00:00The North East is filled with fantastic cultural landmarks where both locals and tourists can
00:06enjoy and learn about this amazing region. Today I'm at the Discovery Museum located
00:10in Newcastle. I spoke with their Learning and Coordination and Early Years Lead, Amy
00:14Baird, to find out about their Tiny Sparks Takeover event that takes place on the 14th
00:18of March.
00:20So Discovery Museum is located in central Newcastle, very near to the central train
00:26station and it's in a very iconic building and Discovery Museum quite simply tells the
00:32story of Tyneside and its people from science, engineering, technology and local stories
00:39about ships and ship building and just a really lovely place where all of those stories are
00:45shared.
00:46So the event that's taking place on Friday the 14th of March is our Tiny Sparks Takeover
00:51event. So it happens twice a year and we're very excited because next week is our biannual
00:57big event and it's happening during British Science Week. So it's the perfect time to
01:02welcome our youngest visitors and their families and carers to the museum and they get to take
01:08over the whole first floor of the museum and we have a whole range of simple play activities
01:13that are really hands-on and engaging and exciting for little ones to really get to
01:19explore the collections in a different way. So we've got dress up, we've got sorting and
01:24counting activities, we've got investigating and wondrous objects and also arts and crafts
01:31and they get to come and do all of those things in the museum and on that day for that event
01:36we make sure that older children, like school groups for example, they come and visit on
01:41different days. So on that morning it's really a great opportunity for our smallest visitors
01:46to come and to engage with the museum.
01:49It's created for children from the age of 33 months to five years
01:53but younger siblings are welcome too. The Tiny Sparks Takeover is a highlight in the annual
01:58Tiny Sparks programme at the museum. The smaller scale Tiny Sparks sessions are currently on a
02:03weekly basis during term time which is also great fun for your little ones.
02:09So the event provides a really lovely way to have like a shared learning experience with
02:15the grown-ups and the little ones and lots of our visitors say that when they come into the museum
02:21that it's somewhere that they've been before, maybe when they were younger as well.
02:24So we find that Discovery Museum is a really sort of nostalgic venue and when parents and
02:30carers come into the museum they have lots of their own stories and memories of being here
02:36and so having that event for our youngest children and their grown-ups means that they can do
02:41something together in the museum and it also introduces them to the museum and its collections
02:46and hopefully they have such a lovely time at that event that they want to come back again
02:50and again as their children grow up. We have plenty of spaces left on the event and you can
02:55head to our website and all the information is there and that's where you can book tickets.
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