Hands-on Discovery
Habitot's hands on exhibits and indoor play areas are especially
for infants, toddlers and young children. The museum's six
small-scale theme exhibits create a learning, discovery and
play space for kids and their families. Fun exhibits encourage
parent child interactions with multi-sensory learning games
and activities. Exhibits reflect the ethnically diverse and
environmentally sensitive Bay Area community.Exhibits are
open daily. Animated
Exhibits Tour
Exhibit News
Firehouse Exhibit Opens!
Habitot's new "Firehouse" exhibit opens in the main stage area on October 1, thanks to a grant from the Fireman's Fund Insurance Company, a Company of Allianz.
Young children - both girls and boys - love to be heroes in their imaginary play, helping others and being powerful, strong and capable. "Firehouse" features a small-scale firetruck, a pretend burning building, a fire hydrant with fire hose and nozzle, a 911 call box, and a fire station housing costumes, boots and helmets, ride-upons and other fire safety props. The lead sponsorship gift from Fireman's Fund will also underwrite a fire safety event and a Free Admission Day scheduled for October 25. Firefighters from the Berkeley Fire Department will visit as well that day.
The exhibit is greatly enhanced from its 1998 appearance at Habitot due in part to the participation of students at San Francisco's Art Institute who created a model for a revamped exhibit for Tim Jonas' fall 2008 design class. Master fabricator, Michael Faw, also developed design elements and is a genius in finding materials for exhibit enhancement. The design students' model is on display in the corridor window.
Donations are still needed to cover the full cost of the remodel and for additional elements designed but not yet funded:
Pizza Kitchen Exhibit
We are sorry to report that on July 21, our neighbor, the Hall of Health, closed its doors, having lost its funding. Over the years, many of our visitors have enjoyed its hands-on health exhibits. Habitot will take possession of two of the Hall's exhibits, including the "Pizza Kitchen."
Habitot would like to consider expanding into a portion of the Hall's vacated space to generate more earnings. Please contact Director, Gina Moreland at habitot@lmi.net or 510-647-1111 x 11 if you have ideas or can help.
Back to the Farm Opened January 2009
Behind the Scenes... Creating "Back to the Farm"
Habitot’s new “Back to the Farm” exhibit helps young children learn about where our food comes from – and how much work goes into collecting and transporting harvested food to stores and to our tables. The exhibit is greatly enhanced from its 1999 appearance at Habitot, thanks to the participation of students at San Francisco’s Art Institute who created a model for a revamped exhibit for Tim Jonas’ fall 2008 design class. The student design project is on display in the corridor window on your way into Habitot. Back to the Farm features a small-scale barn with chicken coop, a fishing pond, apple orchard, ride-upon horse, hay bale stacking activity and John Deere tractors.
The exhibit was partially funded by the rental fee for the Rocketship exhibit, which has been loaned to the Charles M. Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa through July 2009. Donations are still needed to cover the full cost of the remodel and to add additional elements designed but not yet funded. Read more about our newest exhibit in our January eNewsletter.
Return of Rocketship & Mission Control Exhibit
How you can Help!
We need to raise approximately $4,500 to restore and bring Habitot's popular Rocketship and Mission Control into the Museum this Spring. We'd also like to add some new components like a mini planetarium for star-gazing and looking at planets. If you can donate funds or access community resources to help us bring back this extremely popular exhibit, we'll recognize you (or your company) as a sponsor, and enter you in a drawing for a complete child's astronaut costume and space helmet.
Please contact Gina at habitot@lmi.net, or 510-647-1111 x11. The sky's the limit!
Current Exhibits
Waterworks
The Water play gallery offers three components: river
ramp for creating and damming streams; a pumping station problem
solving activity and a water table filled with waterwheels,
buckets with holes, pitchers and fishing rods; activities
help young children formulate scientific concepts of gravity
and motion, the power of falling water, and pumping.Surrounding
walls offer mural-making with foam blocks on a water/ocean
theme.
Drop-in Art Studio
Every day, a new activity in Habitot's Drop-in Art
Studio! Come prepared to "get messy" with creative,
open-ended art -- just what young children need for brain
development and hands-on skills. The studio features an enormous
paintable wall for murals and group painting projects; a sculpture
table with clay, play-doh, gak or other sculpture material;
and a mixed-media table offering collage, printing, finger
painting, foam painting, recycled art, paper mache -- a different
activity every day. The studio is staffed full-time with knowledgeable
art educators.
Family Art Days - Takes place on Sundays, September through
May
The Annual Preschool
Art Show - Begins in January!
Hands-on
Art Studio Program - Learn more!
Hands-on
Art Studio Gallery
Little Town Grocery & Café
Small-scale shopping carts, fruits, vegetables and
breads sorted into grocery bins, and cash registers create
the context of a grocery, while at the adjacent counters,
on bar stools and at tables of the café, parents and
children order from menus and serve food to customers; experiences
in this exhibit facilitate social learning and parent-child
interactions. Some of the items in the grocery bins, plastic
sushi rolls, matzo bread, burritos and mangos, have sparked
conversations between families identifying foods common to
their cultures.
Infant-Toddler Garden
A picket fence/gated area especially for infants, crawlers
and early walkers. Floor to ceiling murals and softly carpeted
floor surround the very young with the images of a garden;
interactives like a wooden carrot patch for harvesting and
replacing carrots, a Velcro wall of soft block shapes, a pretend
pond and a butterfly mobile provide appropriate tactile and
visual stimulation for infants. The culture of food, gardening
and agriculture is well-developed in the Bay Area and this
exhibit introduces these themes in developmentally-appropriate
ways.
Wiggle Wall
Gives children a worm's eye view of their underground
tunnels; children navigate through a vertical maze of simple
passageways from floor-to-ceiling; parents and children can
see each other through net covered openings and giant optic
lenses; exhibit presents memory challenges, builds confidence
and helps children see the world through someone else's eyes.
To support future exhibit development,
Donate Now.
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