Halloween may look different this year but kids still want to have fun. The Roblox community is here to help. The popular gaming platform is offering a way to have some trick-or-treating fun with a new Halloween Game Sort that includes Halloween specials and a great selection of spooky Halloween-themed games for players of all ages. 

Halloween Roblox

The top Roblox games like Ghost Simulator, Field Trip Z, Roblox High School 2, and ZombieRush include a variety of Halloween-themed challenges and twists. For example, in ZombieRush players can earn a special badge for eliminating pumpkin-headed zombies, which also helps them earn an exclusive new weapon, or maybe they’d rather hop into Ghost Hunt to get some special awards in exchange for captured ghosts.

In addition, iD Tech, one of Roblox’s preeminent education partners and leaders in youth STEM education, is hosting a Halloween Block Party Oct. 30 through Nov. 1 on the Roblox platform. In their exclusive game created for the party (going live Mon., Oct. 26th) players between the age of 7-17 can participate in virtual trick or treating challenges and explore Halloween activities including a corn maze, hayride, and haunted house.

—Jennifer Swartvagher

Featured photo: Roblox 

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Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is officially open at both Disneyland and Disney World, but the best attraction is yet to come. Disney has revealed new details on the new Rise of the Resistance ride and it’s going to be epic.

The new ride, which draws on the design and function of several of Disney’s most popular attractions, is unlike any other ride they’ve ever designed. It combines elements from multiple ride systems to create a record breaking 15 minute journey.

photo: Joshua Sudock/Disney Parks

The attraction starts off with riders arriving at an outpost planet. They are then recruited to join the resistance and given a mission to head to General Organa’s secret base. However, the standing-room ship you’re loaded onto quickly gets pulled into a Star Destroyer, where you are taken prisoner by the First Order.

Guests will then climb aboard a trackless vehicle that incorporates simulators and animatronics. They will find themselves driving below the bellies of two life-sized AT-ATs and making their way through the Star Destroyer hangar trying to escape Kylo Ren. Luckily, each vehicle will be quipped with a droid to help guide the way to safety.

In one sequence, new technology will give riders the sense that they are actually falling through space and crash-landed on the planet of Batuu. According to Travel and Leisure, this will be accomplished through a revolutionary new design which physically drops the ride vehicle onto a motion simulator base for an entirely new ride element.

Fans don’t have much longer to wait for this incredible new experience. Rise of the Resistance opens Dec. 5, 2019, at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida and Jan. 17, 2020, at Disneyland.

—Shahrzad Warkentin

 

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Two YA faves are coming to a brand-new vertical theme park, and if you’re wondering what exactly a vertical theme park is, read on! This awesomely amazing attraction is coming to China soon.

Lionsgate Entertainment World is taking the theme park idea to new heights—literally! The world’s first vertical park is a 10-story tall bean-shaped building that will house attractions based on blockbusters such as Hunger Games, Twilight, Divergent, Now You See Me and Gods of Egypt.

Among the 25 rides, fans of the films will find a replica of The Capitol lobby and a 3D simulator called The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Flight Rebel Escape. Hunger Games enthusiasts can also dine at a restaurant featuring menu items from the flick’s “districts.”

If you’re into virtual vampire and werewolf experiences, you can relive the film’s spotlight love affair with Twilight Saga: Bella’s Journey. The adventurous types can jump onto the back of a virtual motorcycle with Jacob Black on the Twilight Saga: Midnight Ride.

International travelers can visit Lionsgate Entertainment World on Hengqin Island in Zhuhai, China starting in July.

—Erica Loop

Featured photo: AP News 

 

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Mattel is bringing your kiddo’s fave toys to life. The branded indoor interactive entertainment centers will feature hands-on experiences with Barbie, Hot Wheels and Mega Construx themes!

While the new entertainment centers aren’t set to roll out until 2020 (sorry, the first one is scheduled to open in Toronto), the experiences will include plenty of hands-on play as well as digital fun. And, of course, your child’s most-loved toys.

So what can you expect from Mattel’s family entertainment centers? The Toronto center will include 25,000 square feet of play space dedicated to kids ages four through 10. Barbie fans will get the chance to explore a mini-world filled with, “near limitless possibilities.” The Barbie experiences will align with the brand’s mission to support 21st century learning skills, including creativity, communication and collaboration.

Hot Wheels play possibilities will include the chance to customize a car, design a race track and test driving skills in a massive racing simulator. Little builders will also get an opportunity to play the day away. The Mega Construx experience will feature ultimate (and awesome) building scenarios.

Janet Hsu, Chief Franchise Management Officer, Mattel, said in a press statement, “The family entertainment centers will extend the emotional connection of our brands with kids and allow Mattel to continue to bring wonder and imagination to families.”

Hsu also added, “The family entertainment centers offer a powerful combination of physical and digital play that give kids the chance to interact with Barbie, Hot Wheels and Mega Construx through live events and experiences, gaming and content.”

—Erica Loop

Featured photo: Courtesy of Mattel

 

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Is the remote control Millennium Falcon the kid got as a gift last holiday season not quite cutting it? Looking for a cool new techy hobby for you and the family to enjoy outside this spring and summer? Then you might be interested to know that New York City’s first all-drone store opened on March 5, and is ready to serve all your drone-related needs, from equipment to education to field trips.

photo: Brooklyn Drones NYC

Drone HQ
Tucked away on the increasingly buzzing Fourth Avenue in Gowanus, Brooklyn, Brooklyn Drones NYC is the brainchild of Bay Ridge native Roger Kapsalis, a drone enthusiast and hobbyist-turned-expert and entrepreneur. (His impressive landscape photos captured via drone photography adorn the walls of the shop.)

Brooklyn Drones NYC only stocks what Kapsalis describes as “reliable, proven aircraft,” which means drones from companies such as DJI, Yuneec and Parrot, with possible models from GoPro to come. You can get a professional-grade drone here (the type used in movie and television production), but the store specializes in the microdrone market, which includes any drone under 4 1/2 pounds. Your basic, starter drone, DJI’s Phantom 3 Standard will run you $499, and you can get the Phantom 3 Standard Everything You Need starter kit for $589.99. (We never said it was an incredibly inexpensive hobby.)

Safety & Education
Brooklyn Drones NYC wants you to be an educated and safe pilot. In addition to posting FAA regulations and flight rules on its site, the store will also be offering classes and tutorials, and prospective pilots can stop in and take a practice flight via an in-store simulator or in the back yard flight cage. (If you do buy and fly a drone, you should familiarize yourself with all of the regulations, but some basic rules include: don’t fly over 400 feet, don’t fly at night and don’t fly within five miles of an airport. And you can’t fly anywhere in Manhattan. However, there are NYC Parks-designated Model Aircraft Fields in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island where you are free to take flight.

Beyond basic Intro to Drones classes, the store will also offer drone photography workshops, covering how to capture and then perfect shots with editing software.

Field Trips & Shows
Later this spring and into the summer, Brooklyn Drones NYC will also be conducting trips upstate, where drone pilots and photographers will have free rein at ski resorts in the off season. Additionally, the store plans to hold exhibits of photographs taken via drone.

Brooklyn Drones NYC
315 Fourth Ave.
Gowanus
917-520-5452
Online: brooklyndrones.nyc

Does drone flying as a family sound like a recipe for fun or disaster to you? Tell us what you think in the comments below!

—Mimi O’Connor

Calling all future pilots, astronauts, math wizards and daredevils: The San Diego Air and Space Museum has awesome exhibits that will make your heart race and your spirit soar. And, parents, you’re going to like the new 2TheExtreme Math Alive exhibit that answers the age old homework question, “Why do I need to know this math anyway?” Here’s your insider’s guide to the museum and all it has to offer.

Photo credit: Math Alive

Just Opened: Math Alive 2theExtreme
Get ready to get excited about math. This high energy, hands on math-driven exhibit takes math far from sitting in a desk memorizing equations. Kids are encouraged by their bilingual robot computer animated guides to play with all the computer simulated exhibits.

As kids enter, adventure sports take them on a ride. They can hop on a real snowboard and enter into a virtual snowboard race. By playing with angles, kids try to successfully increase their accuracy and speed as they race down a video game mountain. Kids will also thrill at Ramp It Up, playing with variables that help them build the ultimate skateboard for ramp skating. No patience to wait in line for the next exhibit? Why not climb the rock wall, test your strength, and see how your arm span affects your climbing success?

Gamers will enjoy playing video games and hearing testimonials from their peers who designed the two games in Game Plan and who serve as successful models of using math in a cool way. The Curiosity Rover exhibit is an impressive display where kids test their programming and graphing skills to “drive” a model rover through a flat tabletop screen depicting Mars while they collect rock samples, searching for water on the red planet.

2theExtreme includes more than 20 engaging and interactive computerized modules that also explore math’s intriguing uses in the areas of style and design, the environment, and the entertainment industry and let kids feel the thrill of using math in its real life applications. The math concepts in the exhibit vary, but Math Alive is best suited to kiddos in grades 3-8.

Insider’s Tip: Math Alive 2theExtreme is an additional $5 to your admission ticket. But our estimation is its well-worth it for school-aged kids.

Photo Credit: Air and Space Museum’s Facebook page

Permanent Exhibits
There is much to see and explore in the museum’s regular collection. Upon entering the museum, you’ll discover a terrific space find: the Apollo 9 Command Module from the third manned Apollo flight in 1969. Future astronauts will want their picture taken with the module as well as a space rock, and astronaut’s space suits from this area.

Aviation fans will love seeing the huge Navy planes and helicopter that fill the sunny, central Pavilion of Flight. The museum also boasts a nice replica Spirit of St. Louis, a terrific collection of WWI and WWII planes with models in period gear “working” on the planes, and a more modern find: a Blue Angels jet.

As you walk through the exhibits, some favorite spots for kids are the planes and helicopters with steps up where kiddos can take a peak into the cockpit, and also miniature model planes just like the real thing they sit next to that serve as a cute photo op.

The Kids’ Aviation Action Hangar is a small space designed with toddlers and preschoolers in mind and has a few features that your littlest ones will enjoy. Sit in the cockpit of a mini plane, grab the controller, and feel the wind in your face. Pose for a picture on the “moon,” play with gears, space and aviation toys, or just sit and color a picture of a favorite plane.This is a good place to wind down if little ones are getting antsy.

Insider’s Tip: There are plenty of benches to take a seat and take it all in as your little one stretches his arms and runs free, pretending to be a plane in this open area.

Photo Credit: Chrissie O. via Yelp 

More Adventures to Have
Admission to the museum also includes entrance to the 3D/4D theatre which features interactive seats and special effects as part of their animated films, the only one of its kind in Balboa Park. For an extra fee of $8, older kids will feel the thrill as they climb into a simulator that surrounds them on all sides with realistic graphics as they roll,dive and loop through the sky. The newest simulator with six seats allows the whole family to ride the adventure together. Keep in mind, however, that riders must be at least 44-inches tall.

Don’t Miss
The annual Paper Airplane Festival takes place Sun., March 17 from 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. Come make easy or challenging paper airplanes with volunteer Air Force personnel who get down on the kids’ level and  make you proud of your military and their leadership. Launch your favorite plane with hundreds of others outside the museum at 2 p.m. Kids admitted free with adult admission this day.

Insider’s Tips
You can score a super spot in the parking lot directly in front of the museum on most days, if you arrive before 11 a.m.

The Flight Path Grill offers family favorites on weekends and Resident Free Tuesdays and the sunny patio offers great views of planes flying into Lindberg Field.

Membership for a family of four is $96 per year and includes unlimited entrance to the museum, and discounts to the simulators, gift shop, parties,and camps.

Admission: $18/adult; $9/Kids ages 3 – 11; Free/Kids 2 and under

San Diego Air and Space Museum
2001 Pan American Plaza
San Diego, Ca 92101
619-234-8291
Online: sandiegoairandspace.org

Have you been to the San Diego Air and Space Museum? What’s your favorite adventure?

— Cherie Gough

Think your little one would like to peek under the hood of a real race car or step inside a beekeeper’s suit? Or maybe they would prefer to create a necklace modeled after a strand of their very own DNA. We’ve highlighted three exhibitions going on now that feature loads of interactive, hands-on extras sure to be a hit with everyone, from tots to teens to parents.

Photo: Gerry Thomassen via Flickr

What’s All the Buzz About?
Get up close and personal with real bee specimens under a microscope, crawl through a human-sized beehive, and try on a beekeeper suit (kiddie sizes available!) at the Oakland Museum of California. Their newest exhibit, Bees: Tiny Insect, Big Impact runs through September 20 and explores the secret lives of our most popular (and important) pollinators. Check out real live—and occupied—bee hotels, see how honey is made and find out what you can do to help reverse population decline and keep the hives humming for generations to come.

OMCA
1000 Oak St.
Oakland, Ca
888-625-6873
Online: museumca.org

Photo: Lawrence Hall of Science

Get Your Motor Running
Your little speed racer will be able to get behind the wheel of a Formula One racecar and put the pedal to the metal (in a simulator, of course) at the new exhibition at the Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley. At SPEED: Science in Motion, opening this Saturday, February 7 and running through May 3, visitors will learn all about the science, engineering, and finesse involved in racing a 1,400-pound car at speeds of more than 200 miles per hour. Kids will get to crawl over, under and into a full-scale replica Formula One Car, and learn how these speedy machines are designed to be aerodynamic—not to mention what “aerodynamic” really means. Little gear heads can practice changing a tire, building an engine piece by piece and see how these racers are actually pieces of technology as complex as their computers at home.

Lawrence Hall of Science
1 Centennial Dr.
Berkeley, Ca
510-642-5132
Online: lawrencehallofscience.org

Photo: The Tech Museum of Innovation

Become a DNA Detective
Ever wondered why you look so much more like your great Uncle Leonard than your own dad? No, it probably isn’t because of some scandalous family tryst (we hope), but instead due to the mysterious and complex behavior of DNA. Genome: Unlocking Life’s Code runs through April 27 at San Jose’s Tech Museum of Innovation helps unravel the complexities of genetics, and breaks it all down in fun and fascinating ways that the whole family will be able to understand. Be sure and visit the Genome Zone, just beyond the main exhibit, where hands-on activities include making a DNA necklace using your own DNA, studying your DNA under a microscope. Stanford graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and scientists from the biotech industry will be on hand to answer any questions, and explain how your genome is actually a roadmap that can help you trace your ancestral past and take charge of your future health.

The Tech Museum of Innovation
201 South Market St.
San Jose, Ca
408-294-8324
Online: thetech.org

Do you know of any other must-see exhibitions happening in the Bay Area? 

—Erin Feher