Bring your teaching lessons to life!

This Saturday, September 24, 2011 Discovery Place KIDS will open its doors to educators free of charge as we celebrate learning with our Educators Open House. Play, imagine and learn -- see the Museum through the eyes of your students while learning more about the educational programs Discovery Place KIDS offers. Here are the details:

- Free Museum admission for all Educators plus one guest
- Check in upon arrival
- School ID required at check in
- Free parking
- The Open House will run 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Upon check in you will receive a passport to guide you through the Museum. After you have been to each station you can drop your passport off at registration to be entered in to win a class at our location.

Don't miss this... Keep reading.

Our I Can Create Studio offers little ones the chance to explore their creative side, dabbling in the magic of art by using a variety of materials to make original projects. We are in need of your recyclables for our I Can Create Studio to help keep the imagination flowing!

Items that are perfect for creating include cardboard boxes, child-appropriate magazines, paper tubes, craft scraps, fabric, ribbon, clean milk jugs and anything else you think children would love to use for their art creations. You can drop off the items the next time you come and play with us, or at any time at our admissions desk. Please call 704.372.6261 with any questions about donating materials.

Hi! My real name is Chui Ying, but everyone calls me Chewy. It’s a nickname left over from my teaching days when my toddler students found it a challenge to say my name.

I’m originally from Singapore, but relocated to North Carolina with my husband in August 2010. With over 6 years of speech and drama and preschool teaching experience in both Singapore and China, I continued to look for a teaching position when I moved here. As fate would have it, I landed a job as a presenter at Discovery Place KIDS and haven’t looked back since!

My role at Discovery Place KIDS is perfect for me because I also worked with young children in my previous teaching job. I love coming to work because I get to meet new people of all ages every day. One of the most rewarding parts is... Keep reading.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Children shape their futures one adventure at a time, and when it comes to play, hands-on is the way to discover what grown-ups do at work each day. Whether your child wants to be a firefighter, chef, explorer, build a castle, groom animals or captain a boat, the Museum offers so many ways to explore the world of careers through interactive play. Your children can visit a farm, manage a grocery store, pilot a plane, work in a brick factory and even dress up and be Broadway stars on stage. At the same time, they’ll learn to "play nicely" with others, work together, follow mutually agreed upon rules, socialize in groups, develop leadership skills and solve problems.

Kids aren’t the only visitors who benefit from role-playing... Keep reading.

As of April 6, 2011, more than 100,000 visitors have experienced the Museum. We are so excited that we have seen so many families enjoying play and learning while experiencing Discovery Place KIDS. We are working hard to provide even more educational programming and fun in the next few months so stay tuned to learn about our new exciting offerings!

Also make sure to talk to our staff during your visit to learn more about what the Museum has to offer you. Click here to see a photo of the lucky 100,000th visitor and family with Can Can and the interim Director of Discovery Place KIDS, Barrett Long.