Dead Man’s Party – Dia de los Muertos

Dia de los Muertos artwork by one of our hmns bloggers!

Halloween is this Saturday and everyone is scrambling to put together their costumes and figuring out what parties to go to Friday and Saturday. But what are your plans for Dia de los Muertos on November 2nd!?

The education department here at HMNS offered an encore event to last year’s very popular Dia de los Muertos Educator Overnight and teachers came from all over the greater Houston area to learn about this incredible holiday and how to do some activities with their own students so that they may learn more about the culture. If you want to learn how to make sugar skulls check out this guide online – it has some great tips on how to make some incredible shaped sugar treasures!

Above you’ll see an artwork that references La Calavera Catrina, an etching done by Mexican printmaker Jose Guadelupe Posada in 1913. La Catrina and some of Posada’s other artwork is reproduced and can be seen around town available on book bags, t-shirts and in jewelry – especially around Dia de los Muertos. This piece pictured here is composed completely out of dyed eggshells by one of our very own hmns bloggers!

Below are some of the fun hands on activities and projects the teachers did at the Overnight this year and don’t worry – we’re already thinking up some cool ideas for “Dia de los Muertos II – the Overnight Sequel for Educators” – next October! Drop me a line if you want to receive notice when we start accepting registrations for this Overnight in 2010 – overnights@hmns.org.

Decorating sugar skulls
Decorating sugar skulls
Calacas puppet in progress
Calacas puppet in progress
Cigar box altar
Cigar box altar
This tiny clay skull is perfect for a tiny cigar box altar table!
This tiny clay skull
is perfect for a tiny cigar box altar table!
Completed sugar skulls!
Completed sugar skulls!

On the Second Day of HMNS…shop for Sci-tastic Gifts

Our Museum Store has the city’s
best selection of dinosaur toys.

This holiday season, in a take-off of everyone’s favorite holiday classic, The 12 Days of Christmas (“fiiiiiiiiiive gol-den riiiiiiiings!”) we’ve got 12 full days of ideas for fantastic family fun this holiday season. (Of course, most of the ideas are things that are happening throughout the holiday season – or even year-round – we just think they’re perfect for that magical “What will we do today, family?” moment that pops up once school is out.)

On the second day of HMNS, we’ve got your gift-giving conundrum solved – with the slew of fabulous and creative gift options available at our Museum Stores.

Got a youngster on your list? Check out our unparalleled selection of dinosaur toys.

Jewelry lover? How about a necklace made from geode crystals?

Nature buff? Beautiful, preserved butterflies are sure to dazzle.

Tech-geek? Try our laser-cut home decorations.

In this video, HMNS Merchandise Manager Jennifer King walks you through our brand new, totally redesigned store and points out he best of what we have this holiday season. Best of all – all of the proceeds from our Museum Stores go to support educational programming at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. So, you can get something cool for everyone on your list – and feel great knowing that you’re helping to educate our next generation of scientists.

Learn more about The First Day of HMNS - the debut of The Birth of Christianity: A Jewish Story, a new special exhibition. And, check back daily – we’ve got 10 more days coming up, with great ideas for family fun this holiday season. You can also check them all out now, at our spiffy new 12 Days of HMNS web site – or watch them roll out here until Christmas Eve.

GoodShop online to help the Museum!

Black Friday at the mall - EPSN0277lr
Creative Commons License photo credit: Larsz

It’s that time of year again where everywhere we turn we’re being asked to shop ’til we drop!

If you are the type of person who will do just about anything to avoid the holiday mall traffic you should try shopping online. There’s so much available online and now there’s a way to support charities like the Houston Museum of Natural Science while shopping online from the comfort of your own home!

GoodSearch is an online search engine (like google or yahoo) that donates to the charity of your choice each time you search – I even have the GoodSearch toolbar on my internet window so I can search and donate without even thinking twice! So – GoodSearch has taken it a step further and created GoodShop which is perfect for those of you who like to shop online! GoodShop partners with online retailers so that when you click on a particular online shop from the GoodShop homepage a percentage of your purchase price goes to the charity of your choice! What’s even better is that there is such a variety of online retailers participating (Apple store/Itunes, Best Buy, Nordstrom, Zappos, Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble just to name a few) you can find almost anything you’re looking for via the GoodShop page! There are also deals and coupons that the online shops will sometimes offer to GoodShoppers via the GoodShop page!

So here’s how it works:

1.Go to the GoodShop page

2. Select your Charity (HMNS is already loaded so all you have to do is search Houston Museum)

3. Click on the store of your choice out of the 700 participating retailers and buy something! Up to 30% of your purchase will go to your selected charity!

4. Tell all of your friends!