Spring Art Activities and Vacation Ideas – March 2010

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MILWAUKEE, Wis. – If you’re looking for a way to enjoy spring and do some fun activities over Spring Break, look no further.

According to Samantha Stern, training and development director at Ebenezer Child Care Centers, “Spring is a wonderful time to celebrate the rebirth of the earth with your children in many fun and creative ways.”

Art Projects

For fun springtime art activities, Stern recommends going to a local garden shop and letting your children pick out a terra cotta pot for purchase.

“They come in a variety of sizes that are perfect for children of all ages,” says Stern.

Then, using acrylic paints, you can decorate the outside of the pots in fun and creative ways. For smaller children, you might want to make a design out of their fingerprints. For older children, Stern recommends simply letting them use their creativity to add stripes, designs, and other whimsical elements to the pot.

To complete the project, Stern suggests that you fill the pot with soil and plant flower seeds in it. Or, you could make handprint flowers out of construction paper and add popsicle stick stems to place into the soil.

The completed pot can be used as a spring centerpiece on your kitchen table until the weather warms up, and it can be placed outside.

Other fun springtime art activities include making pet rocks that can be placed in flowerbeds when it warms up and tissue paper flowers that can brighten any room!

Places to Visit

If you want to get a taste of spring in other unique and unusual ways, be sure to take your family to the Mitchell Park Conservatory, located at 524 South Layton Boulevard in Milwaukee. The Conservatory has three domes, each with its own theme. In the Arid Dome, children can experience the deserts of Africa, Madagascar, South America, and North America as well as see one of the world’s finest collections of cacti, succulents, shrubs, and arid-land bulbs. In the tropical dome, children will enjoy the diversity of plants from the rainforests of five continents. The third dome is a special floral dome that has a spring heart theme on exhibition right now. Admission is free on Mondays from 9 a.m. to noon for Milwaukee county residents. For more information, visit http://www.county.milwaukee.gov/MitchellParkConserva10116.htm.

The Milwaukee Public Museum, located at 800 West Wells Street, is also a great place to visit with children. In addition to the museum’s popular dinosaur and Streets of Old Milwaukee areas, the museum also has a wonderful live butterfly exhibit that is a must for families to enjoy. It’s lush, tropical gardens are home to many kinds of exotic butterflies that children can watch emerge from their chrysalises and sip nectar right before their eyes. Admission to the Milwaukee Public Museum is also free on Mondays for Milwaukee county residents.  For more information visit http://www.mpm.edu/.

For younger children, Betty Brinn Children’s Museum, located on Milwaukee’s lakefront at 929 East Wisconsin Avenue, offers many great areas to explore. One in particular is Betty’s Busy Backyard, a special exhibit where toddlers can slide down a pretend waterfall, gather and sort leaves, play music on tree stump drums, dig in a caterpillar sandbox, plant vegetables and flowers, and play in a nursery rhyme house. The Children’s Museum has free admission every third Thursday night of the month from 5-8 p.m. For more information,  visit http://www.bbcmkids.org/.

   Ebenezer Child Care Centers, Inc. will be hosting a FREE Family Fun Night on “Spring Art Activities and Vacation Ideas” on Friday, March 12, from 4:30-6:30 p.m. at their Wauwatosa location in the UnitedHealth Group office building located at 10701 West Research Drive. Come and make tissue papers flowers, decorate your own suitcase, and enjoy dinner on us. This event is free and open to the public. Registration is required at least one week in advance.  Please call 414-643-5070 to register.

Ebenezer Child Care Centers is a not-for-profit, locally-based agency committed to providing early childhood programs from the heart.

The agency prides itself on being different from other child care providers in that it offers a home-like atmosphere, individualized, nurturing care, and a structured curriculum that is virtues-based for every child’s developmental stage.

Every Ebenezer Child Care Center focuses on all aspects of a child’s development:  cognitive, physical, emotional, and social. In addition to providing quality care, the agency also offers a variety of free Family Fun Nights and other educational programming all aimed at helping parents.

The agency has locations in downtown Milwaukee, on Milwaukee’s southside, and in Greenfield, Mequon, Oak Creek, and Wauwatosa. The agency’s main office is located at 1496 South 29th Street, Milwaukee. For more information, please call 414-643-5070 or visit the agency’s website at https://www.ebenezerchildcare.com/