Children's Museum

The Children's Museum West Hartford location, temporarily occupying space at 180 Mohegan Drive in West Hartford, encourages families to discover and explore our multi-sensory exhibits and live wildlife sanctuary. The Museums hand-on immersive STEAM exhibits promote exploration and inquiry based learning episodes focused on supporting child development in children ages two to age 8 with the support of their caregivers. Current hands-on exhibits focus on science discovery concepts, paleontology, social and emotional growth, engineering and nature. The Wildlife Sanctuary houses over 100 animals, primarily unwanted pets and displaced animals that cannot be released back into the wild. The animal resources are viewed by museum attendees onsite and used extensively to support the educational outreach programs the museum offers within communities throughout Connecticut and into neighboring states. Additional STEM topics covering physics, engineering, chemistry, geology, paleontology, biology and the environment are offered through the museums outreach education offerings, by a team of informal educators with science and education experiences. Roaring brook nature center provides natural history/environmental educationprograms to Connecticut communities. Programs include outreach and schoolVisitations, as well as scout, summer, pre-school and public programs. Serving as aResource to area residents with environmental concerns, the center answers thousands of nature-related questions annually. The center receives over 300 injured or ophaned native animals each year for rehabilitation. The goal is to release animals back into the wild, however, permanently injured wildlife may be housed at the center and The collection includes a variety of raptors, small mammals, reptiles and amphibians. Animals are used to promote knowledge of behaviors, adaptations within Connecticut fauna. The center maintains wildflower trails, a native plant butterfly garden and Serves as steward for five miles of trails on the adjacent 158 acre state-ownedWerner's woods property.

The Children's Museum Preschool provides a play-based program that encourages and develops learning through each child's natural activities and is licensed by CT Office of Early Childhood Education (OEC) and accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young children (NAEYC). Experts agree that by learning through play, children will find education to be a positive and joyous process. This focus is at the core of the museum preschools philosophy, mission and curriculum. Recognizing that all children are different, each child comes with different strengths and areas for growth. Using proven techniques, classes are tailored to be sensitive to the needs of each individual child while maintaining an affirming and inclusive environment for all. The Museum Preschool offers a unique and innovative integration of preschool program curriculum strengthened by access to the resources provided by the onsite museum and remote nature center. Supporting creative play, academic excellence and social development are goals of the preschools team of credentialed early childhood educators.