Bellaboo's Reserved Group "Discovery Trips" - Where learning is FUN

Discovery Trip Important Information
Discovery Trip Educational Options

Bellaboo's offers a series of age appropriate educational activities great for preschool and elementary grades K-3, home schools, and others. Reservations, available Tuesday through Friday, may be made by calling Bellaboo's at 219-963-2070. Discovery Trip options are listed below. Bellaboo's remains open to the public during group trips.

IMPORTANT DISCOVERY TRIP INFORMATION

Student/young group member fee:      $6.00
All children must pay even if they are not participating in the educational segment. Those children not part of the educational segment pay the regular daily admission, but adult chaperones should not bring siblings during a Discovery Trip they are supervising.

Teacher/chaperone fee: Groups will receive one free chaperone per six children. Teachers are included in this count. All other adults accompanying the group will be charged the adult daily rate. Discovery Trip chaperones must be an adult 18 years of age or older.

Minimum reservation is 15 children with a fee of $90.00
Maximum number is 120 students based upon available space. We recommend a one adult to six children ratio for a safe and fun experience for all.

General information
On-site educational activities may be altered or modified depending on the season, weather conditions, group size, and age of children. Reminder: Children and students must wear socks in Bellaboo's year round.

Special Needs: Bellaboo’s is ADA friendly. We are always willing to modify activities to meet the physical or developmental needs of your students or group members. Please let us know in advance of any concerns or needs you may have.

Food choices: Bellaboo’s is a nut free and smoke free facility.  Outside food is not permitted in Bellaboo’s. Bellaboo’s Café offers special group lunches for your students to enjoy.  All lunches have been designed with school nutritional guidelines in mind.  Adult menu choices will also be listed for chaperones and teachers to choose from.  All lunch orders will need to be sent in with final count and payment, two weeks before your field trip.  Order forms will be sent with booking information. Trip leaders should notify our staff of any food allergies or other special needs when making the initial reservation.

Bellaboo's Expectations to our Teachers, Parents, Grandparents, Caregivers and other Chaperones: Thank you for volunteering to guide your group on their Discovery Trip to Bellaboo's. To help make this experience relaxing and enjoyable, there are benches to sit on in each play area so you can watch the children play. It is important that adult chaperones help supervise and monitor the behavior of all children and students and model courteous behavior throughout the Discovery Trip.

We know that your group is EXCITED to be at Bellaboo’s and that Bellaboo’s can be a stimulating place, so we need your assistance to make your Discovery Trip the best ever.

Bellaboo's Play and Discovery Center is designed for children to explore and learn. We ask that all visitors, children and adults, to Bellaboo's treat all other guests in the facility in a safe and respectful manner to maximize everyone’s experience. Treat others as you would like to be treated (no hitting, tugging, yelling). With your help, we can ensure your trip will be effortless and enjoyable for all who are visiting. Regretfully, groups that violate the general rules of the facility or display unruly behavior may be declined the opportunity to schedule a future event.

Click Here for a Discovery Trip Contract

DISCOVERY TRIPS

NEW AT BELLABOO’S PLAY AND DISCOVERY CENTER
Attention Educators!!!  Presenting Bellaboo’s New Discovery Trips!  Call us at 219-963--2070

NCIS Educational Experience (Nursery Children Investigate and Solve) – This interactive learning experience helps our pre-school and kindergarten students practice their math skills by figuring out the missing link in patterns and sequences.  Following one to two step directions, your children will explore and practice using their detective skills while they solve a Mother Goose Rhyme Crime.  They will participate in reciting common nursery rhymes as they practice teamwork to solve the problem.

Click here for Indiana state educational standards for the NCIS program 

CIS Educational Experience (Children Investigate and Solve) – For more advanced detectives, the children will solve a Who Dunnit Caper which will mystify them until the very end.  Our 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Grade P.I.’s will use their deductive reasoning to unwrap the clues.  They will participate in decoding a secret message and then create their own private code.  In the art room, they will sleuth their way to deciphering between a masterpiece and a counterfeit by looking for tale tell signs of mischief and handwriting analysis. 

Click here for Indiana state educational standards for the CIS program

SPACE Educational Experience – Acting as young astronauts, your students will explore the planets through embodying the personality traits of the galaxy.  Students will enjoy the Milky Way in our interactive Children’s Cooking area.  Further expanding on the knowledge of the universe, our educators will help the children create their own model of the solar system.  Come in to discover this out of the world experience with your students. 

You can also depend on the following five original Discovery Trips at Bellaboo's to help meet Indiana State standards in science and social studies.

Ecology Educational Experience
How we care for the earth today will have a big impact on the world tomorrow.  Our field trip on ecology will teach your students or group members about the natural world around them and the relationship of living things in the biosphere they inhabit.  It is about preservation and conservation of our planet.  All living things are linked in what we call our habitat.  Children will learn how they can pitch in to save the earth.  We will explore the 3 R’s –Recycle, Reuse, and Reduce and participate in a recycling-trash sorting race.  The children will create their own edible compost pile in the Interactive Kitchen.  In addition, your students will learn how to preserve and protect our natural resources - like the local dunes and Lake Michigan.

Click here for Indiana state educatieonal standards for the Ecology program

Dinosaurs Educational Experience
Dinosaurs fascinate children.  Dinosaurs are the most interesting way to spark a child’s interest and concern for preservation.  Through dinosaurs, children will look at diet and the environment as it relates to extinction.  During your educational field trip, your students or group members will conduct hands-on excavating in a dinosaur dig.  Acting as young paleontologists, they will try to re-assemble the “fossils” they find to make a dinosaur skeleton.  Our young visitors will also explore the meaning of extinction.  We will discuss and share ways in which we can help preserve and protect our endangered species.

Click here for Indiana state educational standards for the Dinosaur program

Stuffee Educational Experience
Children love Stuffee, our 8’ cloth doll with soft removable internal organs.  Through this educational field trip, your students or group members will learn about the body systems.  They will learn how nutrition, good personal hygiene, rest and exercise are essential to maintaining a healthy body.    Our young visitors will participate in a science quiz game that explains the function of body parts like the heart, lungs, intestines, and stomach.  They will explore and act like young doctors as they listen to Stuffee’s heart through a stethoscope.  Your students will also draw a life size body to overlay with their own body organs.

Click here for Indiana state educational standard for the stuffee program

Bats Educational Experience
Bellaboo, our mascot, is an Indiana Bat.  Bats are friends of nature.  They are valuable to our habitat because they eat insects, pollinate plants, and spread seeds.  During your educational field trip, your students or group members will explore with their hands, minds, bodies and senses to learn about how bats interact with and contribute to our environment.  We will distill any myths our young visitors may have about bats, and replace them with factual information about these amazing mammals.   Your students or group members will learn how bats use echolocation to find food and fly safely in the darkest places.  In addition, your students will participate in an interactive experiment by using their senses, like a bat does, to locate and identify their offspring.

Click here for Indiana state educational standard for the Bats program

C.A.T. Educational Experience is a program designed to meet the Indiana Academic Standards in Fine Arts and Physical Education. This program will offer your students an opportunity to move their bodies like a cat in our story time Yoga session. Exploration and Discovery are right around the corner as the children experiment with sound and rhythm. They will use metal, plastic, and wooden containers to make their own music. Your class will practice their culinary skills in our interactive kitchen. They will create a feline treat no cool cat could pass up. To top it off, BeLLABoo’s will be collaborating with Brauer Museum to bring art up close and personal to our guests. Your students will sharpen their museum manners while they learn about abstract art. Every participant will take home their own self created colorful cat.

Click here for Indiana state educational standards for the C.A.T. program

Budget or time constraints???? Check out these two options

Unguided Exploration: For groups looking for an educational experience with less structure and lower cost, we offer Unguided Exploration.  This two hour experience includes time in the water room, construction zone, train depot, face painting, pretend village, and soft play area which has a jungle gym and ball pit (Children’s Cooking is not included). Minimum # of students: 15 at $5 per student. 

Mini Trip: For groups with a tight schedule or a tight budget, we offer one hour visits.  This experience will give the children a taste of Bellaboo’s including time in the water room, construction zone, train depot, face painting, pretend village, and soft play area which has a jungle gym and ball pit (Children’s Cooking is not included) and get them back to school just in time or snack or lunch time.  Minimum # of students: 15 at $3.50 per student. 

We reserve the right to make changes to Discovery Trips programs. Free Play is optional when time permits.