We saved the best for last. This was also Jaxon's highlight of our entire trip. Our entire trip was planned around the Statue of Liberty Crown Access tickets. We had tried to make a quick stop months prior on our way to Florida and quickly learned that Crown Access sells out months in advance. Learning our lesson we actually booked our Crown Access tickets before our flights this time. The Crown Access tickets give you access to everything you could possibly want to see the pedestal, museum, audio tour and grounds area. These tickets are only available online. I suggest planning way in advance to get your tickets here. This is the only official provider of Crown Tickets.
To prepare for our trip to the statue of liberty we read L is for Liberty. My favorite part of this book is that towards the end they celebrate the Fourth of July which really relates to our entire journey to New York. For Jaxon's reading assignment he read The Statue of Liberty, a Step up to reading book. I find it really takes Jaxon's reading to another level when the book focus's on something we are learning in another subject. It then takes the focus off the fact that I am asking him to read but, that we are taking an adventure to learn about something new.
We pre-printed our Statue of Liberty Junior Ranger Activity Book. When downloading the Junior Ranger Program this park actually has two choices. The first one is a short double-sided page meant for visitors wanting to earn their badge. The second one was created for teachers to utilize during field trips to the Statue of Liberty. Since we were including the book in Jaxon's "Time for Kids" Social Studies curriculum we chose to utilize the field trip based Activity Book. We also included a short educational video by BrainPOP Jr. Jaxon loves to watch Annie and Moby bring topics to life through short cartoon clips. Prior to our visit we were able to complete Activities 5,6,7,8 and 10 at home. This gave Jaxon a great foundation of understanding the history and meaning behind such an important monument to american history. Below you can see how I took Activity 8 and expanded the topic into a small science project for a better understanding of how copper ages. I found this great activity with the worksheet included by Buggy and Buddy.
At the top of every Activity Page they give you a Hint where to find the answer which made it much easier to maneuver as we walked around the monument.
Activities 1 and 2 we actually saved for last since both pages are to be completed in the information center at the same location that we would complete our Activity book and turn it in to a Ranger. Activity 1 includes watching a video. I would highly recommend leaving a good amount of time for these two activities, the information center is extremely small and tight. Once you get more then one family trying to complete the same activities and meet with the rangers to sign off on the books it becomes cramped very quickly.
The monument has an amazing children's audio tour that I highly recommend for children and adults. It takes you on a tour through the gardens and then continues on around the entire outside grounds of the Statue of Liberty. These tours are done at your own pace. So you are able to listen in one area and then take your time walking until you reach the next stop.
After we returned our audio tours we quickly walked to the pedestal area where we were directed to leave all of our backpacks in a locker and only proceed with cameras that you have the ability to carry. At this point you enter the pedestal and museum area and must proceed immediately to either the elevator or stairs during your selected tour time. We choose to take the stairs just to rule out the idea of us missing anything. We didn't miss anything it is literally a corridor of stairs that lead you to the same location as the elevator. At this time we met up with a Ranger who then told us how long we would need to wait before proceeding to the crown stairs.
As we made our way to the top of the crown we were completely alone and able to climb at our own pace.
The crown itself was so much smaller then I expected but, we have no regrets and would do the entire thing over again. It was absolutely amazing being able to walk up the stairs and see all of her features from the inside.
After we made our climb down we headed to the museum to explore more on the history of the Statue of Liberty.
In the end after a long day of exploring the monument we all enjoyed an ice cold fresh made cup of Statue of Liberty Lemonade.
