Smokey Bear and Woodsy Owl come to Cleveland

CLEVELAND — Two beloved American icons are featured in The Cleveland Museum of Natural History’s Smokey Bear & Woodsy Owl: Home Sweet Home, an educational and interactive exhibit for children.

The exhibit runs through Jan. 19.

The Smokey Bear & Woodsy Owl: Home Sweet Home exhibition encourages families to spend time outdoors and inspires children to discover and care for the natural resources that sustain our world.

Smokey Bear and Woodsy Owl guide visitors through urban, woodland and stream settings featuring educational activities, props, costumes and puppets that underscore the importance of protecting ecosystems, as well as highlighting ways to reduce, reuse and recycle resources.

Activities

Exhibit activities will be particularly engaging for children ages 2 through 8, providing young children with open-ended play opportunities that help build fundamental academic and social skills.

A ranger’s station and lookout tower, complete with a pretend two-way radio, interactive map, computer workstation and sighting tube, encourage children to explore the roles of the forest ranger, cartographer and firefighter.

In a pretend yard, children can plant a tree sapling, turn a compost tumbler and guide a pretend raindrop from a garden shed roof into a rain barrel. Along a pretend stream, children can follow animal tracks, compare the differences in the urban and forest shorelines, learn about water safety and pretend to fish from a kid-sized rowboat.

The exhibit was created by the Betty Brinn Children’s Museum in collaboration with the U.S. Forest Service.

Smokey Bear & Woodsy Owl: Home Sweet Home is free with museum admission.

Admission fees are $12 for adults (19 and older); $10 for youth (ages 3-18), college students (with ID), seniors (60 and older); toddlers (2 and younger) are free.

Shafran Planetarium shows are $4 with general admission.

The Museum is at 1 Wade Oval Drive, University Circle, Cleveland. Call 216-231-4600 or 800-317-9155 or visit www.cmnh.org for more information.