Weigh anchor and hoist the mizzen

This weekend kicks off our half-term Pirates Ahoy adventure. We’ve put together a whole slew of high-seas hijinks for our visitors; Pirate Training School with sing-along sea shanteys, a treasure map through the galleries and my favourite, a galleon play structure that will be ‘run aground’ outside on the Eureka! Beach for the young buccaneers to explore.

Of course, before we can set sail, we need to hoist the sails. At Eureka! that’s where our team of Technicians come in. While here in Marketing, or in Learning and Education, we’re great about coming up with the ideas and programming that makes a visit to Eureka! magical, without our ‘techies’ keeping the museum at ship-shape, we’d be lost.

And the galleon was no exception. Here’s a sneak peek while we do our health and safety checks and get it ready to set sail in the wild, wild world.

In the Loading Bay 'dockyards'.

The jolly boat ‘Eureka!’ ready for her maiden voyage.

Without our 'techies', we might have had to settle for something less ambitious!

Allison Tara Sundaram is the Marketing and PR Officer for Eureka! Her pirate name is Red Mary Bonney (what’s yours?).

Searching for a story (Part I)

When Puffin Books released its handbook containing the 70 best books for children, to celebrate their 70th anniversary of publishing children’s books this year, we were all excited in the Play and Learning department to see if our favourites had made it in. While I was looking through the list for The Tiger Who Came for Tea by Judith Kerr, I couldn’t believe how many different places at Eureka! reflected the different books.

With that in mind I’ve come up with a small trail that you can use to continue your learning after a visit to Eureka!—or use to get ready for a trip through the galleries!

I’ll start with Me & My Body:

Janet and Allan Ahlberg wrote Funny Bones to introduce you to your skeleton. Why not see it up close and personal?

The Charlie and Lola series book, My Wobbly Tooth Must Not Ever Never Fall Out by Lauren Child is all about baby teeth and the tooth fairy. If you want to play with a wobbly tooth (guaranteed to wobble and wobble and not ever never fall out), the Eureka! mouth is a good choice if your grown-up teeth haven’t come yet.

In Part II we’ll be looking at Our Global Garden and SoundGarden, and in Part III we’ll finish with Living and Working Together!

To find out more (and download the list so you can read all of these books for yourself), visit Happy Birthday Puffin.

Jenny Goodall is the Bookings Administrator at Eureka!

This is the way we brush our teeth

How do you take care of your mouth? It might be avoiding eating lots of sugary foods and drinks, flossing every day, visiting the dentist, or brushing your teeth after meals. Most of us use a toothbrush to take care of our mouths. In other cultures throughout history they have used cleaning twigs made from plants like neem or cinnamon or even porcupine quills. Some cultures use chalk or bicarbonate of soda to make their mouths clean and their smiles bright.

And how do we take care of Eureka!’s very big Mouth in Me and My Body?

We use paint of course.*

Just another day at the museum.

*We would not otherwise recommend the use of paint to achieve a healthy smile, but it’s very hard to source a large enough tube of toothpaste for a six-foot-tall mouth.

Allison Tara Sundaram is the Marketing and PR Officer at Eureka!

And the winner is...

It’s tough running an election, even if it isn’t on the same scale as oh, an imminent General Election. When we decided to declare Eureka! an independent ‘State of Play’ micronation as part of our 18th birthday celebrations, we knew we needed to take it seriously and give children the chance to vote and express how they want future leaders to shape the world. After all, play is serious work at Eureka!.

Now that we’ve closed our polls and tallied the votes to find the leader for the Eureka! independent ‘State of Play’ I’m feeling sympathetic for the poll workers who will be busy all day (and well into the night) this week—and I only had to count about 250 ballots. With the results in, the clear winner was Scoot, though with 43% of the votes it wasn’t a landslide. Orby came second with 34% and Gordon the Gnome had a strong third with 21% of the vote.

It wasn’t hard to decide which characters at Eureka! would stand as candidates. Orby helps everyone who visits the SoundSpace gallery to expand their senses. Gordon the Gnome helps children learn about the importance of green spaces everywhere in Our Global Garden. And Scoot? He’s one of our best-loved characters and one of the first places children go when they visit Me & My Body. He’s also quite the chatterbox, and while I know there was no electioneering, I’m sure all his visitors were reminded to vote.

We also made sure that our voters could express their opinions with their ballot. We asked them 'what would be the first thing you would change about the place you live in' if they were in charge. Reading the responses, and accompanying illustrations, was the best part of the whole process for me! Many children were concerned about the environment: they wanted an end to pollution, more recycling, and more places to play ('like Eureka' as one nine-year-old said).

There were two office favourites here in the offices. The first was from a four-year-old named Daniel. He wrote: 'I would have a magic wand and make bad people disappear and I would make chickens look lovely by putting bows in their feathers. I would make it summertime all year to enjoy the flowers.'

The second, from Polly, age 4, is this picture:

The past few years have seen quite a few elections with historic or notable results around the world. Our election may not be quite so historic, but it’s great for children to have a playful learning opportunity closer to home. If you’re interested in further exploring the electoral process and upcoming election with your child, here are a few websites we’ve found useful.

United Kingdom Parliament: General Elections Explained (PDF)
CBBC Newsround: General Election special
BBC Teacher’s Notes: Democracy

Allison Tara Sundaram is the Marketing & PR Officer at Eureka!