After experiencing a fun Chicago exhibit or attraction, kids may like to continue the learning by playing at home with toys that relate to the information taught by the exhibit. Such toys might be playthings specifically designed to be educational, or they might just go well with the kinds of play kids enjoyed while visiting the exhibit.

 

Visiting the Animal Houses at Morton Arboretum

Through November 15, 2009, The Morton Arboretum in Lisle is hosting an interactive Animal Houses exhibit. At this outdoor exhibit, children can view and climb inside people-sized represenations of 11 different animal houses, grouped by environment.

 

On the Prairie, visitors can climb on a Spider Web, move through an Ant Colony, and make themselves at home in an imaginatively themed Coyote Den.

 

In the Wetland, children can play in a Pollywog Pond, a Skunk Den, a Beaver Lodge, and a Blue Heron’s Nest. In the Woodland, guests can explore a Squirrel Drey, a Raccoon Den, and a Fallen Log that houses a wasp nest.

 

A Guest House stationed by the central Visitor’s Center spotlights animals that live in or near human homes.   Some of these animal abodes are more realistic than others. For example, the Heron’s nest is just a big nest full of eggs, but the Coyote Den is furnished like Wile E. Coyote’s lair, with shelves of books and other human touches, and the Skunk Den comes with a playful slide. All have some basis in reality, however, and interacting with them can help kids to start to compare both how animals and humans live and how different kinds of animals in different kinds of habitats live.

 

The Morton Arboretum: Beaver Lodge