Stepping Stones Museum for Children commemorates the 90th anniversary of Mickey Mouse with a week full of animated activities from Nov. 17 to 25, including stories, games, and dance.
The highlight of the mouse-travaganza will be when Mickey Mouse or other special guests from the Disney On Ice show drop by Stepping Stones on Wednesday, Nov. 21 from 1 to 3 p.m. The visit is a sneak peek before you can see the characters in action when Disney On Ice presents Worlds of Enchantment at Webster Bank Arena in January.
In the museum’s new Family and Teacher Resource Center (the FTRC), children will make VIP badges celebrating a positive influence in their lives like a friend or caregiver.
Just like the appearance of Mickey Mouse has evolved over the years since his first appearance in “Steamboat Willie” on Nov. 18, 1918, so too have the ways we communicate. Children can try out different ways to write “Happy Birthday” to Mickey using all kinds of writing instruments from drawing on Play Doh tablets to different kinds of pens and even an old-fashioned typewriter.
Animators start their process by organizing their thoughts on storyboards and museum visitors will learn to do the same in Express Yourself. Makers can explore stability, structures and cause and effect using the materials in Build It! to create a large scale game of mousetrap.
What would Mickey’s birthday be without mid-day and end of day musical parades? Marchers can make and wear Mickey ears and play noise makers they build in KLUTZ Amazingly Immature. For Fitness Fun yoga, we’ll pose as some of the many animals seen in Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse show. Can you pose as quiet as mouse? Or waddle around like Donald Duck?
Finally, as we celebrate Mickey Mouse, visitors will learn about early animation by making a basic thaumatrope — a toy that was popular during the 19th century. It consists of a disk with a picture on each side attached to two pieces of string. When the strings are twirled quickly the two pictures appear to blend into one due to an optical illusion called “persistence of vision.”