Join an interdisciplinary panel of museums and dive into a session devoted to early learners and strategies to work with these youngest visitors (and their families) in a variety of settings and subjects. Each institution will share successes in their content area, and participants will walk away with a set of new strategies and tools to use with their own early learners.

1. Program Strategies for Early Learners:
Three Museums, Three Models
Sondra Snyder
Education and Youth Programs Manager
Clare Tally- Foos
On-site and Outreach Educator
Julia Miller
Director of Learning & Public Programming

2. Who are we?
Sondra Clare Julia
Former early learners and current museum
professionals excited about education!

3. Why we LOVE early learners!

4. Early Learners
What do we mean when we refer to Early
Learners?
Early Learners are young humans, who have been
on this planet 2-5 years.
Think of them as explorers to a strange new world
–because they are rapidly making sense of the
world around them, on their own terms, based on
the data (experiences) they are exposed to.

5. These years are incredibly important for humans because of
the rapid cognitive, physical, and social development.
Imagine an infant, then imagine five year old. Think about all
the changes that happen between those points.
In a little over 2,000 days we go from totally dependent on our
caregivers to going off to school in outfits that we picked out
ourselves and making our own friends.
1,261 days from arriving to
rocking that sparkly
dolphin t-shirt

6. Play is foundational for future
academic & social readiness.
Developmental
Area
Sensory System
Fine & Gross
Motor Skills
Cognitive Skills
Communication
Skills
Social-Emotional
Skills
Screen sensory input
Body control
(head, neck, trunk)
Problem Solving New vocabulary Self-regulation
Hand-eye
coordination
Logic Literacy skills
Self-esteem &
confidence
Motor Planning Calculated risk taking
Outlets for anxiety &
stress
Imagination Sharing
Practicing daily living
activities
Navigating group
dynamics (turn taking)

7. Early Learners in Museums

8. Brief History
• The first children’s museums were founded at the turn of the century
– Brooklyn Children’s Museum: 1899
– Boston Children’s Museum: 1913
• A Children’s Room was installed in the Smithsonian Castle in 1901

9. Early Learners in Museums
Why and how can more traditional museums (art, history,
science, etc.) serve the unique needs of early learners?
Why?
• Museums support lifelong learning
• Great location for family learning
• Creating museum visitors of the
future
How?
• Object-centered learning
• Inquiry-based
• Family focused

10. miniMOHAI – Case study # 1
Drop –in programming
Early learners and their grown-ups play and learn together at our museum
Sondra Snyder
Education and Youth Programs Manager
sondra.snyder@mohai.org

11. miniMOHAI
A drop in experience for early learners and their grown-ups.
Participants engage in a variety of interactive pop-up exhibits around the
museum using sensory bins, dramatic play, storybooks, gross and fine motor
stations, and a craft.
miniMOHAI takes place
every Monday in July and
August from 10 am—1 pm.

12. Program Learning Goals
• Develop fine and gross motor skills
• Develop and practice language –
including theme specific vocabulary
• Practice social skills – with other kids
and their grown-ups
• Engage in thematic creative play
through a variety of types of play
• Engage the grown-ups in their early
learner’s experience and support their
role as a participant

14. Early Learners and their Grown-Ups
Young humans and their grown-ups can move between the stations-
staying as long as they want at each station.
Staff are there to ensure safety, to
be welcoming and to help adults
engage.
We want the grown-ups to participate
in the activity with their child.
We want them to see themselves as
the key part of their young human’s
learning journey.

15. Staff and Volunteer Training
https://www.margaretmiddleton.com/family-inclusion
Gender-Inclusive
Language:
Hi Friends!
Greetings Folks!
How are you all doing
today?
Being mindful of
not saying
Hey Guys!”
How are you doing
today, girls?
Not making assumptions
Modeling Questions:
What do you see?
What do you think will happen?
What happened when…?
Why do you think that happened?
What do you think would happen
if you…. ?

16. This Model at Your Institution
Drop in activities are a great way to engage your early
learner audience:
• allows child to self-direct their learning- they can explore what they want for
as long as they want
• supports child / grown-up learning opportunities and memory making
• allows for engaging with content in a way that is comfortable ( I prefer
blocks, you prefer painting..)
• could provide a new method of exploration
• allows children to interact with other children- outside their circle
• allows for you to be responsive to audience needs or wants or learning
moments

17. This Model at Your Institution
Cautions –
• A drop in coloring table alone is not enough -there are plenty of ways to
engage this audience
• Don’t lock in to an activity- allow yourself the grace to respond to how your
audience is engaging- if it isn’t working, try something else
• Young humans aren’t dumb, don’t fall into the trap that this is a throw-away.
They have needs and wants. Respect this critical developmental stage
• Give the grown-ups something to engage with- bored or uncomfortable
grown-ups aren’t going to play – scaffold for them too!
• Don’t let it get stale- if you have repeat guests, they will want new ways to
engage

18. Fossett Adventurers

19. Program Goals
In this program, students will:
• explore how the size and shape of an insect’s wing affect its
flight
• name the parts of an insect and explore how individual parts
make up a whole
• identify differences between insects and non-insects
• For organized (or semi-organized) groups of early learners
• 1-hour program with three 15 minute activity rotations
Program Format

20. Program Introduction
• All participants together, educator led
• Talk about insects the group knows
about, match pictures, name parts in a
song
• Physical movement to help remember
vocabulary

21. Bees On the Loose!
• Identify parts of a plane
• Engage in imaginative play
to find hidden bees around
an airplane
• Matching numbers,
identifying parts of a whole

22. Wing Size Experiment
• See how paper insects of different
sizes move in a vertical wind tunnel
• Decorate their insects
• Explore and experiment with airflow

23. Insect Investigation
• Use real scientific tools to
investigate similarities and
differences
• Identify an insect by its parts
• Group objects based on
similarities and differences or
other categories

24. Involve Chaperones
• During the Introduction, we invite all adults to help sing our song!
• In each station, teachers model open-ended question asking and
invite chaperones to support whatever activity is happening.

25. Build a Field Trip!
• Small, short activities.
• Give opportunities to practice skills, not necessarily learn content:
• Sorting
• Matching
• Imaginative play
• Describing
• Observing
• Link activities and collections to things early learners know about!

26. Case Study #3
Early Childhood Summer Camp
Littler Artists Camp at Bellevue Arts Museum

27. Program Goals
• Campers will identify as artists.
• Campers will make creative choices.
• Campers will experiment with art materials and tools.
• Campers will understand how to safely explore in museum galleries.
• Campers will make connections between their own art-making and art they see in
the galleries.

28. Program Structure
• One week camp, Monday-Friday, Half Day
▪ 3 hrs in the morning, 9am-12pm
▪ Art show for families on the last day
• 10-12 campers
• 1-2 instructors and 1-2 volunteers
▪ The more grownups, the better!

29. Time Type of Activity Specifics
9:00 – 9:15 Check-In, Free Art/Sensory Bins
Giant coloring sheet, Magnet
bins
9:15 – 9:30 Story Time
Eating the Alphabet by Lois
Elhert
9:30 – 10:00 Art Project Vegetable Printing
10:00 – 10:15 Snack Time
10:15 – 10:30 Game/Outside Play Sneaky Statues, Animal Yoga
10:30 – 11:00 Gallery Tour Tour Alex Katz with Docent
11:00 – 11:15 Story Time I am an Artist by Marta Altes
11:15 – 11:45 Art Project Contrast Self-portraits
11:45 – 12:00 Pack up & Sign out

30. Simple Self-Portraits

32. Cozy Nests

34. The Very Hungry Caterpillar

35. Open-ended Activities

36. Loop in families!

37. Applications to other institutions:
• Utilize books
• Don’t be afraid of using exhibitions/galleries
• Balance structure + choice
• Could easily be replicated as a drop-in story time

38. Time to play!
For 20 minutes, try out our early
learner program examples – spend
time at one, two, or visit all three.
Featured activities
• Very Hungry Caterpillar Water
Colors
• Insect Investigation
• Fruit Pie Exploration
We’ll come back together for a final
debrief and any questions.

39. What next steps will you take to engage early learners in your institution?
What resources for early learners do you have already? What resources do you
need? Who will support you?
When do you want to achieve your next steps? What is your timeline?
Lightbulb Moments:
1)
2)

40. Thanks!
Sondra Clare Julia
sondra.snyder@mohai.org ctally-foos@museumofflight.org juliam@bellevuearts.org