Twirl, A Play and Discovery Space 2023 Report

Twirl remains a vital part of the family and learning landscape for birth to elementary-aged kids in Taos County, on-site in our beautiful playroom and courtyards and off-site in every nook and cranny of Taos County and its rural surrounding areas. Our Twirl Van and crew traveled over 5,000 miles this year, bringing singing, dancing, and STEAM projects to over 6,000 unique and returning participants. It was a huge year for Twirl, as we looked at the things that make us tick and Twirl and welcomed the return of Invent Event. 

The educational and child welfare rates in Taos County remain among the nation's lowest—Twirl's theory of change centers on solutions for child development. By implementing high-quality, accessible programs that foster community engagement, learning, creativity, and play, Twirl seeks to enhance the quality of childhood experiences for kids in Taos.

Ours is an upstream approach to mitigate adversity in children's lives. Extensive scientific evidence underscores the long-lasting detrimental effects of early childhood adversity and the importance of positive childhood experiences.

We recognize the pivotal role of trust, relationships, and social networks in shaping economic and social mobility across generations. Despite their profound influence, these factors often remain informal in the design of policies and programs, and evaluation mechanisms to measure their impact are scarce. We work to create a safe, inspiring, nurturing, and supportive play environment that wouldn't otherwise exist to foster parent-child engagement, connect the community, and promote the development of foundational skills. Parents searching for healthy activities for their little ones, a parent community for themselves, and resources to help interact with their children have come to rely on Twirl.

Twirl is now in our burgeoning adolescent years. We cultivate partnerships and community collaborations through community events and partnerships in early childhood and elementary classrooms, out-of-school programs, and family nights. 
There are approximately 4,925 kids in Taos County aged 0-14. It is not uncommon for a single Twirl event to host 10-25 percent of that population – plus their caregivers. Our goal is to have them know us and engage with us at events and make a lasting impact on how they can meet the world. Our goal is to engage deeply with our community. Whether through their Create A Space emotional literacy project proudly displayed in their room or in their ability to look at the world, seeing potential in their surroundings that they learned through the Nature Creatures project. "These pine needles are perfect whiskers! I'll use these leaves as wings!" is how one child described their Nature Creature-making process.

Twirl's beautiful playgrounds hosted thousands of kids for playing and shopping this year, enjoying two new play features on our Playsmart system following our biennial maintenance. We estimate our peak visitorship at 400 kids per day. This year, we will serve 572 field trippers through 24 STEAM and Play field trips. Family Music, Ballet, and Little Twirlers, our onsite preschool classes, were held three times weekly and Twirled their way through 562 visits, with many families attending weekly. Science Saturday and Art Studio Saturdays were a new addition this year. Geared toward elementary-aged kids, we explored everything from DNA to hearing, propulsion, painting with naturally colored minerals, and even a visit from the Georgia O'Keeffe Art to GO bus. These events averaged 50 kids and their caregivers per event and have engaged 960 visitors. One mother, attending with her kids, said, "We wanted to come to Science Saturday because my kids have never met a scientist before. This was extra special because they got to meet a GIRL scientist. I never knew I could be a scientist growing up.” 

Twirl Signature events were so much fun this year! We hosted International Mud Day, Mother's Day Tea, World Breastfeeding Celebration, Global Cardboard Challenge, Twirl Aglow, and Halloweenies. We even had room to host a Children's Concert by Embudo's Caterpillar Club, Los Teatros puppet show, Neighborhood Toy Store Day, and a Solstice book release reading! Attendance for these events ranges, but we estimate 1,207 visits to all!

Invent Event made a glorious return to the Enos Garcia Gym this year! Even with a three-year hiatus, there was a lot of local excitement leading up to the event. All told, we had 41 stations, 74 community partners/collaborators, 39 adult volunteers, and 42 TEENAGERS supporting this effort, which led to 859 signed waivers for the event, but we estimate nearly 1,000 eventgoers. Many older kids remembered Invent Event fondly and came back to participate – middle schoolers were our second largest age group demographic in attendance. Younger kids who hadn't yet experienced the event or elementary-aged kids who had forgotten it – 3 years is a lifetime for a developing brain – were amazed to participate in the event and will be back next year. One 5th grader (who had attended previous Events) said, "Wow! If I remembered Invent Event was this cool, I would have gotten more excited!"

This year's community project, Nature Creatures, combined  Social Emotional and STEAM learning through storytelling and exploring concepts such as fantasy, and imagination, combined with natural science, macro vs. micro, and engineering with natural materials. We asked kids, "If you could be any creature, what would you be? Would you live on the ground or up in a tree? What's your story, and what makes you tick? Can you create it with mosses and sticks? Tell me more about your Creature. What tall tales can grow from the forest floor!" Nature Creatures began this summer and culminated in the annual PASEO art festival.

• 222 Students developed an awareness of Social Emotional Learning storytelling and STEAM using a variety of ways to combine materials engineering and creativity.

• 5 Family Engagement groups enjoyed exploring the Nature Creature project

• Teachers and caregivers explored using arts-integrated practices, sparking connections between natural materials, character development, and storytelling.

• 1000+ visitors from 0 - 99 years of age participated in an immersive and artful experience of Nature Creatures at the PASEO.

• Nature Creatures for Early Childhood will visit eight classrooms and two libraries in the 2023-2024 school year, reaching around 200 children, teachers, and family members.

This year's summer reading program, "Weaving it Together," was designed to support early literacy skills and STEAM learning through play, movement, storytelling, and song. It wove through six libraries (Taos, Questa, Embudo, White Rock, Los Alamos, and Angel Fire) and three summer camps (Taos Pueblo, Arroyos Del Norte, and Taos Behavioral Health). In addition to the summer reading program, the Twirl van, affectionately named the Duck Truck could be seen at our local libraries for family STEAM events 14 times this year. 

Word Play, a unique-to-Twirl early childhood program, brought its four-session program to 16 classes and 266 kids. Wordplay is designed to make literacy and learning fun, helping kids establish a literacy toolbox before entering kindergarten.

The Duck Truck was just about everywhere you could think of this year, visiting Yoga Sala in Questa 17 times for family music and Theater Play, bringing STEAM learning to the Arroyos del Norte, Taos Pueblo, Enos Garcia, and Taos Behavioral Health summer camps. We got robotic with 76 kids at Taos Day School, Taos Cybermagnet School, and Alta Vista Elementary, even doing a special demonstration for BIE officials! We also Twirled up for the Taos Pueblo Easter celebration, 100% Community Early Childhood Day, Dr Seuss Day, Kinder Night, Nonprofit Fest, the Penasco Community Dance, Penasco STEM Day, and Questa STEAM night - an event designed by the high school to make learning come alive for elementary kids. Plus, we helped stuff 455 back-to-school backpacks this autumn.

​​In addition to the above, we presented our Create A Space program nationally at the Association of Children's Museums annual conference and presented at the Explora Early Learning Summit at the beginning of this month. We attended NM STEAM day at the Roundhouse, staff participated in Professional development on topics of social justice, Narcan training, communication, visual storytelling, data evaluation. and we were even invited to a special VIP tour of the VLA (Very Large Array) by the LANL Foundation. We were invited to engage with Taos Municipal Schools' strategic planning process, resulting in a service contract to be executed in the upcoming semester and an invitation to be part of the ongoing community schools implementation process.

We have continued to invest in building maintenance, staying ahead of more significant issues, and putting as much love as we can into this building that shares so much love. 

In conclusion, we are grateful to play, create, and explore with our community!