Daddy Longlegs, fall color, owls and more! Join Adkins Arboretum’s fall preschool program, and engage your young child with nature. Led by Arboretum Youth Program Coordinator Jenny Houghton, this popular series of six classes for three- to five-year-olds is offered on Tuesday mornings beginning September 24.
Registration is required for preschool programs. The fee is $60 for members and $75 for non-members for all eight classes in the series. A $10 discount is offered for siblings. Classes run from 10 to 11:15 a.m. and include a craft and a healthy snack. Enrollment is limited, so early registration is recommended. For more information or to register, visit adkinsarboretum.org or call 410-634-2847, ext. 0.
Programs include:
Crazy for Cattails
Sept. 24
The Arboretum’s wetland is full of fuzzy cattails! Find out why the cattail is sometimes called “Nature’s Grocery Store.” We’ll use nets to look for critters that live among the cattails, make painted cattail prints to take home, and eat crunch “cattail” snacks.
Discovering Daddy Longlegs
Oct. 1
Peek around the tree stumps at Paw Paw Playground, and you’ll be sure to find lots of Daddy Longlegs! We will learn how Daddy Longlegs are different from spiders, have an eight-legged Daddy Longlegs race with our friends, and make silly Daddy Longlegs out of sweet gum balls.
Tucking in the Garden
Oct. 8
Summer days are long over, and it’s time to get the Funshine Garden ready for a nice winter nap. We’ll tidy the garden beds, gather seeds to store in homemade packets, and look for signs of animals that might be cozying up in the garden for winter naps of their own.
Colorfest
Oct. 15
Come celebrate the beauty of fall as we gather colorful leaves on a forest walk and enjoy a picnic snack under the trees. We’ll learn why leaves change color, jump in a gigantic leaf pile, and make lovely leaf crafts to take home.
White Oak Hotel
Oct. 22
The amazing white oak tree is home to many creatures. Learn about the animals that depend on the white oak for food and shelter, make bark and leaf rubbings of a giant white oak tree, and create lift-the-flap white oak hotels to take home.
Whoooo Goes There?
Oct. 29
What does a Great Horned Owl look and sound like? How about the tiny Saw-Whet Owl? We’ll practice our owl calls and look for owl pellets in the meadow. We’ll also make feathery owl masks and munch on Halloween snacks while listening to stories about the wise old owl.
Dinosaurs!
Nov. 5
Did you know that Astrodon is Maryland’s state dinosaur? Travel back in time as we learn about the dinosaurs of Delmarva. On a nature walk, we’ll look for plants that grew during the age of the dinosaurs, investigating a trail of mysterious footprints along the way.
A-Maize-ing Grain
Nov. 12
Can you believe that the early settlers ate corn 365 days a year? Learn about this native grain, try your hand at grinding corn, and make corn shakers. We’ll eat a popcorn snack and read Thanksgiving stories after looking for wild turkeys in the meadow.
Adkins Arboretum is a 400-acre native garden and preserve at the headwaters of the Tuckahoe Creek in Caroline County. Open year round, the Arboretum offers educational programs for all ages about nature and gardening.
Through its Campaign to Build a Green Legacy, it will build the W. Flaccus and Ruth B. Stifel Center at Adkins Arboretum and a “green” entranceway to broaden educational offerings and research initiatives promoting best practices in conservation and land stewardship. For additional information about Arboretum programs, visit www.adkinsarboretum.org or call 410-634-2847, ext. 0.