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Thank you, Museum at Prairiefire for sponsoring this “Places to Visit in KC” post by providing free tickets for the family! All opinions are my own.
Sometimes you just need to get out with the kids! Even with all the best indoor activities up your sleeve, it can be a good idea to go somewhere else for some extra fun!
There are a lot of great free or inexpensive places to go as a family. We love parks, farmsteads, museums, libraries… really anywhere that our kids can learn and have fun.
Last week we had a family outing to the Museum at Prairiefire of Overland Park (Kansas City Metro Area). Chances are you have a local museum very similar to the MAP in your area too! What makes the MAP go on our list of fun places to visit in KC is the kid-friendly discovery room. We love that our kids got to learn with hands-on activities and explore a lot of different things.
The picture opportunities were PLENTIFUL during our visit (Get ready to see a lot of pics)! I couldn’t include all of the amazing pictures that we got, but make sure to check out the post on our Facebook page to see all the fun!
The first thing that drew me to the MAP before even visiting was their commitment to making learning available to the community. Their tickets are not expensive and they have events and programs for kids that let them learn by getting hands on! They offer programs and even free field trips to schools in the area as well.
The Building
The facade of the building is
The museum is available as a venue! When I found out that you could have a wedding there I thought about the amazing wedding photos you could take outside of this building. Just beautiful.
I later learned that the material that is used for the windows is actually a material developed by NASA. It was made to protect the astronaut’s eyes from the sun. It reflects the light with bright orange and red colors, but on the inside it’s a nice cool blue color (you can see it in the T-Rex picture below).
The Lobby-AR and a T-Rex
Yet another part of the museum that captivated our kids that wasn’t even part of the fun stuff was the lobby! We spent a LOT of time in the lobby. They were having way too much fun.
The first attraction was the giant T-Rex skeleton (of course!). Theron was very excited about this. In fact when he saw it from outside through the window was when he was finally done admiring the colorful building.
In the lobby was a big screen that you could see yourself in. I noticed and said, “Hey Theron, who’s that?” For a 3-year-old this is already pretty cool, but then a velociraptor came onto the screen and screeched at him!
Oh. my. goodness. The kids thought this was HILARIOUS! We had so much fun running from T-Rex, Velociraptors, and even a dragon! As you can see in the picture, we were having some fun. Poor Harper got hit by the dragon’s fire…
STEM for All Ages
Our first activity (after spending way too long in the lobby) was the Little Explorer Club STEM class. This class is designed to give 3-5-year-olds hands-on Science learning experiences.
They change up the programs frequently and at the time of our visit the Little Explorers were doing “Candy Chemistry!” It was so much fun learning about physical and chemical changes with candy.
The museum has these classes for kids and adults:
Little Explorers Club: Ages 3-5
Designed for little ones, this program gives the kids hands-on experiences that allow them to learn science concepts. As said before, Theron’s class was about physical and chemical changes using CANDY! Of course he loved that!
JAM Sessions: Elementary Kids
We didn’t get to experience a JAM session (not having any kids in the age group), but they look really fun! The classes are STEAM centered and allow kids to explore topics like engineering and outer space!
Science Happy Hour: Grown Ups
Yup! That’s right HAPPY HOUR! These sessions are meant for adults and do serve appetizers and drinks during the sessions. These are usually presentations from different experts.
The Discovery Room
After our class, we went on into the Discovery Room. Then we spent the majority of our time there! The kids had so much fun because there was so much to see!
The room was filled with activities, puzzles, demonstrations, models, LIVE animals… SO MUCH! The kids had a blast and it was difficult to get them to want to leave.
Dino Bones!
The Discovery Room has a paleontology section where the kids dug for bones and put dinosaur bones together! This section also has a lot of information for older kids to explore and learn about how paleontologists learn from their findings.
This section also had a big set of drawers that the kids could take out different artifacts to observe with magnifying glasses. On the table was a little “challenge” for kids to complete that had tasks like, “How many of the creatures that you observed seemed to come from the ocean? How could you tell?” Each display had activities like this to get kids thinking about what they were seeing.
Bugs, Bugs, Bugs
The bug section was really cool! In the picture you can see Harper putting together a giant Praying Mantis puzzle. They had a lot of activities like this that helped the kids see the different parts of the insects.
There were live hissing cockroaches (in
Live Animals
I was very pleasantly surprised by the fact that there were actually some live animals for the kids to see. We saw a couple of bearded dragons, a chinchilla, some blue frogs (those were a favorite), a snake, and some other fun little critters.
Savage Ancient Seas Exhibit
You probably already know that Marine life fossils have been found all over the world in places that are no longer oceanic (even deserts!). This includes the Midwest. Many interesting animals lived during the time of the dinos and left their mark.
The exhibit shows us some incredible animals that seriously are mind-blowing. These animals probably could swallow a human on accident like we swallow bugs… barely noticing.
Seeing the skeletal structure of these creatures was a little creepy honestly. At one point, I looked at Max and said, “What really freaks me out is not just that animals this big existed, but that the ocean still has animals this enormous out there…” *shudder*
Events and Memberships
When we went to the museum our main purpose was to take our 3-year-old to the STEM class. However, we thoroughly enjoyed all that the museum had to offer us. There was actually more than what we saw, but nap time likes to sneak up on us.
We saw that there is a membership that you can get that allows you free access to everything! This is a great idea for families with small kids. When cranky days happen after you had paid for tickets, you tend to try to tough it out. From my experience, everyone ends up cranky then. If you have a membership, you can say, “You know what, this just isn’t going well today. We will come back another day.”
Not only does the museum have its exhibitions and everything, but they hold a lot of cool events. From Bingo night to galas to raise funds so that they can provide trips and events for underprivileged students.
In order to provide so much to its community, the museum relies on support from its visitors. The memberships are not very expensive, but they are a big way that they have money to be able to do all of the wonderful things that they do for the children in the community. Their mission seems to be to make science learning accessible to all and they really hold to that!
High on the list of Fun Places to Visit in KC
If you live in the area or are visiting and looking for some fun places to visit in KC, this is definitely a place to check out. It’s not expensive at all and it’s a fun family experience. I loved the kid-friendly nature of everything. There were a lot of touchable displays and interactive experiences to keep everyone engaged.
Support Your Local Science Museums
Places like this are so important for the community. I have already mentioned that this museum PROVIDES field trips for schools. They pay for the buses (that’s a big reason why schools like mine often don’t have many field trips), tickets, and materials for the students to participate in the hands on classes.
This is a HUGE deal! Especially for schools like mine, where a lot of our students never really leave their neighborhood. They don’t experience many natural science exhibits in their life.
If you have a place like this in your community, go check out how you can support it! This could be as simple as getting a membership so that you can go more often. You could even make a monthly or yearly donation.
Learn More about the MAP
If you are interested in visiting the MAP you can visit their site HERE. You can also check them out on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. You can learn more about the building and how it was made on their Youtube channel as well!
This looks like such a fun place. My kids would really enjoy it.
This looks like a really fun place for kids. Thank you for sharing your experience there.
What a great museum! Thank you for sharing this great place!
This place sounds like somewhere my kids would love! That is so cool how the glass is a different color on the outside vs inside!
I have a friend I want to visit there! I will be using your list! Thank you!
This looks like so much fun! Thanks for sharing! I know my daughter would love it!
This museum look like SO much fun! You are so right about memberships; they are a lifesaver because you don’t feel pressured to make every moment count so you enjoy your time together more and if the kids are starting to melt down, you can always come back another day. Ü
Yes! This is why I’m always a little hesitant to take the kids to the zoo… I should get a membership there too! lol
This looks like such a fun place! I would’ve loved it when I was a kid. Actually, I probably would love it now! ha
I definitely had a lot of fun!
Love your photos! They are beautiful and tell a great story. As a former math teacher, I love it when museums offer STEM activities and classes. They are building such a great foundation in young minds!
Thank you! The place made it easy to take great photos because it was such a cool place! I also love that they offer STEM classes. They always have something going on!
This place looks cool! I had a group of high school students in KC a few years ago, and we attended a “party” in the area at the bowling alley. I saw the museum, but I didn’t really know what it was. This post is so helpful. I may check it out this summer.
I can’t tell you how many times I had driven by it thinking, “Wow, what a cool building! I wonder what that is.” but then life happens and you forget to look it up. It was such a cool place!
We travel to KC often but I’ve never heard of this place. We will have to check it out!
What a fun place! Great for the kiddos!
Great post! Looks like so much fun! Super enjoyed the pics! Cute!!!
This looks like so much fun! Thank you for sharing. You have taken very nice pictures and given a great description of the fun your family had!! Thanks for sharing!
This looks like an incredibly fun place where kids can learn too! I’ll pass this along to my adult kids who might want to visit with their kids.
This is a cool looking place to visit! Good information.
This looks like so much fun! Even the outside of the building looks fun. We have Kansas City on a road trip for us, it’s not too too far away. I want to make sure I add this to my list of things to do with the kiddos.
We really enjoyed it! We will probably be going back soon.
This is awesome- I love that they have hands on activities instead of just exhibits to look at. We’ll definitely check this place out if we’re ever in the area!
This made me want to go.. NOW 🙂 I mean seriously, what kid would not like this place? Thanks so much for all the great photos!
Thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed it!
This looks like such an amazing trip!!! I love this type of experience with kids and grandkids. The blue windows are so cool, and how awesome that Nasa shared their technology!
I know I thought that was soooo cool! Like even the building is Science.
What a fun place. I love taking my kids to places like this. It forces us to unplug and focus on each other!
This looks like so much fun. My kids would just love it!
What an exciting place to explore! I especially love the picture of your little with the magnifying glass! A future scientist, perhaps??
Haha! Yes, that one was one of my favorites, I HAD to use it! They were having a lot of fun with the magnifying glasses.
We have a museum similar to this near us and my daughter LOVES it!
What a cool museum!! Love that they have experiments for the little ones with candy 🙂 What a great way to spend the day!
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