League of Charlottesville, Alpha Phi Omega and VDM's own Bob and Cynthia. We also want to thank our sponsors, Blue Ridge Internet Works and Kiddie Academy. Last but not least, thank you to Susan Parmar, the photographer who captured these wonderful images. These are just a few of my favorites- check out our Facebook album for a larger selection!

Picking her brain at the Neuroscience table.

Checking Roxy's heartbeat with Monticello Animal Hospital.

We love the bees!

Everyone's learning about science.

Everyone got to take home a magnifying glass from WHTJ.

Can you outrun a robot built by AHS's MESA program?

Balloon rockets!

The American Society for Engineering Education introduced us to electromagnets. These ones play music!

He has just finished extracting the DNA from a strawberry with LEAD!

Check out that skull that ICF brought to share.

KID*VENTION!!

We're getting so excited! It's almost time for Kid*Vention, VDM's free family science festival!

Join us for Kid*Vention, our annual celebration of everything science, on February 23 from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm. Once again, the event will be at the Key Recreation Center near the Pavilion on the East end of the Downtown Mall. Kid*Vention is a free community event at which children and their families can learn and play at a variety of stations run by VDM’s friends in the Charlottesville community. Over thirty community groups will be there to share their expertise about everything from astronomy to zoology. Come see their favorite parts of science made accessible to you through demonstrations, craft activities, and interactive games. Perfect for kids up to the age of 10, but all ages are welcome. Kid*Vention will feature stations on meteorology, the human body, the environment, chemistry, and more!

Come on out for a day of free science fun!

TWD Change!

Next week, we had a Teacher Work Day program scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, February 18 and 19, a partnership with Speak! Language Center for a two-day, Spanish immersion class.

Then, we found out that Tuesday is a snow make-up day for both Charlottesville City and Albemarle County School Systems.

So, we are now offering a one-day, half-price version of this program on just Monday, February 18, from 9-3! During this 6 hour program, children will learn Spanish songs and stories as well as entertaining and engaging games in Spanish with teacher Sandra Michalski, a native of Spain. This class motivates children to play and learn the language while having lots of fun! Learning about Spanish culture and traditions through crafts, activities and dancing flamenco makes this class an unforgettable imaginary trip to Spain your children will love.

Pleas call us at 977-1025 to register your child today!

Underwater Art

 School just started back up after the holidays, but the next day off is less than two weeks away! Next Friday, January 18th, is a Teacher Work Day and that mean it's also the next Teacher Work Day program at the museum. This time, the theme is Art from Under the Sea. We’re diving deep to learn about some underwater creatures and making our own versions. We’ll take part in the Whale Mail program, based at the Children’s Museum and Theater of Maine. We’ll see some of their artwork, then send one of our creations back to them.

Kids at the Children's Museum and Theater of Maine have been learning all about humpback whales this year. They made postcards with beautiful watercolor pictures of the whales, which were mailed to children's museums along the east coast, following the humpback whales' migration patterns. Humpback whales can be spotted off the coast of Virginia in the winter, so we are hosting a pod of paper whales here at the Virginia Discovery Museum. Even if you can't come for our Teacher Work Day Program, the whales will be on display through the winter, so stop by to say hi!

The Underwater Art program will be January 18th, from 9-12. It is for ages 5-8 and costs $30 for members and $35 for non-members. Pre-registration is required. We will provide all the materials for the activities and a healthy snack, as well as three hours of fun at the museum! 

Also, keep an eye out for our next Teacher Work Day program, co-sponsored by Speak! Language Center. It's an expanded, 2-day Spanish immersion class on February 18 and 19, from 9-3. Registration is now open for both programs, so give us a call at 977-1025.

Who are they? Young Readers Special Guests

Young Readers is one of our drop in programs and it is run by special guests. These volunteers give their time and talents to share stories with our guests. We love them and wanted you to get a chance to get to know them better, so we sent them all an interview!

Our first guest in December is Carole Gajdosik. Carole is new to Virginia, having grown up in New York City before moving upstate where she lived for more than 30 years. She has a Master's Degree in Early Childhood Education, which she put to use teaching and eventually owning a private pre-school called The Sunshine School. Through her teaching, she became interested in children's literature, especially telling stories through using a flannel board. She says, "I very much enjoy seeing children become engaged in the wonderful fairy tales that have been entertaining children for generations." Her favorite story is Snow White and she also enjoys books about World War II Europe, British novels, and mysteries. She has fond memories of her grandmother reading to her from Grimm's Fairy Tales and she still enjoys love stories with happy endings!
Carole's next visit will be December 1 at 1:00.


Our second Young Readers guest is Trish Reed. Here's what she has to share.

I am Trish Reed, the Ready To Learn Coordinator for WHTJ, Charlottesville's Local Hometown PBS.  I taught kindergarten for thirty-three years in Richmond City and Chesterfield County.  During that time, the best part of the day was story time!  It was always fun to share an adventure, to laugh with funny characters, and to learn from a story.  Among of my favorite memories are reading a few chapters of a book each day and having the children plead to keep reading...even when it was time to go home!!  Some of my favorite chapter books to read to young children are Charlotte's Web, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and The Boxcar Children.  My favorite picture book is The Little Engine That Could. 

Trish's next visit will be December 13th at 10:30. 

Last but certainly not least, new this month, we are welcoming award-winning storyteller Anthony Burcher.  Anthony learned to appreciate storytelling form his father, who was a mechanic in York County, Virginia. Anthony says, "All his customers would get their car fixed, pay my dad and hear a story." Those are still his favorite stories, though he reads anything and everything he finds interesting. Anthony says that he likes telling stories to children because "children still love their imaginations and are much better at putting themselves into a story." He now lives at Makemie Wood Camp and Conference Center near Williamsburg, Virginia, where he enjoys spending time with his children, who aren't children anymore. He has two new books out, 101 Games that Teach Storytelling Skills  and A Very Virginia Christmas, a collection of stories that he contributed to. Find out more about Anthony at www.anthonyburcher.com.

 Anthony will be here on December 20th at 10:30

Teacher Work Days

We had a great time at the museum last Friday at our Teacher Work Day program about pumpkins! Here's some pictures of our activities.

 We took some time to brainstorm design ideas that we could use for our pumpkins and drew them out.

 Then, we estimated how big around our pumpkin was by cutting a string. Estimating is like guessing. It was a challenge to decide how long the string needed to be to reach all the way around the fattest part of the pumpkin. Once everyone had their string, we tested the lengths. We sorted our strings into groups that were too long, too short, or pretty close. We even had to add another group for the strings that were exactly right!

 We were very good at estimating length! You can see that almost all our strings were pretty close or spot on!

 After we estimated length, we estimated how many seeds were in the pumpkin. This was much harder, because we couldn't see inside yet. So, we cut it open. Everyone helped to get the seeds and goo out of the pumpkin, then separate the seeds from the pulp.

 We put the seeds in piles of 10 so that we could count them more easily. We had 522 seeds in our pumpkin!

After our snack and story break, we talked about how Native Americans used dried pumpkin to weave mats. We tried our hand at weaving some place mats of our own, but we used paper instead of pumpkin!

Happy Halloween!

Next Monday is also a Teacher Work Day, so we will be having another Teacher Work Day program. This time, our topic will be Maps and Mazes. Where are you going? How will you get there? Join us as we climb through a giant string maze, interact with some satellite maps, and get excited about geography! Call 977-1025 to register today!

Upcoming Programs at the VDM

Our Meet the Firefighter program was a lot of fun! Engine Co. 5 from Charlottesville Fire Department brought our excited visitors stickers and lots of fire safety information. A big thank you to these friendly firefighters!

In the next few weeks, we're having several more exciting programs! This Saturday is the next Young Readers program, at 2:30 in the Back Gallery. The fabulous Carole Gajdosik will be telling not-so-spooky Halloween stories. Listening to stories is good for developing early literacy skills and is great fun!

Speaking of Halloween, registration is still open for our Halloween parties! Wear your costumes and see the museum transformed into a kooky not-so-haunted house for everyone to enjoy. Come do the monster mash, meet our mad scientists, play some spooky games, and enjoys family time with a night of crafts, activities, and more. This year, we are hosting two parties, on October 26th and 27th, both from 6-7:30. Tickets are $6 for members and $8 for non-members and can be purchased by calling the Museum at 977-1025.

If you purchase your Halloween Party tickets before this Friday at noon, you will be entered in a drawing to win four tickets to this weekend's UVA football game, as well as a parking pass! What a wonderful way to spend a fall afternoon!

Lastly, did you know that October 26th is a Teacher Work Day? There's no school, so it's a great day to come to the Museum. We will be having a special drop-off program from 9-12 where we will be learning all about Pumpkins! Come learn about this fall fruit (yes, fruit!). We'll carve, paint, taste, and learn about the history of pumpkins, and even practice some math skills along the way! Pre-registration is required, so call us at 977-1025 to reserve your spot! This program is for ages 5-8 and costs $30 for members and $35 for non-members. We will provide all the pumpkins and materials, a healthy snack, and three hours of fun!

With all these events coming up, we hope to see you at the VDM soon!

Meet the Firefighters

 In our new Little Cville, we often have firefighters about town. Here's a young firefighter buying stamps at the post office.

This weekend, we are lucky enough to have a professional firefighter coming to visit! As a part of Fire Prevention Week, representatives from the Charlottesville Fire Department will be at VDM sharing information about fire safety. They will even bring a fire engine, as long as it isn't busy on a call! So, stop by the Museum this Saturday at 10:30 to Meet the Firefighter.

Keep an eye out for our new Meet Me on Main Street programs this fall. This program will give visitors a chance to meet different members of our community, like firefighters!

We're Open!

 We have been open for a whole week already! Have you had a chance to come try...

...drawing water from the well?

...relaxing in the Treehouse?

...selling tickets and snacks for a show at the Paramount?

... mailing a letter at the post office?

 ...finding the queen in her new home?

...conducting the railroad?

...selling treats to your friends at Panera?

...practicing the alphabet down the hallway?

 If you haven't yet, now's your chance! We are open Monday-Saturday, 10-5, and we would love to see you here. We can't wait to hear what you think about all our new exhibits!

Joia Tubes

 We are saying goodbye to our old, out of tune pipe organ. It has had various homes around the Museum for the past several years, most recently in the Discovery Garage. We like having somewhere to play music, though, so it is being upgraded.

These are Joia Tubes. They are color coded, light up, and most importantly, in tune! Visitors will be able to play songs by following the notes labeled on the tubes or just make a joyful noise.

The way that the tubes light up is fun for all, but especially great for our hearing impaired visitors. Watching the colors can give us all another view of music.


Since we put them together, staff and volunteers have already been having fun testing them out. Some of us are more musically talented than others, though!