SECTION:   SCHOOL RESOURCES

The New Jersey State Museum is pleased to present the following programs. To make reservations, please or 609-292-6347
(unless otherwise noted).

School Day Performances:

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

¡Cubanana! Melodias Danza de Cuba
Presented with Young Audiences New Jersey

Grades: K-12; At 11:30 am            Auditorium; $2.00 per person

When ¡Cubanana! starts to sing and dance, it’s not long before the audience starts clapping and wants to join in. This immersion in Cuban culture and history is enriched by stories and a special video filmed on location to illustrate key concepts.

Related New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards: 1.1, 3.4, 6.3, and 7.2.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Anne Pasquale: Liberty Bells
Presented with Young Audiences New Jersey

Grades: K-9; At 11:30 am            Auditorium; $2.00 per person

Inspired by her grandmother’s tales, Anne Pasquale has created a program based on the stories of female immigrants. Through story, song and characterizations, the audience meets immigrants of different nationalities. Students emerge with a newfound appreciation for the nation’s cultural diversity and common heritage.

Related New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards: 1.1, 3.4, and 6.4. Ó

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Jack Branagan: Our Home Planet Earth

Grades: K-8; At 11:30 am            Auditorium; $2.00 per person

Today, most everyone is aware of the environmental problems the planet earth and its inhabitants face. This program will help boys and girls realize how important recycling is and how it is everyone's responsibility to respect and conserve the earth's natural resources. The show opens revealing a six foot diameter globe of the planet earth. Most people consider their town as being their home, but after a fast paced question and answer dialogue, students quickly realize that the entire planet earth should be considered as their home. Using a huge globe, terms such as revolution, rotation, and the relationship of the earth with the sun and the other planets in the solar system, are easily understood by students. Using special lighting effects and the huge earth ball, Jack demonstrates what causes day and night. Boys and girls will learn what natural resources are and how we are wasting them. Using a bag of garbage, Jack has students identify many of the everyday items we throw away which should be recycled. Terms such as biodegradable, recycling, natural resources, landfill sites, incinerators, and conservation are introduced and discussed during this humorous portion of the show.

This is a perfect compliment to the Museum's exhibition Rising Tide: Climate Change and New Jersey.

Related New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards: 5.1, 5.3, 5.4, 5.6, and 5.7. Ó

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Mad Science: Sounds Like Science

Grades: K-4; At 11:30 am            Auditorium; $2.00 per person

This 45-minute presentation is designed to introduce children to the world of science, highlighting the sense of sound. Through a combination of demonstrations and audience participation we bring the science of sound to your audience. Among the experiments the students will witness how sound waves travel using both the audience and a Slinky. They'll participate in creating a rainstorm complete with rain, thunder and lighting. We'll use some heat to make a metal pipes 'sing'. And for a finale we'll get to hear the quack of duck, the growl of a tiger and the roar of a

T-Rex. This is a very fun, and engaging show.

Related New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards: 5.1, 5.4, 5.6, and 5.7 Ó

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Garden State Percussion Trio: Meet the Beet
Presented with Young Audiences New Jersey

Grades: K-6; At 11:30 am            Auditorium; $2.00 per person

This trio marches in with drum loads of information about the art, acoustics, and history of percussion instruments. Students join the demonstration of the xylophone, vibraphone, timpani, and drums and learn about the sounds that each instrument makes. The trio also shows how movie and sound effects are created with percussion.

Related New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards: 1.1 and 3.4.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Thanksgiving Around the World

Grades: K-8; At 11:30 am            Auditorium; $2.00 per person

For millennia, the people of the world have felt the need to affirm their connection with the earth and nature’s bounty. Combining story, music, masks, dance, ethnic musical instruments, and audience participation, Taino celebrates the harvest time. Journey with Taino to the Celtic harvest traditions of the British Isles, to the Latino harvest festivities of the Caribbean, to the rainforest rituals of the Mbuti in Africa, and tot he rice harvest ceremonies of Asia. This is truly a bountiful celebration!

Related New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards: 1.1, 1.2, 3.4, 6.3, and 6.4.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

The American Boychoir: Journeys and Discoveries
Presented with Young Audiences New Jersey

Grades: K-12; At 11:30 am            Auditorium; $2.00 per person

The world-renowned American Boychoir comes home to New Jersey! Hear middle school-aged boys sing music they love - from Mozart to McCartney - and share their stories of life on the road as one of the nation’s most frequently performing professional choral ensembles. Praised by world-class conductors including Zubin Mehta, Seiji Ozawa, and John Williams, these extraordinarily talented and exquisitely trained young singers will delight your school. With members ranging in age from 10 to 13, The American Boychoir has performed at the Academy Awards, in television commercials, and in well-known concert venues like Carnegie Hall!

Related New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards: 1.1 and 3.4. Ó

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Mythmakers: Holiday Stories and Music Show
Presented with Young Audiences New Jersey

Grades: K-8; At 11:30 am            Auditorium; $2.00 per person

Enjoy holiday stories and music for the holiday season from around the world and through the centuries. Two master actor/storytellers present a multicultural performance loaded with music and audience participation. Authentic musical instruments from the appropriate cultures accompany and enhance each story.

Related New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards: 1.1, 1.2, 3.4, 6.3, and 6.4. Ó

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Mad Science: Winter Holiday

Grades: K-6; At 11:30 am            Auditorium; $2.00 per person

This 45-minute presentation will have your audience gasping and laughing at the Mad Scientist’s exciting and merry science experiments. Through a mixture of science and magic the children will see a playing card vanish only to reappear again neatly gift-wrapped! Kids will hear how Eggbert became Santa’s helper and will help the Mad Scientist get Eggbert through a chimney using science. Watch as our special Snowman is de-frosted right before their eyes! The audience will also discover how Jack Frost can fill an eight-foot air bag with one breath. Then, as a grand finale, the Mad Scientist will introduce the audience to a mysterious North Pole rock that turns out to be Dry Ice. Using the Dry Ice, the Mad Scientist will make bubbling potions, popping corks, shivering quarters and clouds of fog. All will have an evening of giddy goodness and festive fun!

Related New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards: 5.1, 5.2, 5.4, 5.7, and 5.8

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Jack Branagan: Kids Going Green

Grades: K-8; At 11:30 am            Auditorium; $2.00 per person

Students awareness of conservation, natural resources, recycling, and pollution has increased dramatically. However, terms like carbon footprint, global warming and climate change are relatively new. This program will explore these terms and provide a clearer understanding about what we can do around our homes, schools, and communities to help make planet Earth a safer place to live and grow. In a fast paced dialogue students quickly learn about the energy used to keep us alive and comfortable. Children will learn that many forms of energy used today: coal, oil, and natural gas all come from plants and animals that died and were compressed millions of years ago. When we burn these fuels to create energy the waste product is the carbon which these same plants and animals were made up of. Where is this carbon going? Unfortunately into our air! Through an unforgettable experiment on stage girls and boys see how this carbon accumulates in the atmosphere creating a giant blanket around our planet. As with any blanket, it traps in heat resulting in global warming.

Students will learn about conserving energy, what is being done today using the older forms of energy compared to the newer forms of energy which do not create carbon as well as recycling and conservation.

This is a perfect compliment to the Museum's exhibition Rising Tide: Climate Change and New Jersey.

Related New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards: 5.1, 5.3, 5.4, and 5.7.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Dr. Think Man of Imagination

Grades: K-6 (possibly 8); At 11:30 am            Auditorium; $2.00 per person

Imagination is the key to all thought. Before anything can be created, discovered, or developed, it must first be imagined. Everything we know from complex computer programs, to elaborate space ships, to a simple piece of paper first began in someone's imagination. We all use imagination every day in simple tasks, as well as in solving complicated problems. Like any other skill, imagination must be cultivated, exercised and developed. Through humor, music, mime, circus skills and audience participation, Craig Babcock shows us humorous introductions to great “imaginators” throughout history, including Ben Franklin, Galileo, Sir Isaac Newton, George Washington Carver, Marie Curie, Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell and others. Dr. Think helps us to learn how to use our own imaginations by learning from the great thinkers of the past, as well as engaging the creative participation from the audience of the present.

Related New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards: 1.1, 1.2, 5.1, 5.3, 5.4 and 5.7.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Ssuuna: Eda Ne Kakati - From the Past to the Present
Presented with Young Audiences New Jersey

Grades: K-8; At 11:30 am            Auditorium; $2.00 per person

A journey in dance, song, music, costumes, stories, and games to Ssuuna’s Ugandan homeland. With plenty of opportunities to try traditional dances and instruments, students gain a spirited understanding of Uganda’s culture. Their energetic tour guide is one of that country’s most talented and endearing ambassadors, a performer whose smile and warmth are as wide as the continent of his birth.

Related New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards: 1.1, 1.5, 3.4, 6.3, and 7.2. Ó

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Mr. Fish's Anti-Gravity Show

Grades: K-8; At 11:30 am            Auditorium; $2.00 per person

When things start spinning, everything changes. The concepts of centrifugal and centripetal force, sound waves, flight, balance, and the center of gravity are presented in a dynamic presentation, full of audience participation. This astounding performance comes to a riotous conclusion with a madcap plate-spinning routine.

Related New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards: 5.1, 5.3, 5.4, and 5.7. Ó

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

The American Spirit

Grades: K-8; At 11:30 am            Auditorium; $2.00 per person

Gerald Fierst brings to life eyewitness accounts of the men and women who shaped our world. Explore the pageant of American history, including George Washington and the founding of our country; Chief Sequoyah, of the Cherokee Nation; Sojourner Truth and the Civil War; the Wright Brothers and the age of invention; Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, visionaries of democracy. This dynamic one-man production with costumes, scenery and props.

Related New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards: 1.1, 3.4, and 6.4. Ó

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Mad Science: Spin, Pop, Boom

Grades: K-6; At 11:30 am            Auditorium; $2.00 per person

This 45-minute presentation is designed to introduce science to elementary age children. In it, the Mad Scientist will use simple but exciting science experiments and demonstrations to involve your group in the discovery process of science. Included in the event will be such experiments as the “Growing Hand”, “5 Test Tube Salute”, the “Famous, Flaming Didgeridoo” and the “Fantastic Flying Foam Factory”. There will also be some opportunity for members of the audience to participate in a few of the experiments.

Related New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards: 5.1, 5.2, 5.7, and 5.8 Ó

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Pat Cannon's Foot & Fiddle Dance Company: American Footsteps
Presented with Young Audiences New Jersey

Grades: K-12; At 11:30 am            Auditorium; $2.00 per person

“In a show that hardly stops to catch its breath, Foot & Fiddle presents a dazzling blend of clogging, tap, Irish step dance and square dance. A witty, warm-spirited creative mix of American folk and Broadway pizzazz,” says The New York Times. Students learn to sing, dance, and do the hambone. Accompanied by a fiddler, the company leaves its audience with a rich understanding of American folk dances and their European, African, and Native American roots.

Related New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards: 1.1, 1.3, 3.4, and 6.4.

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Jack Branagan: Big Bug Show

Grades: K-8; At 11:30 am           Auditorium; $2.00 per person

Jack the big bug hunter is on an insect safari searching for the biggest bug in the world. Creating a shadow play, by using a 25'x12' scrim and six students from the audience, Jack picks his way through the jungle foliage coming face to face with Leroy, the Big Bug. Leroy is a fluorescent insect puppet measuring eight feet tall and through special lighting effects, loveable Leroy becomes the focal point of a fast-paced discussion of insect body parts. With lots of fun and surprises, the children learn about Leroy's head, the antennae, compound eyes, varied mouth parts, his thorax (including his legs and wings), and his abdomen with its stinger, spiracles, and heart. Accompanying all this puppet fun is an ongoing slide presentation showing actual insect body parts in graphic detail. Boys and girls learn that the majority of insects play an important role in the balance of nature. Throughout this lively tapestry of the insect world, Jack weaves his philosophy ; as intelligent life we should learn to enjoy, understand, and most of all respect all forms of life from the mighty whale to the tiniest insect.

Related New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards: 5.1,5.3,5.4, and 5.7.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Piccirillo Sciencetelling: Dragons & Dreams - Fire & Ice–
Presented with Young Audiences New Jersey

Grades: K-8; At 11:30 am            Auditorium; $2.00 per person

Amidst castles, kings and dragons, join the adventure with scienceteller Andrew Piccirillo as the students learn about the science of fire and ice. Using flash paper, “cool” dry ice and much more, Andrew’s unique assembly allows kids to witness–first hand–the elusive nature of “dragon’s breath”.

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Related New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards: 1.1, 3.4, 5.5, and 5.10.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Shakespeare Theatre of NJ: Romeo & Juliet
Presented with Young Audiences New Jersey

Grades: 6-12; At 11:30 am            Auditorium; $2.00 per person

This exciting new version of the greatest love story in English literature tells the story of two star-crossed lovers and their feuding families. Exciting, beautiful and tragic, Romeo and Juliet is an essential experience for young people. The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey succeeds in re-energizing this great work, demystifying Shakespeare and brings this extraordinary play to life.

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Related New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards: 1.1 and 3.4. Ó

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Spirit Ensemble: Roots of Rhythm
Presented with Young Audiences New Jersey

Grades: K-12; At 11:30 am            Auditorium; $2.00 per person

Expect lots of audience participation as this extraordinarily talented group of musicians plays joyous music from Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America. The group demonstrates the sounds of instruments from around the world, discussing their history, cultural roots, construction, and function. The performance emphasizes music as a common language that communicates across all cultural barriers.

Related New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards: 1.1, 1.5, 3.4, and 7.2.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Mad Science: Up Up and Away

Grades: 3-8; At 11:30 am            Auditorium; $2.00 per person

This program will capture the audiences' interest and show how exciting science can be. Included in the show are a variety of eye-popping demonstrations and experiments. There will be plenty of opportunity for hands-on audience participation in this event. Some of the topics and demonstrations include the three states of matter, air pressure (using the Madgeburg Sphere), a Hot Air Balloon, the Mad Science Hovercraft, a giant size vortex generator and finally the Big Sneeze demonstration. This show is very visually exciting, has lots of audience participation and works very well for medium to large size audiences.

Related New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards: 5.1, 5.2, 5.4, 5.7, and 5.8

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Philly Zoo on Wheels: Born in the USA

Grades: K-8; At 11:30 am            Auditorium; $2.00 per person

From polar bears to porcupines, sea turtles and snakes, the United States is home to a rich diversity of habitats and animals. A traveling naturalist from the Philadelphia Zoo will bring artifacts along with 4 live animals for this 50 minute interactive presentation that teaches about animals, habitats and conservation, polar bears not included!

Related New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards: 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5, 4.1, 4.4, 5.8, and 5.10.

Pennsylvania Core Curriculum Content Standards: 1.2, 1.3, 1.6, 1.8, 2.3, 2.4, 2.6, 2.7, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.8, 4.3, 4.6, 4.7, 4.8, and 4.9.

Main Museum Building and Auditorium Galleries
205 West State Street, Trenton Tuesday – Saturday, 9 am to 5 pm Sunday, noon to 5 pm
Closed Mondays & State Holidays