Today, we went downtown to see the Jim Henson Exhibit at the International Gallery on the Mall.  It was pretty cool.  We started by watching some of the most famous Muppets on THIS site.  We talked about the Muppet humor.  A ‘Muppet’ is a combination of a Marionette, and a Puppet originally developed by Jim Henson and Don Sahlin.  To learn how to make your own CLICK HERE!

Unfortunately, we could not take ANY photos in the exhibit.  That was a real bummer for us, because there was lots of interesting things to see.  We saw a Rowlf the dog, Bert and Ernie, Mana Mana dude, and a Kermit from 1970!  The cool thing about Kermit is, the original one was made from Jim’s mother’s coat! 

In addition to the cool Muppets, they had lots of idea sketches and storyboards from Jim Henson.  That was really neat to see.  The kids did not know what a storyboard was, so seeing original works was a great way to teach them how stories are made. 

They also were playing lots of Jim’s work, which included not only the Muppet show, but also lots of commercials he did in the 1960’s.  The kids liked the ‘old’ style commercials. 

In the back of the exhibit was an area set up for the kids to play with Muppet puppets (small commercial versions) and a make a Muppet wall station.  That inspired us to stop at the craft store on the way home and make our OWN Muppets!  This proved to be the most fun of the day!  Unfortunately, it didn’t take root until about 9pm tonight!  But, it was a great day. 

The exhibit is on in Washington DC until October 7th.  It does not take long to see, so we ended up seeing the brand new Oceans exhibit at the Natural History Museum. 

Cade opted for a skeleton kit from the craft store.