Building Blocks

Pretend City was designed with an important goal in mind, to build better brains in children infant to 10 years old. We have combined eight specific learning objectives, our Building Blocks, with an informal, immersive learning environment that is developmentally appropriate for infants, toddlers, and young children.

We developed our Building Blocks in an effort to identify skills that are essential for children as they learn about the world around them, gain confidence and self-esteem and most importantly, build a strong base of knowledge for their future.

To see our Building Blocks in action, all it takes is a trip the museum with your child! Everywhere you look, children are intuitively engaging in activities in the different exhibit areas that represent one or more of our Building Blocks.

Read below for more detailed information on each one and how they are put into action at Pretend City!

Critical Thinking & Problem Solving Critical thinking and problem solving occurs in every exhibit! For example, in the Construction Site, children use pressed wood boards and PVC pipes to build their own forts! As they move the boards around and manipulate the PVC parts, they are critically thinking and problem solving to find the best ways to make their construction sturdy. When they run out of the long boards, they must figure out how to use the shorter boards to complete their construction project! In the Marina, children must problem solve in order to make a boat that will float. They also work together to figure out how to use the water guns to make different colored balls spin faster and faster.
Creativity There are so many opportunities to be creative in Pretend City. There is a veritable jackpot of creative experiences in the Muzzy Family Art Studio. Whether it’s making a beautiful painting using your fingers as the paintbrush or letting your imagination be your guide as you glue glitter, buttons, and yarn on an egg carton. There’s always color, fun, and variety at the art studio. Another opportunity for creativity can be found at the Amphitheater. Dressing up as a rock star or ballerina inspires children to play the part of different professions and enjoy the spotlight as they dance, sing, and put on an amazing show!
Interconnectivity of the World & Processes of Everyday Life By exploring, discovering, and playing in a little city, children begin to see how everything is connected! At the Farm, children learn how food goes from farm to table. They pick fruits and vegetables and sell them to the Grocery Store. At the Grocery Store, children buy food to take to the Café or Our Home. In addition, when children “work” in different exhibits and get their timecard stamped, they can take the timecard to an ATM to receive money. Their money can be used to buy a meal in the Café, groceries at the Grocery Store, or a pretty piece of art in the Art Studio. The Post Office teaches children about mail delivery. They can write a postcard and delivery it to different exhibits in the museum. At Emergency Services, they can pretend to be a firefighter or a police officer. All these hands-on experiences in this completely interactive environment teache children about community and how a city cannot function without multiple people contributing in a variety of ways.
Teamwork, Negotiation, Collaboration and Leadership This Building Block is best illustrated by telling a story. One day, one of our Pretendgineers saw an amazing event occur in our Café. A young boy about 6 or 7 years old was acting as the Café Manager. He had made a sign out of construction paper and hung it around his neck with a piece of yarn. On the sign was his title and the words “Ask me for a Job.” Children would ask the Café Manager what needed to be done and he would delegate and put them to work. Like an organized battalion, children were taking food orders, collecting tips, cleaning tables, seating guests, all the while learning about teamwork, negotiation, collaboration, and leadership as they worked together toward a common goal, making sure their adult and child guests were happy! Experiences such as this happen every day at the museum!
Awareness of the World’s Unlimited Possibilities With an overabundance of costumes at Pretend City, the opportunity to role-play is endless. Children are encouraged to be whatever they want to be! The freedom to explore, create, and discover at their own pace is an invaluable experience. Be a firefighter, an artist, a farmer, a dancer, a builder, a chef, a doctor – children will become aware of life’s unlimited possibilities as they role-play. The greatest impact of all is that once a child puts on a costume, they truly do believe they can take on that role. As a result, children will become more aware of the world around them and all that is available to them as they grow.
Building a Lifelong Love of Learning Pretend City offers multiple ways for children to learn. Whether they are an auditory learner, a visual learner, a kinesthetic learner, or any other type of leaner, there are opportunities at Pretend City to play, learn and have fun. When children have the opportunity to learn in their own style, learning becomes easy. When learning is easy, it becomes fun. When learning is fun, interests are piqued, passions are fueled, and a love of learning is born. Through watching their children play in Pretend City, parents can become more in tune with what kind of learner their child is, and equipped with this knowledge, parents can tailor how they teach their children. In this way, children will build a love of learning that can last a lifetime.
Cause and Effect Cause and Effect teaches children that their actions have an effect on the world around them. At the Crean Family Marina, children can use the power of the wind to maneuver their toy boats down the waterway. By moving the source of wind, they are changing the path of their boat. At the Beach, children can see what happens when trash goes down the storm drain. As plastic balls filled with trash fall into the storm drain, children can watch them flow through a clear Plexiglas street and pop out in the beach. Until children pick up all the trash and place it in the trashcan, the beach is polluted and closed. An educational video produced by the Miocean Foundation plays in the Beach exhibit in order to teach children about the importance of keeping our oceans clean.
Appreciation of Diversity The Pretend City Home is a place where children and families are introduced to new and different cultures. Three times a year, Our Home will host a family from a different ethnic background and the house will be transformed to incorporate parts of that family’s way of life. Children visiting Our Home will learn about the culture, traditions, food, activities and daily life of the family and expand their appreciation of diversity. The Pretend City Café will also celebrate diversity as its cuisine offerings tour the world! So far the Café has served Vietnamese and American foods, with Persian and Mexican cuisine to be featured in the coming months!