Northwest Park
Two 5-week sessions
9:00 AM to 10:15 AM
Ages 2-5
Resident – $45.00/session
Nonresident – $55.00/session
Start their love of nature early.
Northwest Park invites young naturalists, ages 2-5, and their favorite adult, to join us to explore the park! Each session will include hands-on exploration, a chance to meet the creatures who live at the park, and time to create a take home craft related to the day’s adventures. Dress for the weather since we love to play outside! No older siblings, please.
Preregistration is required. Registration is for the full five-week session
“Spring Ahead” 3/21, 3/28, 4/4, 4/11, & 4/18 9:00AM to 10:15AM
March 21 – What’s the Weather?: To kickstart this new series, we will be discussing the differences between weather, climate, and what our current and upcoming seasonal changes are. We will also be discussing the water cycle and how important it is to the natural world.
March 28 – Animal Evidence: Animals leave all sorts of evidence behind once they leave an area. It could be tracks, fur/hair, scat, markings on a tree, gnawed vegetation, etc. We will be investigating the woods of NWP to see what signs of animals we can find, now that everyone is starting to wake up.
April 4 – Bird Adaptations: I bet you can’t think of an animal that has feathers that isn’t a bird. That’s because they don’t exist! Birds are fascinating creatures with the ability to fly. We will be looking into their hollow bones, feather structures, and their varieties of beaks, claws, and colorings in this class.
April 11 – Flower Dissection: Flowers are just beginning to bloom now that it’s Spring but what’s a flower made of? How does it grow and do all flowers turn into fruits or vegetables? Come investigate as we dissect some flowers and make beautiful petal art.
April 18 – Life in a Vernal Pool: Why are vernal pools so important to both plants and animals in the wild and what even is a vernal pool? We will be visiting one today and seeing what little critters, if any, are living in these temporary bodies of water.
“Can You Dig It? 5/2, 5/9, 5/16, 5/23, & 5/30 9:00AM to 10:15AM
May 2 – How Seeds Travel: To begin this series, we will be discussing how seeds travel, (wind, berries, dropping, sticking), and what method is the most effective. We will also play a fun game to see why seeds need to travel and explore our various meadow/field locations at NWP.
May 9 – Pollinators: If we didn’t have pollinators, we wouldn’t have nearly as many foods as we do today. Pollinators play such a big part in helping our crops and other plants grow but are there more than just bees and butterflies? Come find out in this class, and learn about an animal that uses echolocation as they fly about, dispersing seeds.
May 16 – Compost This!: What is a compost and what can you put in it? Composting is a great way to reduce your carbon footprint while also helping the environment! It also provides you with great soil for planting crops. In this class, we’ll see the compost in the Organic Garden and help establish one in our Community Garden! (Feel free to bring food scraps: NO MEAT or DAIRY please.)
May 23 – Gardening: Now that our compost has had a week, we will turn it and use some of the soil to plant some of our own seeds to take home. We will also be checking back in on the beans we planted during our first class, and learning where our food comes from beyond the grocery store.
May 30 – Pond Study: In our last class until Fall, we will be going out to the front pond to investigate critters that live there. Hopefully we find invertebrates and maybe even a frog or two!