The Children’s Museum of Phoenix reopens on Friday, Nov. 20, with 15,000 additional square feet of outdoor play space featuring a straw-bale castle, a sand and corn pit, rock painting and a Tike Motocross area.
The new Adventure Play area — created in the museum’s north parking lot — lets children learn through physical activities that require both fine and gross motor skills and through thought-provoking discoveries. The centerpiece is Colossal Castle and a maze built using 400 straw bales. Adventure Play also includes:
- The Workshop: Build with hammers, nails, wrenches and other tools.
- Building Play: Climb over, on and through tires, crates and other items.
- Cornville: Play in 1 ton of corn kernels.
- Rock Painting: Children and adults can paint a rock to take home or to leave somewhere in the community for others to find, with the purpose of spreading joy.
- Paint an Alfa Romeo: Much like painting the Robot in the Children’s Museum’s Art Studio, this space invites kids to paint a classic car.
- Explore-A-Truck: Kids can climb into and explore a fire truck and a mail truck.
Visitors can also plant, water and harvest crops in the Children’s Garden; scoop sift and measure in the Mud Kitchen; build with pine cones, logs, rocks, sticks and dirt in Nature Nook; jump rope and hula hoop in Retro Recess; ride a trike or balance bike in TMX (Tike Motocross); play in the Sand Pit, crawl through the Snake and more. Sock Skating also returns to the Museum at the end of the month.
Adventure Play is open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Fridays and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Only the outdoor play areas of the museum are open as a safety precaution during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Adventure Play will be open additional days during the holidays, including Dec. 21-23, Dec. 28-31 and Jan. 2-3. The museum is closed on Christmas Eve Day, Christmas and New Year’s Day.
All visitors ages 3 and older must wear face masks, and limited capacity and timed entry tickets allow for social distancing. Advance reservations are required for all visitors including members. Tickets are $14.95; $13.95 for seniors; free for Children’s Museum of Phoenix members and babies younger than age 1.
The Children’s Museum of Phoenix is a nonprofit organization located at 215 N. Seventh Street in downtown Phoenix. It works to foster a joy of learning through open-ended, fun, exploratory play for ages birth to 10. Purchase tickets and make reservations online at childrensmuseumofphoenix.org/museum-admission/
