April 14-18, 2008, the Children's Museum Spring Break week will once again feature neat activities & new exhibits. Activities will take place at 10:30am and at 12:30pm. Activities marked with an * are an additional $1. to cover costs of materials. Regular $9. admission, per person, will include access to all four floors. (Special reduced admission of $5. for members) Children under 1 year of age free. ALSO,

Monday, April 14th – * Making Native American Dream Catchers with CM Educator. To Native Americans, dreams were messages sent by sacred spirits. According to legend, the hole in the center of a dream catcher web allows good dreams to reach the sleeper, while the web itself traps the bad dreams until they disappear with the first light of morning. In this hands-on workshop, children create dream catchers they can take home with them.

Tuesday, April 15th - * Paint & Design a Bird House ($3. for supplies) with CM Educator. Even though there are 100’s of species of birds in North America, only about 85 of them nest in tree cavities. Man-made nest boxes are appreciated by many, especially bluebirds, wrens, & chickadees. In this hands-on workshop, children build their bird houses with the help of our educator & their parents/grandparents & take them home with them.

Thursday, April 17th – * Paint & Design a Racing Car or Sailboat ($3. for supplies) with CM Educator. Soap box racing began in 1933. The first soap box racing cars were made out of orange crates, sheet metal, baby stroller wheels and soap boxes. Early means of boat building were done by people using tiny pieces of sticks to measure boat dimensions. In this hands-on workshop, children build their racing cars or sailing boats, with the help of our educator & their parents/grandparents & take them home with them.

Friday, April 18th – Make a Butterfly Puppet with CM Educator. As we observe real caterpillars going through their stages of development (metamorphosis), and understand the life cycle process, we are creating a butterfly life cycle tree in the museum. Come create your Butterfly Puppet, which you can take home with you!

Saturday, April 19th - Be a DJ – DJs need these essential items: turntables, headphones, a mixer and speakers. DJ’s need to understand logs, playlists, rules, control room equipment & operating procedures. With the help of the DJ, children will go on air in our "live" WCML Radio Station broadcasting on 560AM!

'NEW IN SPRING '08' - Join The Galaxy Rotary Club (for parents, grandparents, scout leaders, and their children) at The Children’s Museum, chartered by Rotary eClub NY1 (earthly headquarters at The Children's Museum)

Members will have access to special events in the “Rotary Kids Room” Exhibit - targeted to individual Mom’s & Dad’s; Mom’s &/or Dad’s Clubs; Grandparents; Home Schoolers; Cub & Brownie Scouts - at an affordable price. It will contain information on Character Building, Honesty, Fairness, Ethics, Safety, and Friendship: all the things we need to teach our children while they’re young, so they become instilled as a part of them when they’re going through the tough older years.

Become a Charter member and earn the following privileges:
$150. A year will include the following:
* a one year membership in the Parents/Grandparents/Kids Rotary Club (and Rotary International)
* a one year membership to the Museum and its four floors of exhibits
* a Coloring Book designed around the Four-Way Test
* a half hour Activity session on Tuesday or Friday and Saturday mornings at 11:00am
* be invited to a June 2008 Rotary event where you’ll meet the current Rotary Int’l President

Sign up and join here! * or Email Marlene for more info

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In May & June we'll feature The Vincent Ruggio "Paper Cities" exhibit! Vincent Ruggio, age 10, of Manlius, will exhibit his "life’s work" throughout the months of May & June at the Children's Museum at 311 Main Street in Utica, NY. Ruggio has devised his own measuring system and designed scale models of buildings from all over the world, made of fax paper. More than 100 of his buildings in the "Paper Cities" exhibit will be on display in the museum. Named after the artist Vincent Van Gogh, he will be the first child to have his own art exhibit at the Children's Museum. According to his mother, Ruggio has never had an art lesson but came up with the idea and method for creating the miniature buildings on his own.

"This is very exciting for our Center and the regional arts community" said CM Executive Director Marlene Brown. "This all set into motion when Vincent’s mother contacted me about her very special, talented son. After seeing his incredible world of ‘Paper Cities,’ handmade scale replicas of famous buildings made of fax paper, we decided to do something very different and feature Vincent as a presenting artist for the month of May. Vincent is an inspiration for children, artists and adults alike. We invite the entire community to come visit this special exhibit and see for yourself what the imagination, dedication, heart, and unstoppable talent of a 10 year old artist can produce."

Ruggio says he dreams of being an architect and can create a scale model of anything that he sees, just by studying it. A home-schooled student, he is also well versed in world history and politics. He speaks basic German, plays violin and piano and composes on piano. He studies music in Canastota. He attends Monarch Rock Home School. Recently, Ruggio presented a special children’s exhibit of his "Paper Cities" at the MOST in Syracuse and RCC in Rome.

According to a web site about Ruggio, he has been building with blocks since he was a year old. He’s worked with all types of blocks; plastic, wooden, Legos, magnetic, and now he builds paper skyscrapers. He has also worked with clay, finger paints, watercolors, and chalk. When he was 3½ he was allowed to informally enter a painting he titled "The Fountain of Unicorn" in a Breast Cancer Awareness Art Contest in Louisville, Ky. At age 5 he was allowed to display an 18X22 multimedia poster board in the children’s section of The Washington Pavilion in Sioux Falls, S.D.

"I love to be surrounded by art," Ruggio said. "I’ve been building paper cities since I was 9 years old. I got inspired by seeing buildings in pictures, in the media, and in real life. I feel proud when I make them and especially when I make an original."

"My favorite tool is tape because it’s the most important tool I use," he added. "Tape reflects light and gives the illusion that there is glass in the windows. When I look at a piece of blank fax paper I see a future building in my mind. The paper is the building before it is made. I begin a piece by drawing with my pencil. I created my own measuring tool out of paper so I can make my buildings to scale." Ruggio says most of his buildings take 20 minutes to 5 hours to build depending on the amount of detail involved.

Be a Friend of the Children! Invest in our Future! We’ve continued our growth as a tourist and quality of life attraction with the activities & exhibits we provide for school & daycare providers, families & scout groups, while continuing the energy efficient renovation of our building. We’ve opened four of our five floors; installed new windows/heating units/air conditioners/exhibits, and were just designated a NYS & Federal Historic landmark.

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Spring Break 2007 Info * Spring Break 2006 Pix * Spring Break Flyer

April 18-23, 2005 we were open every day for Special Spring School Break Programs, which included: Demonstrations by the Oneida Nation Revolutionary War Re-enactors; Toy Car Collecting & Hot Wheels w/Mike Zarnock; Bicycle Safety w/Oneida County Sheriff's Bike Patrol; Kindermusik for Munchkins by Piano Lab; Learning about water sports of kayaking/ rowing/ canoeing w/Ed Waskiewicz; Stamp Collecting Hobby w/U.S. Postal Service; Weather w/WKTV Meteorologist; Native American Storytelling in our Longhouse; Fire Safety with the Utica Fire Dept and Sparky the Dog; Canine Working Companions by the Stevens Swam Humane Society; Designing & Painting Bird Houses & Race Cars; Making Dream Catchers.

The week of April 18-April 22, 2005, we had another great lineup of programs for Spring Break culminating in a really neat Folklore Festival on Saturday, April 23rd, 2005. Our Folklorist lined up dancers, bands, singers, and artists from the following cultural groups: Native Americans, Polish Americans; and Bosnians.

Spring Break Week 2004 at the Children's Museum:

April 12-17, 2004 we were open every day for Special Spring School Break & Earth Week Programs. Weekly schedule included: Weather w/WKTV Meteorologist Rich Lupia; Native American Storytelling; Animals & Insect World; Make a Wrist Sundial; Bicycle Safety w/Oneida County Sheriff's Bike Patrol; Build Model Planetarium; Interact with Oneida Nation Revolutionary War Re-enactors; Kindermusik for Munchkins by Piano Lab; Build a Children's Museum Mars Rover Lego exhibit; Learn about water sports of kayaking/ rowing/ canoeing; Dinosaur & Fossil Science; Rocket Building & Planetary Fun; Make a butterfly and its cocoon; View NASA DVD’s on Red Planet Mars; Learn importance of Utica Marsh & animals that inhabit it; Hands-on science w/Microscopes; Fun with Animals and Footprints; Pictorial Postal Commemorative Cancellation of Earth Day from U.S. Postal Service. We wrapped up the week on Saturday April 17th (Saturday schedule) with a celebration of festivities honoring our earth. Featured was a "Recycle Rama." Folks dropped off unwanted batteries, computers (not monitors), cell phones, old clothes, ink cartridges, motor oil, paint to be re-claimed &/or recycled. Congressman Boehlert, Chairman of House Science Committee, spoke to visitors on “Green Chemistry" and "Acid Rain". Our Earth Day Gala was filled with fun activities for the whole family. Visitors nteracted w/our 1,000’s of exhibits, including new Mars Rover & science stuff, let kids take a ride in our airplane, saw our new drone plane, built bird houses, planted seeds & trees!

April 16th, 2001: Easter Spring Break Week began on Monday, when Smokey the Bear made his annual visit to the Museum and spoke to kids about Fire safety and other interesting topics. Kids watched a special video prepared by the DEC, and then enjoyed a puppet show. In the afternoon, Melanie Zimmer enthralled a full house with her fun and interactive stories. On Tuesday, Celia Domser made a return visit to the Museum with another "Science of Toys" program. Kids learned about silly putty, sticky men and other toys that began as scientific experiments. Sally Sommers made elephant puppets with kids, and there were neat events including a "bubble off" and "Magnet Fishing".

April 18th, 2001: Easter Break Week continues -- The day started with aspecial Music for Munchkins for the holidays a Bike Rodeo Bike Safety Course with the Oneida County Sherriffs Department outside. Kids brought their bikes and helmets and ran the course with the experts; they also received a free bike safety check and tune-up. Participating kids made sidewalk art, learned about Hank the Snake and made ice cream. Two days of great programs for kids and families at the Children's Museum.

March 24th: A full house of visitors were in attendence at the Children's Museum for the Dental Health Fair sponsored by the Oneida-Herkimer Counties Dental Society. Dr. John Hamlin, for the OHDS and a sponsor of the Furino and Hamlin dental Exhibit in Exploration Station, was host to the winners of the Dental Health Poster Contest. Friends and Family were there to show support for the winners and learn about the importance of taking care of one's teeth. After the Awards were presented, everyone enjoyed a magic show presented by the Clown and received free toothbrushes provided by the OHDS. The OHDS also donated more than 500 toothbrushes to Columbus Elementary School in Utica.

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