Kids are having loads of fun exploring animal habitats and the creatures within them in the Wild Kratts®: Creature Power!® exhibit.

The exhibit, which is presented locally by UnitedHealthcare, provides a great blend of fun and learning, featuring interactive STEM experiences for kids ages 3 to 9. Visitors make investigations and observations, and apply what they learn to complete missions and challenges centered around the lives of animals and their creature powers.

“UnitedHealthcare is proud to support the Wild Kratts and their sense of adventure and curiosity,” said Ben Grabski, Health Plan CEO for Medicare and Retirement. “This is a great exhibit for children to explore their creativity and build confidence.”

Kid Creature Powers

While kids learn a lot about animals in this new exhibit, they also hone their own creature powers – important skills like critical thinking, creativity, confidence, coordination and communication. Here are a few highlights:

• Critical Thinking – In the Tortuga, kids become researchers. It’s here where they start and complete a mission during which they need to consider and then identify four animals that can help defeat the villains that are threatening the animals and their habitats. To complete the mission, kids need to show perseverance and focus. When the mission is complete, kids receive a special message from the Kratt Brothers.
• Coordination – In the Australian Outback Desert, kids work on small motor skills by moving a model platypus around the table as they feel for vibrations that indicate they’ve reached the prey. In the Tropical Rainforest, kids build large motor skills as they try to sneak up on a spider monkey using the stealth of a jaguar. In the Antarctic, visitors climb up stairs and go down a slide on their bellies like a penguin, building coordination and confidence along the way.
• Collaboration – In Your Neighborhood, a North American backyard environment, visitors work together to launch and catch prey using a catapult and bullfrog. One visitor adjusts and operates the catapult while another controls the tongue of the bullfrog, using their reflexes and speed to catch plush insects flying through the air. Visitors need to rely on each other, work together and share responsibilities in this activity.

How You Can Support

You can be a great play partner and maximize the power of play that’s happening in this exhibit. Here’s how:

• Guide Without Taking Over. Is your child getting stuck? Maybe they’re getting stumped on one part of the mission? Resist the urge to jump in and do it for them. Give them a chance to figure it out on their own. They’ll gain confidence by doing it themselves. You can help by asking open-ended questions like – “What have you tried so far?” or “What ideas do you have?
• View Mistakes as Opportunities. Does your child keep sounding the spider monkey alarm in the Tropical Rainforest? Mistakes and failures are part of life … and they provide learning opportunities. When kids don’t succeed at first, they’re forced to think critically and creatively. What went wrong? What should I try next?
• Embrace Repetition. Is your child doing the same activity over and over? Maybe they’re going up and down the penguin slide on repeat? Don’t worry! Repetition has power. It’s how kids build their confidence, develop their bodies and master their worlds.

Make sure you visit the Wild Kratts: Creature Power! exhibit while it’s here! This new exhibit will be at the museum through May 12. Then it will go on its own adventure to museums around the country.

We’d like to extend a big thank you to UnitedHealthcare for generously supporting this exhibit.