Family Activities

For the Family
Special attention is given to providing engaging and educational performances and hands-on activities for children and youth, sharing the richness and diversity of many cultures with them.

The Family Activities Area features storytelling, workshops, parades, interactive music, quiet games and active games, hands-on crafts and other creative learning opportunities for young audiences and their families.

The Family Stage features a variety of performances including puppetry, music, dance and other art forms, all designed to be fun for both children and adults.

Family Activities Area and Children’s Stage
sponsored by Cracker Barrel Old Country Store

This special interactive area features hands-on crafts, parades, quiet games and active games, and other creative learning opportunities for young audiences and their families. The Children’s Stage located within the Family Activities Area features a variety of performances including storytelling, puppetry, interactive music and dance.

FEATURED PERFORMERS:
Alberti Flea Circus
Third-generation flea circus impresario Jim Alberti and his talented troupe of tiny performers will amaze you with their astonishing acrobatic feats. Look closely and no blinking. After seeing this
amazing show once, you will be “itching” to come back for more.

Puppet show: “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”
First published in 1865, this short story got Mark Twain’s reputation as a humorist hopping! It tells a tall tale about a con-man named Jim Smiley and his notorious frog as Twain comments on foolishness and consequences. This brand-new version, told with puppets built by Wishing Chair Productions, has an original bluegrass score by Tom McBryde.

Lloyd Arneach
Master storyteller Lloyd Arneach is a tradition-bearer of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Children of all ages will be enthralled by his traditional stories learned from family and other tribal elders, as well as those he has written himself.

Chinese Lion Dancers (Sunday only at the Carillon)
The spectacle of the traditional Chinese Lion Dance is a part of celebrations held in Chinese communities all over the world. It is meant to express joy and happiness and to scare off evil spirits. Get close to share in the luck!

MAKE & TAKE ACTIVITIES

• Find out what did kids did for fun 100 years ago. Enjoy games and crafts reminiscent of folk life in Middle Tennessee. Make your own toy harmonica and thaumatrope, an optical illusion toy. Play frontier games including 9 Pins, Marbles, Pick-up Sticks, Quoits, Graces, Ball n’ Cup, and Jacob’s Ladder.

• Create your own unique yarn weaving on a chipboard loom to take home.

• Have fun making your own percussion instruments like the musical egg shaker or a small drum from recycled materials. Then join the musical parade and shake, rattle and roll to your own rhythms.

• Make a paper bag puppet to take home. Bring your creativity, we supply everything else!

• Strum a guitar, play a dulcimer, and pluck a banjo! The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s Musical Petting Zoo offers budding musicians a chance to try new and familiar instruments. Volunteers will offer guidance.

• Just a paper bag? No way! Learn how to transform a paper bag into your own, unique Train Conductor Hat. You’ll be catching everyone’s attention after you draw on and decorate this crafty cap!

• Japanese crafts and games – try origami (Japanese paper folding) and make your own origami to take home with you. Play with traditional Japanese toys Japanese like kendama or daruma otoshi . Try the Chopstick Challenge Game! Calligraphy – we will write something for you in Japanese on colorful pieces of paper; use them as bookmarks or as other decorations!

• Meet PARO, the Baby Robot Seal – Interact with this amazing high-tech therapeutic robot designed to have a positive psychological effect! PARO is currently being used to help people in Japan who have been affected by the earthquake and tsunami.

MADCAP MUSICAL PARADE led by the Nyama Drum Ensemble (Saturday and Sunday at 3:15 p.m.)

DANCE AROUND THE WORLD
Join Massive Monkees for to pick up some cool breakdance moves.
Join Lou Maiuri for a lesson in Appalachian flatfoot dancing
Join Hula Hālau ’o Keikiaki’i and learn how to dance the Hawaiian hula
Participate in a Zumbatomic aerobic dance party session with Tirra

The Family Activities Area is produced by a host of distinguished Nashville organizations: Autism Speaks, the Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park, Cheekwood Botanical Garden & Museum of Art, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, the Global Education Center, the Nashville Public Library, the Tennessee State Museum, the Chinese Arts Alliance of Nashville (CAAN) and the Consulate General of Japan