Arizona Museum for Youth

Last week I went on a preschool field trip to the Arizona Museum of Youth in downtown Mesa. The museum is a fun hands-on museum geared toward children.

Right when you enter the museum there is a playroom for children four and under. This was definitely our favorite part of the museum. There are lots of different activities in this room that my daughter loved.

This is a view of the kids playroom.
They have an art room, a stage with lots of puppets, a play kitchen, and a reading room that is better furnished than my house!
One of my favorite parts of the museum was the giant light wall. I wanted to stay and play there all day. It really brought me back to my childhood playing with a lite bright.
 
The current  exhibit at the museum is the Art of Warner Brothers Cartoons. They have over 160 drawings, paintings, cels, and other art from the making of the Warner Bros. classic cartoons.

The drawings and art didn’t hold much interest of my nearly 4 year old but there were a few really big hits. There was an amazing black light room with puzzle pieces that fit into the wall. Each piece was a ACME brand trap that Wile E Coyote tried to use to get the road runner. We some how had that room to ourselves for nearly 20 minutes and my daughter put every last piece into the wall. It was a lot of fun.

They also had a green screen area where you could dress up in costumes like Bugs Bunny, Tweety Bird, and Taz. A camera projected you onto a few monitors that ran a loop of Looney Tunes cartoons.
My favorite part of the Warner Bros. exhibit was the stop motion station.

First you chose your characters and your backdrop. Then using the computer console you can create your own Stop Action Film.

Overall we had a great time at the museum. I think we spent close to two hours there and we saw and played with everything. I enjoyed that while it was a children’s museum, there were several things that I enjoyed seeing as well. 

If you are interested in attending the Arizona Mueum for Youth, you can visit their website HERE.
The Warner Bros exhibit will be on display until January 22, 2012. The next exhibit coming to the museum is called “Wing It! All Things that Fly.” I can’t wait to see what sort of fun activities they have in store for that one. 

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