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Kidcity's exhibits celebrate the art of playing pretend! They are great for kids ages one to eight, and the grown-ups who love them.
WEST BUILDING
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The Ship - Hoist the sails and climb aboard, our clipper ship tells the story of Middletown's heyday as a shipping port in the early 1800's - although young sailors will be excused for imagining themselves on a pirate ship.
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The Farm - Play hide & seek with the chicken's eggs or pet the pigs at feeding time in our Farm Yard. Designed just for crawlers and beginning walkers, it's a place for parents to let the littlest ones see what can happen when they can touch everything they want. Siblings will enjoy big-kid adventures in the nearby Apple Tree House.
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Main Street - The heart of Middletown, just the right size for kids' imaginations to run. Jump in the front seat of our VW Bug and go for a ride on Old Main Steet. At Markets on Main, tiny citizens imagine themselves shopping for fresh-baked bread, italian sausage, and salad greens at one of our Main Street Groceries, and then ring up the sale at the checkout counter. Sort the mail at The Post Office, or push the wooden trains across the railroad bridge. The classic Downtown Diner encourages kids to tie on an apron and invent a feast to serve their favorite grown-up at a nearby booth.
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Musical Planet: A playground of sound from around the world, the Musical Planet has a ride-on see-saw that sounds like a rain-stick from Brazil, a mural of an African drummer that is really a giant xylophone that you can play, a Swiss Mountain that hides a bellows-powered pipe organ in a cave, and a rope bridge and monkey bars lined with Indonesian gongs.
This
exhibit will occassionally be closed during the summer of 2006 for
repairs. Please call the museum for daily details.
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Video Theater - Not a place to watch performances... a place to invent them! Simple camera controls are at kids' fingertips, and there is a changing assortment of costumes and puppets.
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Reading Room - We put our favorite books here, from the newest titles for
babies to the classics that grandparents will remember. A great place to
curl up and read, in a room that's decorated like Arietty's bedroom from
Mary Norton's The Borrowers.
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EAST BUILDING
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Space Age Roadtrip: Time travel back to 1962, with a twist. What if the US Space Program
worked so well that when our rocketships went to outer space, they brought
back company! Play pretend with us as we imagine friendly alien tourists
and weird technology mixed in with the usual roadside attractions on old
Route 66. The local coffee shop serves fog, the car dealership sells
flying saucers, and the family station wagon is powered with bubbles.
Don't tell the kids they're learning about science while they play!
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Toddler Sea Caves: For children ages 3 and younger, this under-sea world is filled with tiny caves to explore, a miniature ballroom lined with mirrors to dance in, and a slide sized just for toddlers. This is a sock-only area to help keep the floors pristine for crawlers.
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The Cornfield: We plan to plow up this imaginary cornfield in the future, but for now, we've tucked lots of fun activities into the maze. An incredible model railway layout can be viewed by climbing up into a hot-air balloon basket, an old-fashioned kitchen and market garden are fun places to color and play store, a block-building area inspires budding architects and a word-filled school room welcomes pre-school poets. We'll keep changing activities until it's time to build our next permanent exhibit in this top-floor room.
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ABOUT OUR EXHIBITS
Kidcity's one-of-a-kind exhibits are developed by a creative team led by
Kidcity's founder, Jennifer Alexander. Lead artists and builders have
included Ted Esselstyn (Appleloosa Artworks), Scott Kessel (Kessel Arts),
and Matt Niland (Plantsville Carpentry), with assistance from dozens of
artists, carpenters, parents and grandparents who help where needed. We
hope you come play soon!
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