The Children's Museum of South Dakota, located in Brookings, offers a place of learning that relates to its community, its region, its children, and their wants and needs. It's a place of learning through play for visitors of all ages. The museum contains a wide variety of both indoor and outdoor exhibits that are broadly based on subjects such as history, science, geography, engineering, culture, literature, and art.
From the water play in the Splash exhibit to the role-playing fun of KidStreet, there's plenty to keep children excited and learning.
In the Our Prairie exhibit, visitors can discover who they are and where they've come from as they learn about the important connection between culture and land in the region. The exhibit creates a landscape in which kids can learn more about how the traditional Dakota/Lakota people and the pioneer settlers lived. Children can experience the wide-open prairie as they climb in the clouds of the Climb a Cloud gallery. Prairie Ways offers the chance the role-play the daily tasks of prairie life, while the Prairie Farm provides a look at the connections between food and the animals and land from which it comes.
The Sensations exhibit at the Children's Museum of South Dakota teaches children about math as they try to solve challenges related to musical and visual patterns. They also learn about solving problems by working together and cultivating their own creativity. The Art Studio offers an energetic, fun space for kids to participate in hands-on art activities, while the Creativity Lab provides an opportunity to experiment with colors, shapes, textures, and patterns. Children can also experiment with airflow in Airway Adventure.
Children will have a blast in the museum's Splash exhibit, where they will be able to practice problem-solving through experimentation with water. Visitors learn about water movement, the tools used to manipulate water, and water's natural properties through water play. Kids can build pipes to direct the flow of water in every direction at the Splash Table, or squirt targets with water to make them move. The space helps develop fine motor skills by moving pieces and putting them together to create different structures, learning from each other by watching how others build their structures.
In Plink, Plank, Plop, children learn about planning and building pathways by moving colorful balls onto a launching platform and arranging panels to change their movement. The balls then move over the panels until they land back in the water. Designed for younger children, Tot Spot offers space for excitement and giggles. Toddlers can watch as colorful balls float over paddlewheels and down water troughs to cascading waters, while jets move the water in different directions. Children can move water themselves with colorful objects or just by using their hands. The MiniExplorers exhibit is another space for the museum's youngest visitors, offering a more serene environment for children to explore the prairie.
521 4th Street, Brookings, SD 57006, website, Phone: 605-692-6700, website, Map
