Featured Exhibit
Hello from Japan!
Immerse in an interactive exhibit of modern Tokyo and learn about the richness and diversity of Japanese culture.
Memberships
Join the fun.
Becoming a member is the ultimate way to visit and save. In fact, a membership to the Museum pays for itself by your second visit!
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Group Tours
Create your school experience.
Customize your next visit to the Museum. Schools can choose from themed Guided or Self-Guided tours and workshops to enhance your experience.
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Outdoor Adventures
Let’s Play Outside.
Participate in guided and self-guided outdoor play experiences in our Please Touch Garden, including water activities and art programming that connects to nature.
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Mission
We build brains.
Please Touch Museum is here to change a child’s life as they discover the power of learning through play. Our Museum is where lifelong learning begins, curiosity is encouraged and every child is always welcome.
Museum map
Explore Please Touch Museum before you visit.
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Exhibit Details
Rocket Room
Learn about our solar system and the properties of flight through an exhibit that puts you in mission command. Practice STEAM literacy, fine motor skills and sequencing.
- Launch a rocket and see how much force is needed to send it sailing through the spinning rings.
- Take charge at the Mission Control console.
- Glance up at our planetary neighbors hanging from the ceiling.
Next: Roadside Attractions 
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Roadside Attractions
Step into our Philadelphia neighborhood and get creative while learning about many of the things we encounter every day. Practice gross and fine motor skills, STEAM literacy, collaboration, decision-making and communication.
- Navigate your way through the city in the driver’s seat of the SEPTA bus.
- Assemble your own cars at the Please Touch Garage.
- Invent your own unique flavors at the Bassetts Ice Cream Stand.
- Search through the gallery by controlling the Helicopter Camera high above the city.
- Concoct a tasty creation at the City Park food stand.
Next: The Kids Shop
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The Kids Shop
Continue to play at home by stopping in to The Kids Shop, offering toys, games and more designed to help children learn. All proceeds support Please Touch Museum.
Next: Woodside Park Dentzel Carousel
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Woodside Park Dentzel Carousel
Take a spin on our glimmering carousel built over 100 years ago and make new friends with the horses, cats, rabbits, pigs and goats that call this piece of history home.
Next: Please Touch Garden
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Please Touch Garden
When the weather is warm, step outside the Café and into the Please Touch Museum’s urban garden. Have a seat on the patio in this urban oasis or take a stroll through the cornstalks, pepper plants and tomatoes that will soon make their way into the kitchen upstairs. Practice environmental science, health and wellness knowledge, classification and fine motor skills.
- Smell the herbs and try to guess which is which.
- Observe how much the tomato plants have grown since your last visit.
- Run through the Canopy where the colored ceiling casts interesting patterns on the ground.
- Outsmart your friend in a good-natured game of tic-tac-toe.
Next: Please Touch Museum Café
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Please Touch Museum Café
Stop in for a bite and choose from a variety of healthy menu items and everyday favorites for every hungry belly, including snacks for special food allergies and dietary restrictions.
Next: River Adventures
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River Adventures
Discover the properties of water as you play in our pint-sized Schuylkill River. Practice STEAM literacy, environmental science, fine motor skills and creative thinking.
- Float a boat down the river and learn about buoyancy.
- Pump water through pipes, tubes and passageways and see the effects it has.
- Switch the locks and dams to adjust flow.
- Explore the sights and sounds of the marsh in Nature’s Pond Toddler Area.
Next: Hello From Japan!
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Hello From Japan!
Immerse yourself in an interactive version of bustling, modern Tokyo. Serve up some play sushi, practice writing in Japanese and sing karaoke in Kawaii Central, a streetscape inspired by Tokyo’s Harajuku district. Then cross the bridge into a tranquil Shinto shrine. Wander through the bamboo forest, search for kami spirits and hang a wish on the wishing tree in traditional Japan. Kids can learn about the richness and diversity of Japanese culture through a series of interactive learning and roleplaying exhibits.
Next: Happy Camper
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Happy Camper
Get away from the city and get in touch with nature on a camping adventure. Practice communication, collaboration and environmental sciences.
- Roast a marshmallow around the campfire as you take turns telling stories.
- Find out who is awake in the forest at night.
- Gaze up at the twinkling stars in the night sky.
Next: Adventure Camp
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Adventure Camp
Get in touch with science in our indoor tree house. Practice STEAM literacy and fine motor skills.
- Move the magnetic gears around the Gear Wall to ring the bell and turn on the light.
- Analyze insect specimens.
- Tap out a message in Morse code.
- Peer through the periscope.
Next: Imagination Playground
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Imagination Playground
Step into the world of giant blue foam blocks where the possibilities for play are endless. Practice STEAM literacy, collaboration, fine and gross motor skills, creativity and problem solving.
- Construct something new and unique every time you visit.
- Build a structure with Magnatiles on the light table that glows as it grows.
Next: Wordsworth's Cottage
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Wordsworth's Cottage
This calm space is great for relaxing and taking a moment to ease up on the activity while still learning. Practice communication, literacy and collaboration.
- Read a book while sitting beside the fireplace.
- Host a tea party around the rustic kitchen table.
Next: Hamilton Hall
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Hamilton Hall
What can you find under the magnificent glass dome at the center of Memorial Hall? It’s the Statue of Liberty’s torch! Of course, unlike the real torch, which was displayed nearby during the 1876 Centennial Exhibition, this torch was made completely out of toys by “junk sculptor” Leo Sewell.
Next: Rocket Room
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Rocket Room
Roadside Attractions
The Kids Shop
Woodside Park Dentzel Carousel
Please Touch Garden
Please Touch Museum Café
River Adventures
Hello From Japan!
Happy Camper
Adventure Camp
Imagination Playground
Wordsworth's Cottage
Hamilton HallSwitch Floors
Main level
Lower level
Lower Level
Exhibit Details
Healthy Me: Market + Bimbo Bakeries USA Bistro
This kid-size city puts kids in charge and lets them learn through role-playing and decision-making. Practice fine motor skills, health and wellness knowledge, collaboration and communication.
- Select your ingredients for dinner and find them in the supermarket.
- Assemble and serve a tasty sandwich in the Bistro.
Next: Healthy Me: Children's Hospital
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Healthy Me: Children's Hospital
This kid-size city puts kids in charge and lets them learn through role-playing and decision-making. Practice fine motor skills, health and wellness knowledge, collaboration and communication.
- Scan a doll on the x-ray or MRI machines in the hospital.
Next: Healthy Me: Front Step Toddler Area
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Healthy Me: Front Step Toddler Area
This kid-size city puts kids in charge and lets them learn through role-playing and decision-making. Practice fine motor skills, health and wellness knowledge, collaboration and communication.
- Tend your urban garden.
Next: Wonderland
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Wonderland
Take a trip down the rabbit hole into a world where nothing is as it seems. Practice communication, critical thinking and gross and fine motor skills.
- Navigate the hedge maze on your way to the Mad Hatter’s endless tea party.
- Paint the roses red and watch as they change color before your eyes.
- Find the shrinking hallway as you wind through the Hall of Mirrors.
- Play a game of croquet with flamingos and hedgehogs.
- Travel into the pages of classic children’s stories in Fairytale Garden Toddler Area.
Next: Centennial Exploration
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Centennial Exploration
Memorial Hall wasn’t always the home of Please Touch Museum. This architectural masterpiece was built for the 1876 United States Centennial and World’s Fair. Explore the unique history of Memorial Hall and West Philadelphia and see how this event has affected your own life. Practice STEAM literacy, historic awareness, fine motor skills, classification and collaboration.
- Locate Memorial Hall in the massive historic recreation of the 1876 World’s Fair.
- Set up a wooden train set that can span half of the gallery.
- Ring the bell in the locomotive of a train.
Next: Program Room
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Program Room
Our programs provide a welcoming, friendly introduction to the Museum and begin to instill in young visitors a love of discovery and learning, encouraging future cultural experiences. All programs are informed by current research and best practices in the fields of informal learning, museum education and early childhood education.
Next: The Playhouse
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The Playhouse
The Playhouse at Please Touch Museum invites children to exercise their imaginations and enter new worlds. Inside the theater, visitors experience theater in engaging, interactive and unexpected ways. In addition to ongoing theater productions, we’re dedicated to bringing diverse performers from Philadelphia and around the world!
Next: Healthy Me: Market + Bimbo Bakeries USA Bistro
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Healthy Me: Market + Bimbo Bakeries USA Bistro
Healthy Me: Children's Hospital
Healthy Me: Front Step Toddler Area
Wonderland
Centennial Exploration
Program Room
The PlayhouseSwitch Floors
Main level
Lower level
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