Q&A: Children’s Programs for 9/11 Museum Visitors
Q&A: Children’s Programs for 9/11 Museum Visitors
Noaa Stoler, the 9/11 Memorial Museum manager of youth and family programs, answers questions about the various opportunities offered this summer in the museum’s education center.
Q: What activities are available to visitors with kids?
Our education team has developed eight new activity stations designed specifically for visitors with kids. Each station highlights a different theme—such as remembering the victims of the attacks and how people came together after 9/11—and features a different art or science activity related to the theme. The
activities are a way to access some of the difficult topics surrounding 9/11 and will hopefully serve as conversation starters. We understand that this is a very difficult and sometimes uncomfortable history to talk about with young visitors. We have designed these activities to help parents and caregivers begin the conversation by providing key facts in age-appropriate language, thoughtful questions, and meaningful activities.
Q: What is your favorite activity?
One that I particularly like is the birthday rose activity station. This station teaches kids about the daily tradition at the 9/11 Memorial when volunteers place a white rose in the names of victims who have a birthday on that day. Kids are encouraged to select a name of a victim and make their own rose out of colored tissue paper and pipe-cleaners that they can leave on the memorial. It’s a great way to teach kids about tributes and the memorial exhibition, while giving them a small way to honor a victim.
Other activity stations focus on a memorial motorcycle, ways to help communities impacted by disaster and also sustainable building design.
Q: When are the activities available?
Stations rotate Wednesdays through Fridays from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. through August 19. Kids and their caretakers are welcome to drop by and participate in as many of the activities as they would like. There is always an educator in the classroom to help facilitate the projects.
By 9/11 Memorial Staff
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