Embracing the cold . . . all year long

The weather in New England is always interesting on any given day, but this winter has been especially memorable. When it’s not snowing close to two feet of snow causing people (and cars, buildings, Giant Blue Crabs, etc.) to be totally buried in the fluffy white stuff, it’s in the mid-50’s with families walking, jogging and playing outside.

At CMNH, we offer a safe and warm facility for families to enjoy – especially on those sub-zero Polar vortex days we’ve recently experienced. On moderate winter days, one of our favorite activities is guiding families into Henry Law Park in front of our building and creating Snow Art!

Our visitors use spray bottles full of non-toxic watercolor paint and water to decorate the landscape in Henry Law Park

But whether the weather is freezing, windy, hailing or sizzling, one of the most popular indoor activities we run at CMNH is Ice Art. When we set up larger Ice Art projects (consisting of several tubs of ice) they can be worked on in the Muse Studio, while our smaller ones (usually one tub with one large or several smaller pieces of ice) can be found in the Naturalist Study near the CochecoNature exhibit on the first floor of the museum.

Parents & children (and staff!) experiment with cups of colored saltwater to see how their actions affect the ice.

– Does the salt make the ice melt faster or slower?

– What is the advantage of using a pipette to administer the solution?

– Do colors mix the same way on ice/water as they do on paper?

– How does an items density affect how it freezes inside the ice?

– How much time do you think it will take to free a trapped treasure from the ice?

– How do you make stripes of color – or a rainbow – in the ice without the colors mixing?

Through the help of our visitors, here’s some knowledge we’ve gleaned thus far in our years of ice exploration:

– Some dice floated to the top before freezing while some sunk.

– Glitter always floats before freezing.

– We had to weight the plastic sharks so they would freeze in the center of the ice.

– Ribbon is fun to freeze. Fabric is not fun to freeze.

– Pencils are fun to freeze. Pens are not fun to freeze.

– Plastic bugs look cool trapped in ice. Plastic food looks gross trapped in ice.

– Colors that slowly drip from one section of ice to another can create cool swirling effects. Too many colors in the ice at once causes brown and gray water. Yuck.

– Freezing different colors side-by-side takes a few days as each color must be frozen on its own first.

– The plastic human brain mold was our most popular ice shape. (Sadly, human brain mold developed a crack last year and had to be retired.)

– Visitors most favorite trapped ice objects are – hands down – plastic dinosaurs of all shapes and sizes.

Ice Art is an inexpensive, fun activity that can be done at home with Plastic containers, small cups, pipettes or paint brushes, table salt and watercolor paint or food coloring (but we recommend the paint as it washes off easier). The bigger the shape that you’re freezing, the more time it will need in the freezer. Museum Educators often set up their ice projects at the end of the museum day to be ready for the following morning.

Enjoy this short video of some of our most interesting ice art that we’ve seen at CMNH!

Zach once ate so many coconut flavored popsicles in a row that everything he ate for six months tasted like coconut.

It’s time to meet another member of the Experience Guide Staff at the Children’s Museum of New Hampshire!

Sarah is at CMNH the majority of the week and can usually be found hip deep in arts and crafts supplies in the Muse Studio. You may have even heard Sarah’s voice while you were shopping for a pair of jeans. Yes, you read that right! Sarah has a lot to say so let’s jump right in and find out more!

Zach: Sarah, how long have you worked at the Children’s Museum of New Hampshire?

Sarah: I’ve been at the museum since October – so about 11 months!

Z: Why CMNH?

S: I’ve always loved working with kids and when I saw that CMNH was hiring I thought it would be a great opportunity to do different activities and exploration with families each day. I loved that each day would be a new and different experience! The other part of that daily surprise is the fact that I get to teach each day. Interactive teaching with the visitors is the highlight of my job.

Z: What originally brought you to New Hampshire?

S: I came to Dover because I was accepted in to the Masters of Fine Arts program at UNH in Durham. My focus is Creative Writing – specifically Poetry.

Z: Where did you complete your undergrad studies?

S: I attended Columbia University in New York City. My focus in undergrad was Creative Writing but I also spent much of my time at Columbia attending and participating in musical performances. I’ve been studying voice since I was six-years old so I definitely enjoyed working with classical music and opera at Columbia.

Z: Wow! You may likely be our only Experience Guide with an opera background! Tell me, what – if any – experience did you have working with families before your time here at CMNH?

S: For many, many years, I taught at a musical theater summer camp in my hometown of Allentown, New Jersey.

This Way to Allentown!

Z: That sounds like a lot of fun!

S: Yes! “Musical Theater Magical Camp” was a very enjoyable place to work!

Z: Wow! With a name like that it sounds even more fun!

S: It really was a lot of fun. Each session ran for 3 weeks and was open to children from 5-12 years old. We would spend Week One getting to know each other, learning about theater, playing games and becoming comfortable with being on stage. We would cast a full musical in Week Two and then teach them choreography, design and make the costumes, and create the set. Then, after rehearsing throughout Week Three, we would put on a performance on the last day for the entire camp and all of the returning families.

Curtains up on the, “Pirates: The Musical” set, circa 2009

Z: Did any of the children ever experience stage fright?

S: Oh, yes! We would often get parents who would sign their children up for our camp in an attempt to kind of bring them out of their shell. These are the children that would be quite shy at the start of camp; often they would be the younger campers. Which made it such a wonderful process that at the end of three weeks we’d be able to see these kids that had entered the process unsure of themselves and their abilities come out on stage and blow us away with their confidence!

Z: I’m currently working on a production myself this summer outside of CMNH and I’m having some trouble with a few of the actors hitting their spots and remembering their lines. Can I recruit you to come and fill them full of your trademark confidence??

S: Well, I’m pretty busy at the museum this summer but we’ll see what I can do!

Z: Sarah, switching gears a bit, I’d like to know if you or your family visited museums when you were growing up?

S: We did. We went to a ton of museums as a family. My father is a software developer and he has worked on a number of projects and exhibits for museums. He and his brothers did most of hardware and software for the Sony Wonder Museum in New York when it first opened.

Z: “New York” meaning New York City?

S: Yes! Right on Madison Avenue! I was able to explore the museum before they officially opened to the public while my father worked on different projects and exhibits.

Z: How old were you?

S: About 6 or 7.

Z: I’m jealous.

S: [Laughs.] You should be! My dad has worked with a number of museums since then and I actually got to do some voice-over work on one of his projects.

Z: I’m somehow even more jealous now. What was the voice work?

S: It was an exhibit for the Children’s Museum of Houston that was also getting installed at the Liberty Science Center in New Jersey. It was a Magic School Bus weather-based exhibit. I provided the voices for two of the children in the Magic School Bus.

All Aboard the Magic School Bus!

Z: Wow!

S: He also worked for the Levi’s flagship store in Union Square in San Francisco – so for a long time, I was the voice of many of their in-store kiosks.

Z: Did you actually get to travel to San Francisco?

Sarah’s voice will help you buy your next pair of jeans!

S: I did! The whole family spent the summer in San Francisco.

Z: And how old were you then?

S: I was 12 years old and it was wonderful to be there for the whole summer. We really got to know the city.

Z: I have to ask – did you visit any museums?

S: We did. We went to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. It . . . well . . .

Z: Yes?

S: It was actually . . . an interesting experience.

Z: I’m going to need you to tell me more than that!

S: Yes. Well. They had a number of installations that were very advanced and were . . . well, perhaps a little over my 12-year old head.

Z: I see. Well, Sarah, please tell us: What is your favorite museum in the world?

S: That’s a really tough question to answer. I very much love the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. I visited it constantly while at Columbia. But . . . I’d have to say that the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, NJ will always hold a special place in my heart. When my father was working on the Magic School Bus exhibit, my friend and I were allowed to be at the museum before and after hours and we were given free access to all of the IMAX shows. Most importantly, we were allowed to wear V.I.P. necklaces. [Laughs.]

Z: I always knew you were a V.I.P.! Sarah, what is your favorite exhibit at CMNH and why?

S: My favorite exhibit is probably the Muse Studio. I love the way we’ve been able to mix artistic creativity with scientific exploration. You’ll see families and staff drawing, painting and collaging conjoined with learning how a prism works and how a lima bean plant grows. It’s definitely the part of the museum that, as a child, you would have had difficulty getting me to leave.

The Museum Blog

Category: Art

When Ice is Nice

Embracing the cold . . . all year long

Meet the CMNH Experience Guides: Sarah

Heads Up!