A visit to the Kinder Museum, Frankfurt

Whilst on holiday in Frankfurt, Germany, I happened across the Kinder Museum Frankfurt and, not one to pass up an opportunity, I popped in to have a look at how play and education is done German style.


Both Eureka! and the Kinder Museum share much in common in terms of ethos, which their website states is: "[The museum] offers… a hands-on oriented learning experience. In all its exhibits the visitors are encouraged to play an active role".


And what really chimes with me as Eureka!'s Playwork Co-ordinator was this following statement on the museum’s website: “Touching, testing, trying out: independent thinking and an autonomous learning environment are central to the children's museum”. Absolutely! One of the things we tell our school party visits at Eureka! is to ‘get their busy fingers on’ and really explore and learn in the museum by pushing, twisting and pressing the exhibits.


Now I am particularly squeamish, and the sight of blood makes me feel a little ‘funny’, so it was rather unfortunate that I timed my visit to coincide with the ‘Blood Suckers’ theme... Through a variety of hands-on exhibits and practical exercises that visitors can carry out, I got to learn about a rogue’s gallery of skin piercing, blood sucking critters, from fleas to leeches. 


Looking at the exhibits and the experiments on offer, as well as the Early Years play area, the Kinder Museum could easily have something to occupy an age range from 0 up to early teens.


I was particularly impressed by the re-use of electrical wiring and electrical parts to make your own blood sucking parasite model. The children even got to handle wire strippers whilst making models, which added an element of learning ‘with risk’ which I know that children love.


In terms of the size of the museum, for any regular Eureka! visitor the comparable area would be that of one of the Our Global Garden galleries. The Kinder Museum does however make great use of the space it has available. As well as hands-on exhibits, such as using a crank to emulate the jaws and blood sucking apparatus of a ‘critter’, there are areas for practical experiments and comfortable reading areas - all done without feeling cluttered.


The gallery had also been cleverly themed, going from a bright and airy reception area to a darker area with red lighting and red blood cell themed draping - it was an excellent contrast and it did feel as if you were travelling down a vein or an artery. 

I enjoyed the Kinder Museum and found it interesting to see how a city centre based museum that operates very differently from Eureka! in using a single ‘rolling’ gallery concept can work. Coupled with the friendly and approachable staff, should you find yourself in Frankfurt I really would recommend a visit.


For more information, take a look at the Kinder Museum Frankfurt website.


Or for Frankfurters with an interest in seeing play and education in England, here’s the Eureka! website.


Kevin Field
Specialist Play Enabler

Graveyard Walks

Graverobber, telling spooky
Halloween tales at Eureka!

Hi there everybody - I just arrived from Victorian Halifax to do a few graveyard walks. I’m a grave robber, or resurrectionist as I prefer to call myself. I was asked to take some children around and tell them some ghost stories as part of Eureka!'s Spooktacular Halloween week and I was happy to oblige (for a few gold coins, of course). 

My graveyard was haunted by a ghostly 900 year old monk, a ghostly horse and carriage driver, two headless corpses (one in chains and one playing the bagpipes) and another restless spirit shot full of holes (I call him the Holey Spirit!).

I particularly enjoyed telling my tales, as every one of them is a true story – tales of unexpected and grisly deaths that happened right here in Halifax; in sight of Eureka!, most of them!

The children helped me exorcise the restless spirits by reading their names to me, off their tombstones, so I could command them to move on. Well, I wouldn’t be doing this job if I could read and write, would I?  I rewarded them with gold coins from the Cragg Vale Coiners’ hoard -  they were very tasty I hear.

The graveyard is much more peaceful now so I can carry on my good work of supplying local hospitals with bodies for the doctors to dissect to increase their knowledge and move on the cause of medical science. So don’t call me a criminal; I’m a hero I am!

Banishing ghosts on a graveyard walk

You can take part in our Spooktacular Halloween event until 30 October...

Searching for a story (Part II)

This is the second in our three-part storybook trail around the Eureka! galleries. Part I is available here.

When Puffin Books released its handbook of 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!

This week we’re following the trail through Our Global Garden and SoundGarden. We'll start in Our Global Garden where there are two whole floors to explore!

Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? is by Bill Martin Jr. and illustrated by Eric Carl, a famous children’s author in his own right. Martin and Carl’s polar bear hears all sorts of sounds during his day. Our polar bear is named Nanuq. Can you find him?

Lauren Child’s Charlie and Lola series makes another appearance with Look After Your Planet. The book is all about recycling, one of the simplest ways that we can all make a difference in taking care of our world. Wander through the gallery, can you find a recycling centre?

SoundGarden is one of our special galleries for under-fives where they can discover and learn at their own pace in a vivid and warm environment.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carl is a classic book that introduces younger children to the world of reading in much the same way through its gentle and vibrant illustrations. In SoundGarden it’s easy to experience life from a caterpillar’s point of view. Look around and find the butterflies, there's even one you can paint! If you were a very hungry caterpillar, what kind of butterfly would you be when you grew up?

Next time I’ll finish the trail with Living and Working Together, but don't forget you can still read Part I!

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!

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!