Upcoming Programs & EventsGirl Scouts: Pets
Tuesday, March 12 6:15pm Lowe-Volk Park Are you a Brownie Girl Scout? If so, join Troop 4253 to learn all about pets and work on earning your badge. We’ll look at different animals that you could have as a pet and all the care that goes into taking care of that animal. Brownie Girl Scouts from all troops are welcome! Face to Face: Frogs Saturday, March 16 11am Lowe-Volk Park Join Chelsea to come face to face with… frogs! Kids will get to touch or hold a Gray Tree Frog, a Northern Leopard Frog, an American Toad, a Spring Peeper, and a Western Chorus Frog, as we learn all about the life cycles and unique adaptations of Ohio’s native frog species. We will even venture outside to listen for calling frogs, honing our spring frog call identification skills! Puppet Pals: Stream Life Thursday, March 21 6pm Lowe-Volk Park Friday, March 22 11am & 2pm Lowe-Volk Park Our Puppet Pals are exploring a stream! Join them on their adventure, where a Raccoon, White-tailed Deer, Eastern Hellbender, and more discover the life of a stream. The puppet show will be followed by a fun activity. For kids ages 3-7 and their parents. Stewardship: Invasive Species Saturday, March 23 9am-12pm Heckert Help protect our parks from invasive species such as honeysuckle and barberry. Join Mike to improve these special habitats. Participants are encouraged to dress for the weather and bring gloves. Loppers and other special equipment will be provided. Viewing the Night Sky Saturday, March 23 8:15pm Lowe-Volk Park Hi-Tech Egg Hunt Sunday, March 24 1-3pm Lowe-Volk Park Borrow a GPS unit from us or use your smartphone to scan QR codes to go on a hi-tech egg hunt. Follow the coordinates throughout the park to discover a hidden egg. There will be a nature-based question in each egg that needs to be answered. Kids finding all the eggs and answering the questions will receive a small prize when completed. Come join the fun! Girl Scouts: Animal Observers Tuesday, March 26 5:45pm Lowe-Volk Park Are you a Daisy Girl Scout? If so, come earn your Animal Observer badge! We will begin by taking a hike on our trails in search of animal tracks and other signs. Then, we’ll play a game to hone our skills at spotting camouflaged animals. Finally, we’ll practice recording field notes by observing our animals in the Nature Center. Daisy Girl Scouts from all troops are welcome! Artifact Hunt Saturday, March 30 Meet at 10am Lowe-Volk Park Join other artifact collectors to walk nearby farm fields looking for remnants of prehistoric people who inhabited Crawford County. Be the first human to touch an artifact since it was used thousands of years ago! Don’t miss this popular annual event. Bring the whole family, dress for the weather, and don’t forget your boots if the ground is wet. Viewing the Night Sky Saturday, March 30 8:30pm Lowe-Volk Park Nature Center Open House Monday, April 1 10am-2pm Lowe-Volk Park Looking for something to do with your kids while school is closed? Bring them out to the Nature Center! Naturalists will be available to bring out animals (including the AXOLOTLS!) and to answer questions. Kids will be able to touch and hold the animals. Our indoor treehouse and interactive kids’ area is the perfect place to enjoy the day off school! Little Explorers: Plants Tuesday, April 2 5pm Lowe-Volk Park Little Explorers is an interactive program for young children, ages 0-5. Activities focus on stimulating infants’ senses and developing toddlers’ and preschoolers’ fine motor skills. This month we’ll be outside exploring green growing plants! Goodnight Sun: What Nature Does During a Total Eclipse Wednesday, April 3 6pm Virtual The total eclipse next week will make the sky look like nighttime in the middle of the day! Find out how wild animals (and plants!) behave during eclipses. Visit our website (crawfordparkdistrict.org) or call to register and receive a Zoom link. Find a Rainbow Day Wednesday, April 3 5:30pm Lowe-Volk Park It’s National Find a Rainbow Day and National Walking Day—two perfect reasons to come out and look for rainbows while taking a walk through the park. We will also learn about how rainbows are made and have an opportunity to make some too! Homeschool in Nature: Riddles Thursday, April 4 10am & 2pm Lowe-Volk Park Wrapping up this school year, we are going on a hunt… a hunt to solve a riddle! Our clues will lead us throughout the park. Call the Park District at 419-683-9000 to register your 5–12-year-old. “A Total Eclipse of the Park”: Eclipse Event Weekend Saturday, April 6-Monday, April 8 Lowe-Volk Park We are celebrating the full solar eclipse! Please see page ? in this newsletter for the complete schedule. Face to Face: Rabbits Saturday, April 6 11am Lowe-Volk Park Join Chelsea to meet one of the most popular animals residing in our Nature Center—Sylvi, a Netherland Dwarf. We will learn all about Eastern Cottontails (the wild rabbits of Ohio) and other crepuscular animals. Kids will have the opportunity to pet Sylvi and feed her some treats! Nature Story Time: Eclipse Edition Saturday, April 6 2pm Lowe-Volk Park Why is the sky getting dark?! Join Chelsea for a special story time all about the upcoming solar eclipse! This will feature a story and an activity to help children understand what they will observe during the eclipse as well as the reason that it happens. Kids will also get to meet and hold a surprise animal visitor—one who depends on the sun for warmth! Sun Soakers: Meet Our Heliophilous Animals Saturday, April 6 4pm Lowe-Volk Park Celebrate the upcoming solar eclipse by meeting some of the sun loving animals that call the Nature Center home. We will learn about the sun’s importance to turtles, snakes, and lizards, and program participants will be able to touch or hold the animals! Viewing the Night Sky Saturday, April 6 8pm Lowe-Volk Park Viewing the Night Sky Sunday, April 7 8pm Lowe-Volk Park Face to Face: Nocturnal Animals Monday, April 8 11am Lowe-Volk Park From salamanders, to tree frogs, to tarantulas, we will meet and learn about some of the nocturnal creatures residing in the Nature Center. Kids (and adults!) will have the opportunity to touch and hold these darkness dwellers! Gardening for Moths Thursday, April 18 6:30pm Lowe-Volk Park Once again, the CPD is partnering with the Earth, Wind, and Flowers Garden Club to host a great program! Our enchantment with butterflies isn’t surprising—these daytime flyers are easily observed and collectively encompass a rainbow palette of colors punctuated with ornate patterns. However, their close relatives the moths overwhelm butterflies in species diversity and sheer numbers. Most moths are nocturnal and largely out of sight and mind. Nonetheless, they are one of the most important animal groups. Moths are inextricably intertwined with native plants, bats, birds, and the whole of the eastern deciduous forest ecosystem. They play an enormous role in the pollination of native plants. In addition, they are often far more interesting than butterflies, both visually and behaviorally. This talk will be a pictorial journey into an intriguing and little-known world that unfolds all around us. We can greatly benefit the ecosystem around us by “moth-gardening” in our yards. Join the Earth, Wind, and Flowers Garden Club and the CPD as they welcome the authors of Gardening for Moths: A Regional Guide. After the presentation, Jim and Chelsea will be available to answer questions and sign copies of their book. Recycled Project Display Friday, April 19 – Sunday, May 5 Lowe-Volk Park Miss Lisa Smith’s 4th grade class at Colonel Crawford has been providing excellent examples of using everyday items and turning them into usable projects for many years. Come to the Nature Center and see the students’ creative ways to turn trash into treasure with their recycled projects. Stewardship: Invasive Species Saturday, April 20 9am-12pm Heckert Help protect our parks from invasive species such as honeysuckle and barberry. Join Mike to improve these special habitats. Participants are encouraged to dress for the weather and bring gloves. Loppers and other special equipment will be provided. Feeding Day Monday, April 22 4:30pm Lowe-Volk Park Lizards, turtles, bugs, snakes, and bunnies, oh my! We have lots of mouths to feed here at the Nature Center! Come by to help prepare diets and feed the critters. But that’s not all! Captive animals require enrichment in their lives to relieve stress and boredom. Make fun puzzles, toys, and decorations for them as well! Wildflower Walk Monday, April 22 5:30pm Lowe-Volk Park What better way to celebrate Earth Day than by taking a leisurely hike to admire our spring blooming wildflowers? We will learn how to identify common spring wildflowers, and participants can take home a free Wildflowers of Ohio guidebook. Hopefully, we’ll catch some of our more uncommon flowers in bloom, such as Dwarf Larkspur, Large-flowered Bellwort, and Braun’s Violet. While Drooping Trilliums are typically white, we’ll also search for some of this flower’s rarer color form: maroon! Celebrate Trails Day Saturday, April 27 9am Sears Woods Today is “Celebrate Trails Day”! The CPD has 7 parks with hiking trails for you to explore. Whether you take to a trail on your own or join Lisa for a leisurely stroll through Sears Woods, get out there and hike a trail! Wild Edibles Saturday, April 27 11am-1pm Lowe-Volk Park Many of the plants growing in our local wild spaces are edible and tasty, and some of them can even be found in your own yard! Learn which wild plants are the most nutritious and delicious while foraging with Chelsea. We will begin with a hike to practice identification and ethical harvesting and will then work together to prepare a feast from nature in the classroom of the Nature Center. This program is limited to 25 participants, so please call the Park District at 419-683-9000 to register! Mushroom Identification Hike Saturday, April 27 3pm Lowe-Volk Park Which mushrooms are safe to eat? How can mushrooms be responsibly collected? Join fungus expert Bob Antibus for a stroll through the woods, hunting for and identifying mushrooms. A retired biology professor, Dr. Antibus is well known in the field of mycology for his expertise in identification. Viewing the Night Sky Saturday, April 27 9pm Lowe-Volk Park Stewardship: Invasive Species Saturday, May 4 9am-12pm Heckert Help protect our parks from invasive species such as honeysuckle and barberry. Join Mike to improve these special habitats. Participants are encouraged to dress for the weather and bring gloves. Loppers and other special equipment will be provided. Feeding Day Monday, May 6 4:30pm Lowe-Volk Park Lizards, turtles, bugs, snakes, and bunnies, oh my! We have lots of mouths to feed here at the Nature Center! Come by to help prepare diets and feed the critters. But that’s not all! Captive animals require enrichment in their lives to relieve stress and boredom. Make fun puzzles, toys, and decorations for them as well! Little Explorers: Mud Tuesday, May 7 5pm Lowe-Volk Park Little Explorers is an interactive program for young children, ages 0-5. Activities focus on stimulating infants’ senses and developing toddlers’ and preschoolers’ fine motor skills. This month we’ll explore mud! We will be outside in the nature playscape this month, so be sure to dress in clothes that can get muddy! Box Turtles Wednesday, May 8 5:30pm Lowe-Volk Park Box turtles aren’t the only turtles that have a hinged plastron, but they are the only ones that can completely close up their shell. Stop out to meet our box turtles, make a craft, and learn a little about these remarkable reptiles. It’s time to “shellebrate” National Box Turtle week! Bird Banding Saturday, May 11 7am-1pm Lowe-Volk Park In conjunction with our pancake breakfast, we’ll be banding birds on the front porch of the Nature Center. Join Bob Placier and CPD staff for a morning of science! We’ll be monitoring mist nets to see which birds inhabit or pass through Lowe-Volk Park. Banding is used to track trends in bird populations, among other research applications. All ages welcome and enjoy some pancakes in support of your Park District! Pancakes in the Park Saturday, May 11 8am-1pm Lowe-Volk Park Come and support your parks while satisfying your appetite. For a donation, you can get pancakes topped with real maple syrup, a side of delicious ham, and a great morning enjoying and supporting your Park District! Family Hike Wednesday, May 15 5:30pm Heckert Nature Preserve Today is International Day of Families! To celebrate, join Lisa and one of her four-legged family members on a hike through Heckert. Families of all sizes are welcome to come and enjoy an evening out in nature. Girl Scouts: Animal Habitats Tuesday, May 21 6:15pm Lowe-Volk Park Are you a Junior Girl Scout? If so, join Troop 4253 to learn all about animal habitats and work on earning your badge. We’ll go on a hike looking for animals in their natural habitat, make observations of animals, and recreate a habitat for an animal. Junior Girl Scouts from all troops are welcome! Creek Walk Saturday, May 25 1pm Lowe-Volk Park The Sandusky River is 133 miles long and ends all the way up in Sandusky Bay, but did you know that it starts right here at Lowe-Volk Park?! Come out to explore Allen Run and Paramour Creek, the tributaries that make up the mighty Sandusky headwaters! Wear your creek-walkin' shoes! Viewing the Night Sky Saturday, May 25 9pm Lowe-Volk Park Living History Days Friday, May 31- Sunday, June 2 Lowe-Volk Park Join the CPD and Colonel Crawford’s Company to step back into the 18th Century. More event details will be shared in the coming weeks. Save the date! |