Looking for a fun free activity to do with the kids? Museum Playtime is a great way to keep the tribe entertained.
We took the tribe this week to visit Museum Playtime at the Discovery Zone in the State Library of WA. It was a fantastic opportunity to let my boys guide the way through some free unstructured play. The Western Australian Museum is currently having a makeover and doors open in 2020.
Parking was a breeze and we located a spot right at the front of the State Library. There are easy accessible ramps for prams and wheelchairs. There is also pram parking inside the Discovery Zone.
First stop at Museum Playtime was the ‘Become a Paleontologist’ activity where we could use a brush to discover a fossil. The tribe could also dress up in an Akubra hat and outfit to make sure they were really embracing the part. Second stop was a FROG ID; there were preserved frogs in jars and facts about the Frogs of South Western, Western Australia.
There was a station where we could look at objects such as butterflies and insects with a special microscope and examine their patterns on a big screen. We also used the microscope to examine our skin up close! There were wooden puzzles to make different types of crabs and we used event and creature cards to examine marine organisms though a touch screen.
Our favourite part of the discovery zone were the draws full of different objects and animals locked away in glass trays. Each draw had something exciting inside such as spiders, bugs and snakes just to name few!
We could make our own animal tracks in sand trays, used paper to do our own drawings and egg trays to cut out and make whatever you like. We made a volcano!
There was a mat on the floor for extra free play and a cargo corner that looked at some of the objects from the WA’S Shipwreck coast. There was a Sumatran Asian Elephant and human skeleton that we could touch and examine which encouraged us to talk about what is inside your body.
Anna who works for the museum is also extremely knowledgeable and knows everything about bugs so she helped us look at x-rays though a light box. She is a really handy person to help get all of your answers and she helped us with lots of ideas on how to enjoy our playtime.
There is so much to do in the Discovery Zone at the WA Museum and I would recommend taking your tribe there to explore, learn and play. The activities are linked to the Early Years Learning Framework and provided us with lots to talk about for the rest of the day.
