Two young visitors chatted with us while playing in the new exhibit Dinosaurs: Land of Fire and Ice.



Share any videos you may have taken from the Dinosaurs exhibit!

There's no escaping holiday music and carols these days. Whether standing in line at the coffee shop, passing a display at the store, or choirs gathered at the street corner: seasonal music is everywhere!

Here's a book list full of musical fun for your little ones:

The Happy Hedgehog Band, Jill Barton
To Be A Drum, Evelyn Coleman
The Drums of Noto Hanto, J. Alison James
Max Found Two Sticks, Brian Pinkney
The Leopard’s Drum, Jessica Souhami
What’s That Sound, Woolly Bear, Philemon Sturges

It's now December 4, and around the time that Minnesotans start wanting snow. All of those snowpeople, snow forts, and snow angels to be made! Not to mention all that snow shoeing, skiing and snowboarding -- Minnesotans know how to make the most out of winter!

Here's a list of cold-day books to get you in a good mood for the winter:

Snow Dance by Lezlie Evans
Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin
The Mitten: A Ukrainian Folk Tale by Jan Brett
The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats

These are some of our favorites. Does your family have others that we missed?

Now that you're home from all that exhaustive Black Friday shopping, it's time for a little bubble fun!

The Museum’s bubble area in the World Works gallery is one of the its most popular spots. Bubbles are a great way to discover gravity, air, cause and effect, surface tension and geometric structures. Play along as your child explores properties of bubbles through play!

Make your own bubbles at home and then experiment using strawberry baskets, slotted spoons and other objects as bubble wands. You can make your own bubble wands using pipe cleaners. Just shape one end into a loop for the bubbles, dip and blow!

Don’t have any potential bubble wands lying around? Use your hands! Form your hands into a triangle like. Dip you hands into bubble solution and blow. How many bubbles can you make in one minute? What would happen if we made a really BIG bubble?

Homemade Bubble Solution:

You will need:
1 cup dish soap (original Dawn works well)
12 cups water
*Optional: 2 tablespoons Glycerin (from a drugstore)

Gently stir all ingredients together in a bucket and let bubble solution sit overnight for best results.

As children begin to learn how to read, it is beneficial to have a non-judgmental, safe place to practice reading out loud. That’s why we are really excited about our new Dog Tales program. During Dog Tales, children have the opportunity to read to a dog from the Pals on Paws chapter of Therapy Dogs International. Therapy Dogs are highly trained to be friendly, calm, adaptable to new environments, and very attentive to the children reading to them. They even get an identification card. Check out Annie’s ID!

Dog Tales begins at home with children practicing reading a favorite book. Parents can then sign up for their children online for Saturday’s Dog Tales program. A certificate can be printed out and presented at the Museum. Don’t forget to bring your favorite practice book along!

However, don’t worry if you didn’t have time to practice this month – you can still come and read to one of the dogs. We’ll have books available to read including picture books for pre-readers. There are also opportunities to read to the dogs on December 19 and January 16.

We hope you can come, curl up with one of these gentle and amazing animals, and enjoy watching your child get excited to read to them.