Map

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.

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.

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.
• Concoct a tasty creation at the City Park food stand.

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.

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.

Nature’s Pond

Explore the sights and sounds of the marsh in Nature’s Pond, designed just for toddlers.

• Jump on the lily pads and try to identify the animal sound!
• Look for animals hiding in the tree.
• Quack and waddle like a duck. Roar and stomp like a bear does in nature!

Sponsored by PNC Bank

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.

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.

Storytime Cabin

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.

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.

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.

Garden Grille 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.

Food & Family

In this 3,650 square foot exhibit presented by GIANT — double the size of the original Market — children will learn about the journey of food from source to gathering place and its importance in cultures, communities, and traditions. Kids can explore an immersive, open-ended learning landscape with three interconnected zones: a shopping market, a hybrid home and industrial kitchen, and a neighborhood festival area. Opportunities for imaginative role-playing include:

• Shop for dinner at the supermarket
• Restock shelves and ring up groceries for customers
• Cook a pizza in our wood-fire pizza oven
• Explore spices, cheeses, and tea from around the world
• Grill up some burgers for a block party
• Decorate a birthday cake
• …and more!

Cents and Sensibility

Fill up your piggybank with exploration, curiosity, and discovery in Cents and Sensibility: Fun with Money presented by PNC Bank. In this exhibit, children are encouraged to develop different money combinations to find the perfect balance with our Dollars and Cents Scale; explore the Money Maze to learn how to spend, save and share; and play Investment Plinko. Will your child make it to the end of the exhibit on budget or spend, spend, spend?

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.

Creative Arts Studio

Creativity abounds in the Creative Arts Studio! This studio space is dedicated to art exploration and education, where children can engage in facilitated art making or utilize materials to create a masterpiece using their own imagination!

Albert M. Greenfield Makerspace Studio

The Albert M. Greenfield Makerspace, intentionally located across from the Creative Arts Studio and Centennial Innovations, is a dedicated space for open-ended exploration and prototyping.

Focused on how kids are creating, not what they are creating, the Makerspace empowers children to think of themselves as an “inventor” and through facilitated and self-directed experiences, discover that learning is found in the process of making, not the end result.

With STEM principles driving its design, the Makerspace is outfitted with adjustable height workbenches and industrial stools, mobile storage units and hanging peg boards to organize tools such as hammers, screwdrivers, drills, saws, hot glue guns, wrenches, measuring tape, levels, electrical wires, and more.

The Please Touch Museum Albert M. Greenfield Makerspace Studio is made possible with a gift from The Albert M. Greenfield Foundation.

Centennial Innovations

Memorial Hall is an architectural masterpiece built for the 1876 United States Centennial. Explore the inventions of the 1876 World’s Fair which became part of our everyday life and learn about individuals whose ideas have transformed our world through today. Practice creativity and critical-thinking skills as you consider: If you could change the world… What would your create? Who would you become? What would a new world look like?

Support has been provided to Please Touch Museum through an Advancement grant from The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.

Additional support received from: National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), Hess Foundation, City of Philadelphia with special thanks to Councilman Curtis Jones, Jr. and the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.

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.

Fairytale Garden

Travel into the pages of classic children’s stories in Fairytale Garden designed just for Toddlers.

• Pretend to be at sea aboard our boat!
• ‘Play I Spy’ while searching for the different animals and characters in the exhibit.
• Get silly and act out characters in the stories: stomp like a monster, purr like a cat, imagine climbing a tower like Rapunzel.

The Playhouse Theatre

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!