“Anything goes” could be the motto for the Family Fun Evening called TINY BUBBLES at the Kohl Children’s Museum. Children will be able to make bubble wands out of everything from straws and shoelaces to plastic strawberry boxes. They can even blow a bubble as big as their own head using a coat hangar as a wand. When they add paint to their bubble liquid it will produce colored bubbles that can be made into a tiny mound and then pressed with a piece of paper to make a print. Usually food isn’t allowed inside the museum, but for this special occasion families can bring along a picnic dinner.
Tiny Bubbles, 5:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Kohl Children’s Museum, 165 Green Bay Rd., Wilmette; $11 per family, pre-registration suggested. 847-256-6056 ext. 328 or 329.
An occultation may sound like a trick out of a witch’s bag, but actually it is a phenomenon of Mother Nature. It takes place when the moon moves in front of a planet or a bright star and temporarily hides it. Several occultations will take place in the fall when the moon hides Saturn and the star Aldebaran, which is the eye of Taurus the Bull. The Adler Planetarium will prepare people for this happening during a demonstration in which volunteers from the audience will play the roles of the moon and the celestial objects that will disappear from sight.
“Now You See It . . . Now You Don’t,” 11:15 a.m., 1:15 p.m. and 2:15 p.m. Saturday and April 26, Adler Planetarium, 1300 S. Lake Shore Dr.; $3 adults, $2 children. 312-922-STAR.
Ballet Chicago’s production of “Cinderella” has a stellar cast that features Anastasia Babayeva and Anton Kunikeyev, former soloists with Russia’s Bolshoi Ballet playing the lead and Prince Charming. But it also will bring 60 children from the Chicago area to the stage. Some will play the hours on the clock that usher Cinderella to the ball and mark the time for her to leave. Some are the horses that pull her carriage and some are dragon flies.
In addition, the company’s artistic director Daniel Duell, with the permission of Cinderella’s choreographer Martin Fredmann, has created a dance for 14 of the fairies who will wear biege-colored costumes with flowing skirts and perform with the fairy godmother. “It will be a vital, energetic dance with fairy-like gestures and leaps, jumps and turns and balances,” explains Duell. “It is technically challenging and yet delicate and very light in apperance.”
Duell thinks that it is important to include young dancers in professional productions like this one. “I think that it is time to bring the emerging young talent of Chicago to the stage,” he says. “People will believe in the future of ballet because it is building before their very eyes.”
“Cinderella,” April 9-13, Shubert Theatre, 22 W. Monroe St.; $12-$45 adults, $6-$22.50 children. 312-831-2822.
The a capella quintet called Stormy Weather proved that many hits of the 1950s are full of fun stuff for children when they recorded such classics as “Alley-Oop” and “Iko Iko” on their recent album “Doo Wop and Lollipops.” They will sing of few of these classics from the debut of rock ‘n roll history during mini-concerts at the Zany Brainy stores.
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Mini-concert by Stormy Weather, Zany Brainy stores, 11 a.m. Saturday, 9275 W. 159th St., Orland Hills, 708-403-6917; 1 p.m. Saturday, 18 Blanchard Circle, Wheaton, 630-653-4332; 4 p.m. Saturday, 2155 W. 22nd St., Oak Brook, 630-574-9244; 1 p.m. Sunday, 307 Skokie Blvd., Northbrook, 847-559-0202; 4 p.m. Sunday, 150 Barrington Ave., Schaumburg; 847-798-7737. Free.
The Kids Fare program this week at Northwestern University is called “Boom Goes the Beat.” It promises to let children hear all sorts of rhythms ranging from William Byrd’s “The Bells” to steel drums.
“Boom Goes the Beat,” 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Pick-Staiger Concert Hall, 1977 S. Campus Dr., Northwestern University, Evanston, $4-$2; 847-467-4000.