Snoring with Dinosaurs

Media Invite

(Daddy snoozes)

How often does one get to snooze with Dinosaurs? Definitely an experience worth roaring about I reckon. But that's assuming they stay dead of course.

Just for this March School Holidays, the ArtScience Museum will be organizing its first-ever sleepover event, ‘Dinosnores! A sleepover with Dinos’. One has since passed while the next ones are scheduled during the June School Holidays (scroll down to end of post for exact dates).

The 2 boys and I were invited to experience Dinosnores! last Friday and while I had reservations initially as whether the boys would be able to spend one night on the wooden floors of the museum, they were swiftly dispelled when the boys agreed to it without batting an eyelid (or two). I think it probably helped too, that the SengkangBabies were present to spice the fun up!

Check-in to our massive 'hotel' was at 7pm, where a one-hour interactive guided tour of the Dinosaurs: Dawn to Extinction exhibition duly followed.

I had previously reviewed the exhibition and you can read all about it HERE. Simply put, it is one exhibition that you and your children should not miss out on.

The fantastic thing about the sleepover event is that it allowed us to see the entire exhibition without the crowds!

So all the children were able to take their time in viewing the exhibits really up close, and learning more about the various dinosaurs throughout the guided tour.

It certainly made the guided tour more interesting for all the children too, with the guide throwing in some fun and interactive activities along the way... which helped keep the rowdy kids focused too! Heh.

By the time the tour was over, everyone was inevitably famished. So no surprises that everyone had an appetite of a Dinosaur then.

I had thought the exhibition would be the most engaging portion of the sleepover, but I was dead wrong. The more interesting bits began right after dinner, with the children being shepherded into a workshop area where they got to shoot their very own Dinosaurs stop-motion movie!

Using an app pre-loaded into an iPod Touch, the kids were tasked to think out a storyline involving dinosaurs, use the provided materials and props to act it out and film it as a stop-motion short movie.

The kids were first given a short lesson on how stop-motion works, and were then left to their own devices as they brainstormed among themselves.

After 40 minutes of work, this was what they got to show for their efforts:

Not too shabby huh?

After all that hard work, it was time to chillax with a movie, complete with supper in the form of yummy cookies.

And the movie we watched? Night at the Museum. In case you didn't know, the movie is about a museum where the exhibits come to life after the sun goes down. Yes, rather apt for sleepover party at the ArtScience Museum I know.

Surprisingly though, the boys were not spooked by the movie at all. In fact, they thoroughly enjoyed it... cookies, beanbags, friends and all. And they enjoyed it so much that they were reluctant to fall asleep right after the movie.

If sleeping on the wooden flooring isn't your kind of thing, you can opt to bring along your own sleeping bag - which I did. That said, ample blankets and pillows were provided though. So we could actually take extra blankets and line it over the floor to act as a thin mattress.

We were put up in the room featuring one of the highlights of the exhibition, which depicts an epic battle scene between a Lessemsaurus sauropoids (or a four-legged, large herbivorous dinosaur) and a crocodile-like reptile, Fasolasuchus tenax. And this was the view I had as I slowly drifted off to slumberland...

Come next morning, breakfast was quickly gobbled up as there were still 2 activities awaiting the children.

First up, the Shadows Puppets Alive! puppet-making activity where the kids had an opportunity to make their own - what else - dinosaurs puppets out of transparent plastic and straws.

The next activity though, had the kids all eager and excited.

All the kids had the chance to experience life in 'A Day in the Life of a Paleontologist'... and when there are such interactive workshops like this, you can be sure that their fingers will be itching to get started!

I have to say the workshop was extremely hands-on and informative. Through the workshop, the kids learnt how paleontologists collect, record and identify fossils. There were plenty of opportunities for them to get invloved too, and these included handling of tools and specimens, washing off the clay of collected fossils, identifying the bones, and even making a plaster cast from a dinosaur's footprint.

After the workshop, all of us were given the liberty to tour the Dinosaurs exhibition at our own leisure once more before bidding our farewells at 10am.

And the final verdict from Ash and Ayd? They enjoyed it tremendously! In fact, they had no qualms about spending the night on the floor and ranked all the workshop activities as their fave pick of the lot.

Useful Information

Dinosnores! A sleepover with Dinos
Venue: ArtScience Museum
Next Available Dates: 
8 June 2014 (Event page HERE)
22 June 2014 (Event page HERE)
Time: 6.55pm to 10am the following day
Price: S$120 per child participant (free for accompanying adult)
*Recommended for children aged six to 12 years.
Website: http://www.marinabaysands.com/museum.html

Interested parents can register for the sleepover via the following channels:
Hotline: +65 6688 8826
In Person: Marina Bay Sands Box Offices (ArtScience Museum, MasterCard Theatres, Sands SkyPark, Retail Mall, Hotel Towers 1 and 3 lobby)