PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Please Touch Museum is breaking ground on a new permanent exhibit this summer that will help children build important character skills.
The exhibit, called “Character Quest: Building Character Skills Through Play,” will open this fall, thanks to a $2.5 million grant from the Lilly Endowment.
Chief Learning Officer Olivia Thomas said the exhibit will help foster and develop four key skills: social intelligence, emotional intelligence, growth mindset and perseverance.
“We’re planning to put in a large play structure in Memorial Hall where kids can test out their climbing skills, they can persevere through challenges, and see what they can achieve as they grow,” she said.
“We’ve long been doing programming focused on social and emotional learning through play, and this is an extension of that. Those skills are really foundational to how children develop, learn and grow and carry them through adulthood.”
The central component of Character Quest is a 20-foot-tall climbing structure with multiple slides, rope swings and climbing nets. The walls lining the exhibit will be filled with interactive content that will dive deeper into those four character traits.
Please Touch Museum
Thomas said kids will be able to “interact with new activities along the walls that really encourage communication and collaboration [and] understanding your own emotions.”
The museum added that children will be “encouraged to explore their emotions and identify them in others and strengthen their social intelligence through playful challenges that require collaboration.”
Construction begins this July, and a soft opening is planned for October.
