Sportsman’s Paradise
• Interactive area where children can learn about our local environment.
• Activities include fishing in a pirogue, crabbing, and jumping on lily pads.

Alligator’s Nest and the Marsh
Sponsored by Firestone Polymers and Bridgestone Americas
• Interactive area where children can learn about alligators and how they build their nests. Children will also learn about crawfish, snakes, turtles, and aphids.
• Activities include a reading area, alligator eggs, and aphid search.

Pollinator’s Garden
• Learn about the diverse types of vegetables we grow and eat.
• Activities include planting and harvesting vegetables.

Water Cycle Table
• Learn about our Earth’s water cycle, which includes condensation and evaporation.
• Activities include playing in the water table’s various levels.

Mighty Oaks Puppet Corner
• Learn about nature and all the little creatures that live in the oak trees that are so prevalent in our area.
• Activities include a puppet area and reading area.

Ant Climber
• Learn about ants and why they are so beneficial to our environment.
• Activity includes climbing and sliding through a giant ant climber.

The Five Senses

Sight
Sponsored by the Eye Clinic
• Interactive area where children can learn how our eyes “see” the world around us. Children will also learn that some mammals see differently than others.

Smell
Sponsored by the Pediatric Center
• Interactive area where children can learn about our sense of smell. They will also learn how our sense of smell helps us sense danger and how it also adds to our eating experience.

Touch
• Interactive area where children can learn about the sense of touch, and how our skin “feels” objects in our world.

Taste
• Interactive area where children can learn about the sense of taste and the human mouth.
• Children will also learn why it’s important to take care of our mouth and teeth.

Sound
• Interactive area where children will learn how sound travels through the ear. They will learn that there are many factors which determine how mammals and people hear.

The Body Systems

Mr. Bones
• Interactive exhibit where children will learn about our skeletal system while riding a bicycle alongside Mr. Bones, our cycling skeleton.

The Digestive System
• Interactive area where children can learn about our digestive system.

The Body System Puzzle
• Interactive exhibit where children can learn about the human body.

Strength and Balance
Sponsored in memory of David H. Griffin
• Interactive area where children can learn how human muscles work together to accomplish tasks.
• Children will be able to test their strength and balance.

The Heart
• Interactive area where children can learn about the human heart and the circulatory system.

Density Column
• Interactive area where children can learn about density.
• Activity includes traveling through the density column to see how the increase and decrease of density feels on the body.

Giant Lever
• An interactive area where children can learn about levers and how they work to make a task easier.
• Children will use their body weight to pull the giant lever down lifting their friends on the other side.

Archimedes Screw
Sponsored in memory of David H. Griffin
• Interactive area that teaches children about the Archimedes screw. Children will learn how this machine works as a pump to move liquid or material.

• Children will use the Archimedes screw and balls to demonstrate how a liquid or material can be
lifted and transported from point A to point B.

Keystone Arch
• Children will learn the importance of communication and team building while they work together to build a keystone arch. A keystone arch has a central, wedge-shaped stone at the top, called the keystone. The keystone is the last piece set in place, and it locks all others into position, allowing the arch to bear weight.

Rigamajig
• Interactive area that inspires children to follow their curiosity through collaborative, creative, and open-ended play.
• With no instructions or right-or-wrong answers, children can use their imaginations to design and construct their own creations using the provided boards, bolts, and washers.

Safety Square
• Interactive area where children can learn about our community’s first responders.
• Activities include dress up, calling dispatch for help, a fire truck, and more.

Music Hall
• Interactive area where children can learn about the history of music in Southwest Louisiana.
• Activities include playing musical instruments and dancing.

Waterside Vet Clinic
• Interactive area where children can pretend to be veterinarian or member of the clinic’s staff.
• Activities include examining the animals, grooming, and caring for the animals.

KSWLA News
• Interactive area where children can be part of the TV studio news team.
• Activities include playing the roles of the news anchor, meteorologist, camera operator, and production crew.

Cowboy Café
Sponsored by McDonald’s
• Interactive area where children can be a chef, cashier, part of the waiter staff, or a customer.

Sunny’s Market
• Interactive area where children learn how to shop for healthy food options to make a well-balanced meal and how to calculate the purchase.

• Children can pretend they are the store cashier, a stocker, the manager, and the customer.

Kids Port
Sponsored by the Port of Lake Charles
• Interactive experiences where children can learn about the importance of the Port of Lake Charles and the Calcasieu Ship Channel.
• Video games and activities include Port Watch, Exporting and Importing Goods, and the interactive Port.

Calcasieu Pass Lighthouse Climber
Sponsored by First Federal Bank of Louisiana
• Interactive area where children can learn about the Calcasieu Pass Lighthouse and budgeting and saving in this unique exhibit.

Pujo Park
• Interactive program area where you can visit with friends, play a game of chess or checkers, or read a good book. From time to time, we will host special activities in this space.

Calcasieu Crawlers
• Babies and young toddlers learn by exploring the sights, sounds, and textures of the world around them. This special set-aside area allows them to play safely with activities designed just for them.

Let’s All Play is both a call to action and a shared belief that every child deserves a space to explore, imagine and simply be a kid! This campaign will create a vibrant, accessible outdoor park that is an extension of the Children’s Museum at Port Wonder. This free park is designed to bring families together and energize the lakefront area of Lake Charles with a space inspired by connection, creativity and joy!

The Children’s Museum playground exhibit at Port Wonder will be a fully inclusive play experience for children of all abilities. It will give everyone an equal opportunity to actively learn, discover, and play alongside siblings, parents, and friends. Giving a child with disability whether that be a physical, a learning, or a mental disability the chance to feel included not only benefits the child, but it benefits the greater world around them.

Please consider donating to this worthy endeavor so no child is left behind and everyone can play together while visiting the Children’s Museum at Port Wonder! For more information, please email alexandra@swlakids.org. Click the button below to donate!

1011 N. Lakeshore Drive,
Lake Charles, LA 70601

Children’s Museum
Monday-Saturday
9:30 AM - 4:30 PM

Sunday
12 - 1 PM: MEMBERS ONLY
1 - 4 PM: GENERAL ADMISSION

The LDWF Nature and Science
Tuesday-Saturday
9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
(The Nature and Science
Center observes all state and federal holiday closures.)