The Children’s Museum of Tacoma is an educational space where children can play, explore, discover and learn. The Museum’s philosophy is that play is the right of every child and features five creative playscapes designed to spark imagination, encourage curiosity, engage the intellect, and celebrate the power of play. Created to cater for children of all ages, playscapes include Woods, Water, Voyager, Invention, and Becka’s Studio and focus on the fields of cognitive and critical thinking skills, creativity, social and emotional skills, fine and gross motor development, and early literacy learning.
The Children’s Museum of Tacoma also offers a variety of daily and weekly activities ranging from STEAM workshops and Story Times to Exceptional Families Parent Workshops, Museum Fun Days. There are also several educational programs available to adults, families, and educators, including Preschool Powered by Play, The Muse Childcare Center, Play to Learn Outreach Program, the Gingerbread Jamboree, Summer and Winter Camps, and the Right to Play Gala.
Playscapes
The Children’s Museum of Tacoma features five playscapes, namely Woods, Water, Voyager, Invention, and Becka’s Studio designed to engage children up to the age of eight years.
Woods reflects an outdoor space that evokes physical play, exploration, risk, and assessment in a comfortable, and cozy environment with elevated platforms and open spaces. Children can play with light in a dark area, build forts, shuttle supplies via pulleys, or settle into cozy nooks to read and discover. A particular toddlers area encourages early sensory exploration and gross motor play.
Water allows children to explore this liquid element with a sculptured rock waterfall, flowing offshoots, levers, cranks and floating objects to experiment with. Volumes of water can be changed, patterns of falling watched observed, floating objects navigated down streams and the flow of water changed, as well as playing with various states of liquid.
Created and built from fantastical childhood memories, Voyager beckons children to climb aboard and let their imaginations run wild. Kids can load cargo, pilot the vessel, jump into the head, and tinker with various wheels, gauges, and communication devices as they create endless pretend play scenarios. This playscape also features a tower that children can climb to communicate with the vessel, dig a sensory pit in its base.
Becka's Studio focuses on creative art making and expressions and experimental tinkering through artistic and scientific activities with unusual materials.Becka's Studio is a space in which budding artists can express their creativity in their unique ways, from independently focused artwork to messy projects.
1501 Pacific Avenue, Tacoma, Washington 98402, Phone: 253-627-6031