Events
10:00am-12:00pm Nature-based Field Trip: Mountains and Valleys
Discover the stories in the stones around us! The Holyoke Range can tell us much about how the Earth’s crust is shaped. It is a geologically unique area, where we can find evidence of shifting tectonic plates, earthquakes, volcanoes, glaciers, and erosion, all in one day’s field trip! We will learn how fascinating geology can […]
9am-12pm Nature All Year: Geology of the Pioneer Valley
Join us for an in-depth natural history course to develop your naturalists skills. Each month, in our series of nature explorations with different local naturalists, we explore a focused, seasonal, natural history topic. We’ll look at nature in new ways, from broad habitat perspectives to close details of individual species. Over the course of the […]
10:00am-12:00pm Junior Nature Play Series
We are pleased to offer for the first time a new Nature Play program that includes kindergartners— Junior Nature Play! Children in kindergarten and first grade may sign up for this immersive, lightly-structured program that lets kids be “free-range” while being safely supervised. Instructor Katie Koerten will lead us to our favorite places to play […]
1:00-2:00pm Class Program (Virtual)
Have a Hitchcock educator pay a virtual visit to your classroom or home! Our virtual class programs will be focused on specific topics to fit with your science curriculum. You will receive special topic-focused, take-home resources, and a remotely accessible video of a Hitchcock educator that will spark student interest. This will be paired with […]
3:30-5:30pm Nature Play Afterschool Monday Series
Our Nature Play Afterschool Program is designed to let kids be kids. Together we will run, jump, climb, invent, imagine, play and be free-range children, all while developing self-confidence and learning valuable social skills. We will explore wooded trails and fields, play in the leaves, build forts, climb trees, make new discoveries about ourselves and […]
9:30am-12:30pm Eco-Quest Discovery Day: Tracks and Signs
Join us for a quest! You can drop in for one class or all three. We will be completing a quest each week using different skills during the first half of the class, and the second half, after a hearty snack, will be full of nature exploration and games. This series is being offered two times […]
9:30am-12:30pm Morning Nature Play Series
Spend Tuesday mornings playing outside in the woods! Challenge your body by balancing on logs and climbing trees. Get as dirty as you like as we romp through the forest, explore under logs, make mud pie feasts and splash in puddles. Notice the changes in nature as we go through the season together. Instructor Katie […]
1:00-2:00pm Class Program (Virtual)
Have a Hitchcock educator pay a virtual visit to your classroom or home! Our virtual class programs will be focused on specific topics to fit with your science curriculum. You will receive special topic-focused, take-home resources, and a remotely accessible video of a Hitchcock educator that will spark student interest. This will be paired with […]
3:30-5:30pm Games in Nature Afterschool Series
Play is an essential part of childhood, and playing games can cultivate social-emotional skills that keep us connected. Games in Nature After School will use a combination of structured games and free nature play to build interpersonal skills and to just have fun in an increasingly stressful world. Each week the group will spend time together beginning […]
