Sleepover at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History

We have a long history with the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. As a toddler, Meg's favorite character was Curious George. We read the books, we watched the television series and we watched the movies. George's museum and his friend, Professor Wiseman, soon became favorites of Meg's. Her celebratory trip for potty training was a trip to the Natural History Museum, where she spent the whole day looking for Professor Wiseman. 

Clare soon joined us on these regular excursions to the Natural History Museum. We were beyond excited when we found Smithsonian lab coats on sale at the the museum store. They immediately became dress up favorites (and can be seen in the first picture above). In fact, we still have the lab coats (six years later) and all the girls still use them. Our friend Nicole and I took Meg and Clare to the Natural History Museum to celebrate Meg's first day of preschool. When we moved to a new home, Nicole returned with the girls to the museum to distract them and give them a sense of the familiar during the move (the middle picture above is from that trip). 

We have long dreamed of doing a sleepover at this second home of ours and we finally got our chance! You may recall that Meg and I participated in a Smithsonian Sleepover at the American History Museum last year. You can read about that here. We thoroughly enjoyed that sleepover, but I am glad we saved the Natural History Museum sleepover for when Clare could join us. 

The Smithsonian Sleepovers are coordinated by the Smithsonian Associates. They do a wonderful job. Each child is given a booklet that contains the various activities to be completed throughout the night. We also received a bag (to hold all the projects), a flashlight/pen and an awesome Indiana Jones-style foam hat. 

Our night began in Ocean Hall, where we learned about bioluminescent fish--sea creatures that make their own light. "Bioluminescent" has become one of our favorite words to say and the girls later chose to sleep in the bioluminescent display area because they became so fond of these creatures. We were able to make our own bioluminescent animal using a small plastic water bottle. We filled the bottle with tissue paper, placed cute eye stickers on the bottle and then placed a light stick in the bottle. 

After making our bioluminescent animals, we moved to the fossil section of Ocean Hall. The girls thoroughly explored the displayed fossils and then set to work making their own fossils. We were each given a ball of clay that we flattened. Then we could choose from a variety of shells and rocks to press into the clay to make a fossil. Finally, we painted our diy fossils to allow the imprints to be better seen.

From fossils, we move on to learning about whales. A huge life-size model of a whale, named Phoenix, hangs over Ocean Hall. Just under this whale, we learned how blubber works. Sitting in the middle of a bucket of ice was a bag containing simulated blubber. Sticking our hands into the bag, we discovered how very warm blubber can keep a whale even in the coldest of water. At this station we also learned about callosities, which are hardened parts on whales skin. Because each whale forms different patterns of callosities, it is a way of tracking a whale once it has returned to the wild. The girls were very excited about a model of a callosity they could touch (see picture below).

On our way out of Ocean Hall we encountered a magician who uses magic to teach science. I very much like this clever use of magic to teach and enjoyed a similar presentation at the American History Museum last year. In the picture below the girls are learning about birds camouflaging their eggs among rocks. 

Our next stop was the Bug Zoo. This area holds a lot of fun memories for us. As a three year old, Meg once wowed a group of elementary students by being willing to hold every huge, ugly bug the docent could bring out. I said to her last night, "This used to be your favorite spot in the museum." She responded, "It still is!" Our activity in this area was to make a cicada noise maker. 

We next went to the Egyptian section. Here we made Egyptian wesekhs, which are those wide collar-like necklaces seen in all Egyptian art. It was an easy craft, but very effective. The shape of the necklace was cut from a paper plate. We added the design by coloring the paper plate with metallic markers. We added string to two holes punched on either side of the plate and we had a wesekh. 

The volunteers in the Egyptian section were wonderful about walking us through the various mummies (both human and animal) on display. We had been in this section many times in the past, but had missed so much. We were particularly fond of the mummified bull (pictured below).  One of the great benefits of the sleepover activities is that they make you look carefully at the exhibits and see them in a new way. 

The dinosaur display was our next stop. Here the girls were given "fossils" which they opened to find an item that provided them with a hint for a particular dinosaur. Meg's hint was a banana-shaped tooth. Clare's hint was a fish. They then gathered information about the various dinosaurs in the exhibit to determine the type of dinosaur. Meg correctly determined the banana-shaped tooth belonged to a T-Rex. Clare correctly identified her dinosaur, but I can't remember the name of the crocodile-type creature. 

After all this serious scientific hypothesizing, it was time to eat like a T-Rex. After choosing between a huge marshmallow and a few pretzels, we were challenged to make our arms short (like a T-Rex) and try to eat. This was not pretty (see below).

After conducting some extensive smell tests, we moved on to Geology. In this area, the girls picked out "rocks" (these were man-made) and then, using a magnet, checked to see if any of their rocks were meteorites. After learning about how weight changes on various planets due to differences in gravity, the girls received astronaut ice cream to try at home. 

By this point in the night, we were getting pretty tired. We completed the mammal questions in the girls' books. A guide walked us through the "cave" in the Human Origins section of the museum and talked about cave art. The girls made hand prints similar to those found on some cave walls. Sadly, we did not make it to the Totem Pole section before the end of activities at 11 p.m.--but that is the only activity we missed.

We set up our air mattresses in Ocean Hall. We had a beautiful view of Phoenix the Whale just above our heads. As you can tell from the smiles on their tired faces, the girls had a wonderful time. Clare cuddled with a stuffed bunny that she had once lost at the museum when she was 2 years old. She thought it was only appropriate that he return to the museum. 

I cannot recommend the Smithsonian Sleepovers enough. These nights have given us so many happy memories. The activities are so wonderful for sparking creativity and imagination. I hope these outings instill a life-long love of museums and learning in our children.