The Children’s Creativity Museum is a hands-on multi-media art and technology experience for children ages 2-12.  Goal of museum is to nurture creativity and collaboration in all children. This is my Children’s Creativity Museum review.

Location

The Children’s Creativity Museum (CCM) is located at 221 Fourth Street, San Francisco, CA 94103.

Hours & Admission

(415) 820-3320

Open: Wednesday – Sunday  10:00 am to 4:00 pm

Admission is good all day including in and out privileges.

General Admission: $15.00
Under age 2: Free
Members: Free

Please visit CCM website to verify this information: https://creativity.org/

Parking

CCM recommends booking parking in advance through SpotHero, the nation’s leading parking reservation app.  To reserve your parking spot, visit the Children’s Creativity Museum SpotHero Parking Page and book a spot with rates up to 50% off drive-up.

Activities

• Community lab
• Imagination lab
• Animation studio
• Robot coding
• Making music studio
• Innovation lab

Community lab

In the Community Lab, they have a city landscape animation projected on a large wall. Kids can draw buildings and vehicles, scan them, and populate the virtual city.

Our kids drew several planes, then scanned them in. And, within a few seconds their planes were flying over the animated city that is projected on the wall. Kids got a kick instantaneously seeing their drawings incorporated into the animated city landscape.

Imagination lab

In the Imagination lab, kids are encouraged to create something original in the various studio spaces. Then, share what they’ve created with their friends and families or on display at the museum within our DIY Cloud Gallery. We didn’t visit this exhibit because our kids were too old for it.

Animation studio

Animation Studio introduces kids to the basic skills of stop-motion animation. Kids create clay characters and then bring them to life on screen. Our kids enjoyed creating clay characters, taking pictures, then waiting their animated story on a television screen.

Robot coding

In the Robot coding room, kids have a chance to program robots to navigate a maze. My 5 year old son was interested in the robots, but was too young to “code.” But, he enjoyed the remote control nature of the robot.

Making music studio

In this area kids create musical instruments “Have you Heard” and produce their own music recordings. When we visited this area, appeared to be set up like a Karaoke and video taped. They provided costumes that kids could put on for their singing performance. But, there was a long line, so our kids did not get to try it, so no pictures, sorry! Our kids were definitely interested, so we’ll try on our next visit.

Innovation lab

In the Innovation Lab they give kids The Mystery Box Challenge. The Mystery Box Challenge presents kids with an age appropriate prompt inviting invention. But, kids can only use materials inside the box provided. We didn’t have time to visit this exhibit, but will try it on our next visit.

My thoughts

I thought it was a great place for a day trip with the kids. We went on a Saturday and it was not crowded. Parking was easy using the SpotHero app. Kids loved all of the activities and didn’t want to leave. And after the museum, there is a carousel in front of the museum that the kids went on, see link for more info: https://creativity.org/visit/childrens-creativity-carousel/. Then, we went to grab a bite to eat and do some shopping in San Francisco’s Japantown ( https://www.sfjapantown.org/ ), then headed home. I would recommend arriving earlier in the day versus later in the day so you can take your time and go through all of the exhibits. Hope you learned something new from my Children’s Creativity Museum Review.