by Linda Finnegan

Created on: October 08, 2010

Located near Centennial Olympic Park, Imagine It! The Children’s Museum of Atlanta is designed for children and adults to play together. Geared for children eight and under and dedicated to the importance of play in child development, the museum provides a safe environment and hands-on activities for children to learn and explore. Exhibits are designed to stimulate all the senses and help develop reading, math, language arts and science skills. It is a great place for families to visit.

The museum is totally family-friendly. No adults are allowed in the museum without children and no children are allowed in the museum without adults. There are family bathrooms, a nursing nook, changing tables and more.

There are five permanent exhibits in the museum and several traveling or special exhibits. These traveling exhibits change three times a year.

Fundamentally Food

This is the first exhibit the children see when they enter the museum. Fundamentally Food recreates a farm complete with a John Deere tractor. Children learn about the origins of food, food identification, food transportation and many things about agriculture.  Fundamentally Food is a year-round exhibit.

Leaping into Learning

In this exhibit children don raincoats and enter a forest where they can fish, climb a tree house and go under a waterfall without getting wet. Leaping into Learning is also a year-round exhibit.

Let Your Creativity Flow

Wall painting is the order of the day in this enjoyable area. Children put on smocks and paint or build sand sculptures with special molding sand. There is also an area where children can build sculptures using interlocking pipes. Let Your Creativity Flow contains a PVC pipe organ and an extensive costume area. This is a year-round exhibit.

Tools for Solutions

Children get to explore pulleys, levers, screws, inclined planes, wheel and axle and other simple machines is this lively area. There is a giant ball machine and kids have fun moving balls around the machine and its crane. Tools for Solutions is a permanent exhibit.

Crawl Space

Dedicated to children two and under, this area allows children to crawl, rock and roll in this padded area. The area is super clean and contains soft blocks and tunnels for early walkers and those still crawling. This toddler play area is a year-round exhibit.

Making America’s Music: Rhythm, Roots and Rhyme

This is an international traveling exhibit. It contains several environments or playful settings that feature a musical genre. Jazz, group drumming, country and rock are all represented. Children learn about melody, tempo and tone and actively make music. The hands-on exhibits are designed to encourage a lifelong love of music.

Hours

The Imagine It! Children’s Museum of Atlanta is open 7 days a week. Monday through Friday, the museum is open from 10 AM to 4 PM. On Saturdays and Sundays, it is open from 10 AM to 5 PM. The museum is closed Thanksgiving and Christmas. On Christmas Eve the museum closes at 1 PM.

Notes

The average visit to the children’s museum is 2 hours. Arrangements can be made for parties of all kinds and for elementary field trips. Vending machines are available or parents can bring a picnic lunch. On the weekends, Chick-fil-a sells sandwiches in the snack bar area.

Parking

The best parking is in the Georgia Aquarium parking deck or at the World of Cocoa Cola Parking Lot.

Contact Information

Imagine It! The Children’s Museum of Atlanta

275 Centennial Olympic Park Drive, NW

Atlanta, GA 30313

404-653-9277

www.childrensmuseumatlanta.org

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