Minnesota Children's Museum

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Community Outreach

Sparking Our Community’s Learning Through Play

Minnesota Children’s Museum strives be to an integral community, educational and cultural assets that sparks children's discovery of their world through interactive play and learning experiences.

The Museum partners with schools and community organizations to create educational programs, provide parent-child education classes and offer free admission to low-income families. By working within our community, and offering targeted programs that impact children in their early years, the Museum is investing in the future of Minnesota.

Supporting Early Literacy Learning

In 2010, Minnesota Children's Museum, in collaboration with Dakota County, Hennepin County and Saint Paul Public libraries into immersive, interactive, Smart Play Spots.

The installation of these exhibits marked the first phase of a multi-year strategic plan to extend the Museum's learning environments into community locations such as libraries. Smart Play Spots encourage children's literacy development through hands-on, multi-sensory activities that include dramatic play, story telling, and playing with letters and sounds. Clear messages also inspire adults with ideas and information on how to promote a love of reading and build pre-literacy skills in young children.

Building on the success of the first three Smart Play Spots, funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the Museum will continue to complement the best elements of children's museum learning environments with community partnerships to advance children's literacy development and expand the project to Greater Minnesota.

Over the next three years, the Museum will develop and install 15 more Smart Play Spots. In addition, an appropriation from the State of Minnesota Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund of the Legacy Amendment, will support a tour of the recently developed Storyland: A Trip Through Childhood Favorites exhibit to at least nine sites. The Museum's site selection process ensures access to low-income populations where children face the greatest educational disparity in school readiness.