This month we are reading Uni the Unicorn by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and illustrated by Brigette Barrager. Below is the information on how to tune in to our story time (available on the museum Facebook page) as well as a D.I.Y craft to make your own Unicorn horn at home! We hope to see you there!

To ride our 1916 carrousel there are not many rules however you do have to hold on with two hands! So today we are going to be making our own robotic hands and our goal is to be able to hold onto a carousel pole!  This craft is pretty simple to make and only requires a couple household items including...

- Paper
- A pencil
- Scissors
- A few plastic straws (cut into thirds)
- Tape
- String

STEP ONE: Trace your hand on construction paper and cut it out. If you have really small hands you can just  free hand!
STEP TWO:Cut up approximately 5 straws into 3 pieces. These represent our knuckles so they should be representative of them in terms of size and flexibility.
STEP THREE: Tape the straw pieces to the hand, probably about three pieces per finger and feed an individual piece of string through each “knuckle" (You will want to make sure there is a knot at one end so the string stays put)
STEP FOUR:Try and make a loop at the end of each piece of string so it’s easier to pull each finger. By pulling on a single piece of string you should be able to see one finger move.

This week we have a real challenge on our hands! Rapunzel is stuck inside her tower and needs your help to get out! Unfortunately, we only have so many materials at our disposal. Our project this week is to get Rapunzel down from her tower using only the secret materials in the bags provided in our children's gallery. You can work solo or as part of a team of 2 (wearing your masks, of course!). You will only have 30 minutes to complete this task and will be timed by our STEM facilitator.

This weekends project is primarily gaged for guests from the ages of about 5 and up. As always we will have our STEM cart available and interactive exhibits for our younger guests as well!

STEM weekend will be held in the Children's Gallery from 10am to 3pm and is included with museum admission. We hope to see you there!  

Read below if you would like to recreate this project at home!

Our next upcoming STEM project is one that will keep you on your toes to be sure. We will be making a cross weaving pattern with popsicle sticks in order to create an explosive result. The cross weaving pattern allows the popsicle sticks to use their own weight as counter leverage, once released from the weight of your hand the chain reaction results in a whirl wind of popsicle stick fun!

 The museum will be offering this STEM weekend project on August 22nd during the museums operational hours of 10am-3pm. STEM weekends take place in person in our Children's Gallery. If you cannot make it in to the museum this weekend you can try recreating this experiment at home. All you need is popsicle sticks and a little bit of patience! Follow the instructions below and make sure if you decide to post about your at home projects you tag us by using the hashtag #HCFM on social media.

​INSTRUCTIONS FOR AT HOME CREATIONS:
1. Lay down two sticks, one laying vertically leaning slightly to the left (Stick A) and the second placed horizontally across the bottom (stick B) of stick A with a sliver of stick A still visible
2. Lay a third stick (stick C) over stick B , laying parallel to stick A
3. Lay a fourth stick (stick D) through the two parallel sticks under stick A but over stick C. Stick D should meet with stick B and form an angle. 
4. Continue on the over and under pattern as you go. You may notice you have to continually move the sticks closer together.
5. Use your hand to add pressure to the sticks and keep them from prematurely exploding but once you have laid all of the sticks down you can move your hand and create a popsicle stick explosion

If you are more of visual learner you might want to try this Cobra Weave Popsicle Stick Chain Reaction instructional Youtube video linked below. 

We look forward to seeing all of your creations!!

September is the time for new beginnings. Students are heading back to school (both remotely and in person) , the trees are starting to shed their leaves showing their first signs of fall and everything is made of apples and pumpkins again. This might just be my favorite time of the year (spoiler alert I love all the times of the year)! But to get the fall started off right lets read a story of acceptance, love and the power of imagination.

This month we are reading Uni the Unicorn written by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and illustrated by Brigette Barrager. This is a beautiful story about a little girl who is mocked for her belief in unicorns and a similar story of a unicorn who is mocked for her belief in little girls. Uni the Unicorn is an uplifting story to remind people of all ages to never stop believing in their dreams.

Story time will be held both in person at the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum as well as via Facebook live! This months craft is a DIY Unicorn horn! Check down below for step by step instructions to make your own horn at home!

Hope to see you all there!
Xx Miss Lauren 

This weeks STEM activity is an interactive game called Mockup. In this game participants will be prompted a challenge by drawing a card from three categories that create a dilemma and asked to create an invention to solve their particular problem. I personally played this game with two of my friends and our problem was that "superheroes" needed a way to "detect poison" using something "magnetic" (see the picture below to see our example)! The problem was a difficult one but we had two minutes to draw a sketch of our invention on a white board and show it to the group to compare and contrast our ideas. We created some great outlandish inventions and it was so interesting to see the different trains of thought collaborating on this idea. 

Alternatively I have also come up with this great quiet time activity inspired by 'What Miss Mitchell Saw' and the popular 'I Spy' series. I had a left over jar (thanks Bread Hive!) though I recommend plastic in case we drop them. I filled mine with glitter, star sequins, and foam space stickers I stuck together, black beans, and dyed rice. The stars, black beans, dyed rice, and glitter were meant to give it the feel of the night sky! Before assembling the 'hidden' objects, my space foam pieces, I made a list, can you find: Two orange planets, a planet with three rings, four astronauts, etc.

But you can make your jar any theme, with any 'hidden' objects. Small toys, Dollar Tree items, Marbles, etc. filled with beans, rice, glitter, or Styrofoam pellets! What will you make?

Ps, to dye my rice for my jar (or sensory bins!) I use this great recipe below:

2020 we have been doing a lot of updates. With more updates in the works in our Children's Gallery, we are not offering all of our classic HCFM Coloring pages available now for free download, happy coloring!