Plan Your Weekend: Bundle Up for Winter Fun!

Posted in Learning Experiences, Programs and Events on January 22 2010, by Plant Talk

Children and Families Explore the Hidden Wonders of the Winter Garden

Noelle V. Dor is Museum Education Intern in the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden.

Oh, the weather outside may be frightful… But the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden is still delightful!

Though the vibrant colors of autumn have long faded away and freezing temperatures command us to slow down and stay in, there is a wealth of hidden wonders to be discovered in our Winter Garden, from the vivid reds of bare dogwood branches to tenacious crabapples, darting cardinals, and the secret lives of leaf buds. Various little treasures brighten up the muted landscape—and they can brighten your winter blues, too!

The selection of activities available for children and their families includes the creation of a scientific field notebook, which will guide them through a winter scavenger hunt and sensory exploration of the Children’s Adventure Garden; a fascinating round in the world of tree rings and their own life stories; and a winter collage craft using fallen plant parts collected from the garden.

This month casts a special light on my journey as an intern in the Adventure Garden, because I was given the opportunity to create this interim winter program. I took the knowledge and experience gained throughout the fall in informal teaching methods and added my desire to make science more accessible to young people, keeping ever aware of the importance of making activities for both school groups and families hands-on, sensory, and creative. I also wanted to incorporate topics that help people recognize the amazing ways plants grow and change throughout their seasonal life cycles. The resulting Winter Garden program is a pilot for a more specifically structured winter program in coming years.

So join us for some winter fun! Come use your senses and creativity as well as basic scientific tools to explore the vital sparks of life that lie just below the surface of this cold and quiet season.

Winter Fun in the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden is open Tuesdays through Fridays from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. and on Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. through February 5.