Summer Curiosity Camps
Children’s Museum of Southern Minnesota, 224 Lamm Street, Mankato, MN 56001
About
Summer Curiosity Camps offer days where campers play, learn, explore, and have fun in the Museum while engaging in specific programming topics. Depending on the camp theme, activities include painting, crafting, sensory art, designing and decorating a flower pot, planting something to take home, caring for a garden space, beginner sewing skills using real sewing machines to make a reusable bag, creating slime and testing different textures, hands-on science experiments, designing and blasting off rockets, tie-dye projects, Fourth of July themed crafts and activities, hands-on STEAM challenges, building and designing, experimenting and inventing, working with clay and using a pottery wheel, searching for clues and solving kid-friendly mysteries with forensic-style science activities, paper making by tearing, blending, pressing, and decorating recycled paper, experiments about the science of flight, investigating how germs spread and where they hide through science activities and interactive experiments, designing sculptures and imaginative creations from recyclables, using boxes, containers, paper, and other recycled items to make art, and mixing, measuring, and creating simple kid-friendly recipes using fresh produce from a garden. Campers also have time to play in the Museum and explore the Museum environment and programs, with the CMSM Loft serving as “Camp Central” for directly supervised camp experiences created for each camp.
• Ages: 5–9 years old
• Schedule: Camp sessions run from 9:00 AM–12:00 PM on specified dates, with drop-off beginning at 8:50 AM.
• Price: $45.00/day. Separate registration required for each day.
Camp themes include Messy Masterpieces, Plant, Play, & Grow, Stitching with The Okies, Slime Time Science, Stars, Stripes & ROCKETS, STEAMagination, Mud Masters: Clay Adventure, Crack the Case: Detective Camp!, Pulp to Paper, Mission: Rocket, Super Science: Germ Busters, Scrap Studio: Recycled Art, and Cooking Up Curiosity. The CMSM Loft is designated as “Camp Central,” where campers engage together as a group in directly supervised experiences created for each camp.
The Children’s Museum of Southern Minnesota education team consists of highly qualified and trained program educators, and the team is led by Minnesota Licensed Educators. The leadership team includes CEO Louise Dickmeyer. The mission of the Children’s Museum of Southern Minnesota is to ignite the natural curiosity of every child through the power of play in a dynamic, awe-inspiring environment.
The Children’s Museum of Southern Minnesota is a registered non-profit organization that was granted official nonprofit status in 2006 and opened its doors at its current location in May 2015. Place-based exhibits and dynamic hands-on programming at the Museum reveal the wonders of STEAM, agriculture, and arts, and call attention to Southern Minnesota heritage and Dakota culture, with ag education programming and exhibits in the Ag and Nature Lab and Alltech Farmyard, art installations created by local artists, a towering Mankato Clinic Tree of Forts Climber, a Betsy Tacy-inspired Play Porch, and a two-level makers space. The Museum’s Access Program focuses on enriching the lives of children who would have otherwise been challenged by barriers to participation.
Partnerships and special guest experiences at the Museum include Living Earth Center, 3M, and MnDOT (Minnesota Department of Transportation), and the Museum has had a playful presence at off-site events such as Arts by the River, Songs on the Lawn, and the Mankato Marathon. The work of the Museum is funded in part with money from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund created with the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008, with additional assistance provided by the Minnesota Humanities Center.
For Summer Curiosity Camps, drop-off occurs at the front desk in the Museum, where a Museum staff member is at the door starting at 8:50 a.m., and staff wait at the front desk until 9:05 a.m. Parents or caregivers escort campers inside, check them in at the front desk with camp staff, and provide the booking number, the name of the person picking up the child, and a signature; if arrival is past 9:05 a.m., they bring the child into the Museum and check in at the front desk so staff can contact camp staff to come get the camper.
Last updated February 23, 2026.
• Ages: 5–9 years old
• Schedule: Camp sessions run from 9:00 AM–12:00 PM on specified dates, with drop-off beginning at 8:50 AM.
• Price: $45.00/day. Separate registration required for each day.
Camp themes include Messy Masterpieces, Plant, Play, & Grow, Stitching with The Okies, Slime Time Science, Stars, Stripes & ROCKETS, STEAMagination, Mud Masters: Clay Adventure, Crack the Case: Detective Camp!, Pulp to Paper, Mission: Rocket, Super Science: Germ Busters, Scrap Studio: Recycled Art, and Cooking Up Curiosity. The CMSM Loft is designated as “Camp Central,” where campers engage together as a group in directly supervised experiences created for each camp.
The Children’s Museum of Southern Minnesota education team consists of highly qualified and trained program educators, and the team is led by Minnesota Licensed Educators. The leadership team includes CEO Louise Dickmeyer. The mission of the Children’s Museum of Southern Minnesota is to ignite the natural curiosity of every child through the power of play in a dynamic, awe-inspiring environment.
The Children’s Museum of Southern Minnesota is a registered non-profit organization that was granted official nonprofit status in 2006 and opened its doors at its current location in May 2015. Place-based exhibits and dynamic hands-on programming at the Museum reveal the wonders of STEAM, agriculture, and arts, and call attention to Southern Minnesota heritage and Dakota culture, with ag education programming and exhibits in the Ag and Nature Lab and Alltech Farmyard, art installations created by local artists, a towering Mankato Clinic Tree of Forts Climber, a Betsy Tacy-inspired Play Porch, and a two-level makers space. The Museum’s Access Program focuses on enriching the lives of children who would have otherwise been challenged by barriers to participation.
Partnerships and special guest experiences at the Museum include Living Earth Center, 3M, and MnDOT (Minnesota Department of Transportation), and the Museum has had a playful presence at off-site events such as Arts by the River, Songs on the Lawn, and the Mankato Marathon. The work of the Museum is funded in part with money from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund created with the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008, with additional assistance provided by the Minnesota Humanities Center.
For Summer Curiosity Camps, drop-off occurs at the front desk in the Museum, where a Museum staff member is at the door starting at 8:50 a.m., and staff wait at the front desk until 9:05 a.m. Parents or caregivers escort campers inside, check them in at the front desk with camp staff, and provide the booking number, the name of the person picking up the child, and a signature; if arrival is past 9:05 a.m., they bring the child into the Museum and check in at the front desk so staff can contact camp staff to come get the camper.
Last updated February 23, 2026.
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