The Spotlight Space is a dynamic, ever-changing exhibit area designed to showcase fresh ideas and innovative concepts. It offers opportunities for unique partnerships as well as a platform for our team to create and share original exhibits.
Current Exhibit:
Loose parts play is a type of open-ended play that involves everyday objects that children can interact with and utilize in any number of ways. This creates opportunities to simply…PLAY.
Try this!
- Build a tower as tall as you are
- Create a maze
- Build a habitat for a favorite animal or insect
- Create a rainbow using the colourful loose parts pieces
- Create a city out of wooden blocks and pretend you are a giant!
Why it matters:
- Math skills: sorting, counting, patterning and matching.
- Scientific inquiry: posing questions, interpreting, planning, analyzing, and investigating.
- Fostering relationships: communication, negotiation, learning to take turns, and teamwork.
- This type of play has no specific end goal or product and encourages imagination and creativity.
- Promotes risk-taking in a safe environment, which invites and encourages curiosity.
Loose Parts Play is open March 4 to April 26, 2026 and is included with your membership or admission.
- Loose parts can include: corks, shells, leaves, beads, pom poms, ribbons, marbles, rocks, bottle caps, toilet paper or paper towel rolls, dried beans, dice, buttons, rocks, jars, straws, egg cartons, twine, doilies, popsicle sticks, and more!
- Take the museum home with you with loose parts toys in Wonderhub’s Gift Shop for more play at home!
Past Exhibits in Spotlight:
Experience STEM in Action as you find a way through the lava without burning your socks off! Teamwork and imagination will be the key to as you create your own adventure navigating around the lava.
Floor is Lava was open for play November 19, 2025 to March 1, 2026.
Try this!
- Have a grown-up be a lava monster. Can you create a path that stops them from being able to get to you?
- What animals do you think might be around? Pretend to be a dragon or dinosaur as you balance and play.
Why it matters:
- Imaginative Play: Engaging in imaginative play promotes the development of creativity, problem solving, and communication skills as kids bring others into their world and explore different ways to use the things around them. This type of play also helps children learn to navigate conflict and cooperation with peers, improve confidence, and supports the development of emotional regulation.
- Narrative Play: This exhibit sets children up to tell their own story in their own way. Is there a dragon in the volcano that they need to defeat? Maybe they need to save the last known oasis from becoming scorched like the rest of the land! Through narrative play, children build their vocabulary and grow in their understanding of the world and people around them.
- Inter-Generational Play: Hey grown-ups, do you remember playing floor is lava when you were a child? This exhibit invites everyone to get involved from infant to grandparent, and maybe even new friends! Inter-generational play is vital to children’s growth and strengthens bonds between families and peers. It invites older children and adults to think outside the box and play again while younger children build skills through interactions and observations.
Experience STEM in Action as you step, rock, tip, and wobble your way through Wobble World, where hands-on exploration of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math principles like balance, gravity, and motion comes alive through joyful, active play.
Wobble World was open for play September 17 to November 16, 2025.
Try this!
- Can you walk backwards across the balance beam?
- Rock on a wobble board and then freeze like a statue. Can you stay still?
- Pretend to be different animals as you wobble. Can you wobble like a penguin or tiptoe like a cat?
Why it matters:
- Builds balance and coordination – navigating through the wobbles builds core strength and motor skills.
- Encourages risk taking – children are able to take on safe challenges and gain confidence through physical play.
- Promotes body awareness – children learn how their bodies can move and where they are in space. This is a key skill for motor development.
- Supports all ages – everyone can play at their own level and increase the challenge with bigger or smaller wobbles.
- Encourages independence and teamwork – options are available to play together or alone, building these skills.
- Movement benefits -physical activity is linked to better focus, and better mental health for children and adults alike.
Game On!
Step into our backyard of mega fun for the whole family!
This exhibit invites you to imagine summer fun, enjoying outdoor games and adventures in a backyard like setting. Try your hand at games like Tetris Tumble, Giant Connect 4, Giant Funnel Pong, Cornhole, and Ladderball! Explore play that sparks learning outcomes for all ages through creativity, cooperation, and critical thinking.
Game On! was open for play July 22 to September 7, 2025.
Try this!
- Can you play one of the games while hopping up and down on one foot?
- Try to throw a bean bag through each hole of the corn hole. Can you do it with both an overhand and underhand throw?
- How high can you stack the tetris tower? Can you make it taller than you?
- Try playing a cooperative version of each game. Can you work together with your child?
- Can you create your own made up game using one or more components of these yard games?
Why it matters:
These games provide both learning AND fun!
- Math skills: spatial reasoning, positioning, geometry, number sense and numeracy
- Science skills: gravity, momentum, trajectory
- Physical education: hand-eye coordination, locomotor skills, movement through space, throwing, transporting objects
- Building relationships: communication, negotiation, learning to take turns, cooperation, and teamwork.
Boxtopia
Boxtopia is a dynamic hands-on exhibit where imagination takes centre stage! Using nothing by carboard and creativity, kids can explore, design and build in this-ever changing world of forts, tunnels, sculptures and more. With no rules and endless possibilities, every visit offers a new adventure in problem-solving, collaboration, and creative expression.
Thank you to Spicers for helping bring this exhibit to life.
Boxtopia was open for building April 1 to June 29, 2025.
___
Why kids (and their grown-ups) love Boxtopia:
- Cardboard creations: Countless boxes of all sizes for endless building fun where you can make anything!
- Open-ended play: No instructions—just pure imagination at work.
- Experiment and Build: In Boxtopia you’ll put your skills to work to build worlds utilizing a variety of materials and Makedo tools including kid-safe saws and perforators. Like what you play with? Check out the gift shop and take some Makedo tools home with you (available soon).
- Collaborate with your kids: Boxtopia is the perfect exhibit for adults to get involved and have just as much fun as their kiddos. Come ready to put your hard hats on as you collaborate with your family to design, assemble, and test your creations.
- Display your creations: While you’re welcome to take your creation home with you, we encourage all builders to place their creation within Boxtopia to enhance the experience for everyone!
- Always evolving: Each visit offers a new experience with boundless opportunities to add your creations to Boxtopia.
Boxtopia is more than play, it’s learning in disguise:
- STEAM in action: Hands-on science, technology, engineering, arts, and math in action.
- Creative confidence: Experiment, explore, and bring ideas to life.
- Teamwork and collaboration: Work together, problem-solve, and share ideas.
- Sustainability in play: Discover the power of re-using materials in your creations.