What can you do with your family to celebrate winter and nature? K-6 students and their parents are invited to turn off their electronics and enjoy a fun evening together making nature crafts and taking a snowshoe night hike at the Nara Nature Center and Park. The event will take place from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 15.
The nature crafts and snowshoe night hike activities will each be offered from 6:05 to 6:45 p.m. and from 6:50 to 7:30 p.m. Families may participate in one or both indoor and outdoor activities. The event is free, but donations are welcome. Craft supplies, hot chocolate and tea, as well as child and adult snowshoes will be provided while supplies last.
For the outdoor activity, families can take a hike in the woods, on foot or on snowshoes, listening and looking for signs of wildlife and viewing the night sky, as part of a naturalist-led hike at Nara Nature Park. IIf your have your own pair of snowshoes, please bring them. Dress warmly.
For the indoor activity, families can make several types of nature crafts to take home while enjoying the cozy warmth of the Nara Nature Center Chalet, including birchbark cutout ornaments.
The Winter Family Fun Night is coordinated by the Western UP Math and Science Center and the Michigan Tech Center for Science and Environmental Outreach. Use of the Nara Center is provided by the City of Houghton, and Bob and Ruth Nara.
This is the first in a monthly series of outdoor family fun nights and monthly family outings to be held on Saturday afternoons at the Nara Nature Center and the Maasto Hiihto Chalet over the coming year. These programs are funded by the Michigan Alliance of Environmental Professionals.