Chickadee Camp
2025-08-07 08:45 - 13:00, 2025-08-08 08:45 - 13:00, 2025-08-11 08:45 - 13:00, 2025-08-12 08:45 - 13:00, 2025-08-13 08:45 - 13:00, 2025-08-14 08:45 - 13:00, 2025-08-15 08:45 - 13:00 (America/New_York)
Entering Kindergarten*
Mondays – Fridays, 8:45 am – 1 pm
Session 1: June 30 – July 3rd (one week) (no camp on July 4th)
Session 2: July 7 – July 18 (two weeks)
Session 3: July 21 – July 25 (one week)
Session 4: July 28 – August 8 (two weeks)
Session 5: August 11 – August 15 (one week)
The Chickadee program is a safe, nurturing first outdoor day camp experience for young ones. Attentive and loving counselors facilitate safe and curious exploration of the Discovery Yard and Hitchcock trails while sharing enthusiasm and joyful nature connection.

Nature Summer Camp: No Place Like Home
2025-08-07 08:45 - 15:00, 2025-08-08 08:45 - 15:00
July 28 – August 8 (two weeks)
8:45 am – 3 pm
Fees for Session 4: Tier A $1020; Tier B $885; Tier C $800
Explore field, forest, farms, and community to discover the fascinating connections of the place we call home. Through hands-on experiences within these habitats, mixed with stories, songs, games, and crafts, we will build our sense of place as we investigate the human and natural history of this place, how our ecosystems work, and all about the many creatures who all call this place home.

Little Bear Nature Walks
2025-08-08 10:00 - 11:15, 2025-08-11 10:00 - 11:15, 2025-08-14 10:00 - 11:15, 2025-08-26 10:00 - 11:15, 2025-08-29 10:00 - 11:15, 2025-09-03 10:00 - 11:15, 2025-09-06 10:00 - 11:15
Come along on a Little Bear Nature Walk! Little Bear Nature Walks are a way for toddlers, preschoolers and their caregivers to explore nature in an age-appropriate way. Click here to find today’s theme, location, and to register!

Nature Summer Camp: Animal Superheroes
2025-08-11 08:45 - 11:15, 2025-08-12 08:45 - 11:15, 2025-08-13 08:45 - 11:15, 2025-08-14 08:45 - 11:15, 2025-08-15 08:45 - 11:15
Session 5: August 11 – August 15 (one week)
8:45 am – 3 pm
Fees for Session 5: Tier A $520; Tier B $450; Tier C $405
This session we’re exploring the superpowers of the natural world! We’ll investigate animals’ tricks for hiding from predators and finding food, and learn about awesome adaptations their bodies have to help them leap, fly and swim. Through outdoor activities, games, observation, nature hikes, and art projects, we will encounter ordinary superheroes with extraordinary adaptations.

Living Building Closed for Cleaning
2025-08-20 - 2025-08-27
Hitchcock Center’s Living Building will be closed for deep cleaning from August 20 – 27

Hitchcock Harvest
2025-08-20 08:00 - 17:00
Harvesting hope for more than 60 years – one petal at a time!
Sunday, October 19, 2025 3 PM – 6 PM in Hitchcock Center’s gardens
The Hitchcock Center has been sowing seeds of change and educating for a healthy planet in the Valley for more than 60 years. Come together in community to enjoy local food & libations in our Brew Garden & wander through interactive stations themed around the petals of the Living Building — Place, Water, Energy, Health & Happiness, Materials, Equity, and Beauty. See what local innovators, and Hitchcock Center, are doing to show what it means to shape a hopeful, resilient future.
Follow the petals of possibility and share your climate hopes and dreams in our collective art project and harvest hope, one petal at a time!

Fall Birding Course
2025-08-23 05:00 - 17:00
August – November 2025
Sliding Scale $350 / $410 / $470
There is a maximum of 15 people
Join Scott Surner as he guides you through the fall migration in New England. The class starts with a trip to Plum Island to experience the southbound migration of shorebirds as well, we hope to encounter many Herons, Gulls, Terns, and an early Warbler on that first trip. The local trips will focus on the drab plumages of fall warblers, along with Vireos, Flycatchers, and of course “The Sparrows”. There will be two additional trips to coastal areas.
Fall Birding Class Dates:
All trips leave from the Hitchcock Center. Carpooling will be encouraged. Participants will need to make their own lodging arrangements for the final weekend overnight trip to the Cape, course cost only includes birding instruction. Additional information will be provided after signing up.
FIELD TRIPS:
August 23rd – Plum Island. Depart 5:00 AM Looking for southbound Shorebirds, Herons/Egrets, Terns, Gulls, and more.
September 13th – Local. 7:00 AM Fall warblers, Vireos, and flycatchers.
September 20th– Local. 7:00 AM Fall Warblers and more.
September 27th– Local. 7:00 AM Fall Warblers and the beginning of Sparrow season.
October 4th – Light House Point, Connecticut. Depart 5:45 AM Migrating Raptors and many other songbirds. Last year, we tallied 1183 Blue Jays migrating.
October 11th – Local. 7:00 AM. Local- more Sparrows and early waterfowl.
October 25th – Local- 7:00 AM. Local. Waterfowl.
November 7th-9th. Cape Cod. Depart the Hitchcock Center at 5:00 AM for a weekend on Cape Cod. We’ll hit several areas on the outer Cape, including locations in Provincetown, Wellfleet, Eastham, and Orleans.
CLASSROOM SESSIONS:
Wednesdays – Sept 10 & Oct 8 – 6:00 – 8:00 PM at the Hitchcock Center
REGISTRATION AND MORE INFO

Nature Play Afterschool
2025-09-02 15:30 - 17:30
Nature Play Afterschool Series
Grades 1-3
Tuesdays, 3:30-5:30 PM
September 2 – December 16 (no program November 11)
Fee per Child: Tier A-$438 | Tier B-$381 | Tier C-$324
Limited to 12 participants
Hitchcock’s Nature Play Afterschool Program is designed to let kids be kids. Together we will run, jump, climb, invent, imagine, play and be free-range kids all while developing self-confidence and learning valuable social skills. During Fall Nature Play we will explore wooded trails and fields, jump in leaf piles, build forts, climb trees, and make new discoveries about ourselves and the world around us. Our instructors provide a safe setting for children to explore nature and encourage children to stretch their limits.

Girls into the Wild
2025-09-02 15:30 - 17:30
Girls into the Wild
Grades 4-6
Tuesdays, 3:30-5:30 PM
September 2 – December 16 (no program November 11)
Fee per Child: Tier A-$444 | Tier B-$386 | Tier C-$328
Limited to 12 participants
Girls into the Wild is for girls and nonbinary kids in fourth through sixth grade. Together we build a space where kids can be themselves, make friends, and take a few risks in nature. This fully outdoor afterschool program is a mix of structured and unstructured fun as we play games, do nature projects and explore nature in all weather. We’ll do our favorite activities that have been invented over the years, such as trading nature goods at the fairy market, building hotels for slugs, and fencing with staghorn sumac poles. We’ll visit our favorite places to play such as Roots, Jumping Rock, and the Faraway Woods. What new activities will we invent together?!

Junior Nature Play Afterschool
2025-09-03 15:30 - 17:30
Junior Nature Play Afterschool Series
Grades K-2
Wednesdays, 3:30-5:30 PM
September 3 – December 17 (Extended day (1 PM) on September 24, October 29, November 19 and December 17, no program November 26)
Fee per Child: Tier A-$570 | Tier B-$496| Tier C-$422
Limited to 12 participants
Hitchcock’s Junior Nature Play Afterschool Program is designed to let kids be kids. Together we will run, jump, climb, invent, imagine, play and be free-range kids all while developing self-confidence and learning valuable social skills. During Fall Junior Nature Play we will explore wooded trails and fields, play pretend in our mud kitchen, and make leaf crowns. Our instructors provide a safe setting for children to explore nature and encourage children to stretch their limits.

Nature Play Afterschool
2025-09-03 15:30 - 17:30
Nature Play Afterschool Series
Grades 3-5
Wednesdays, 3:30-5:30 PM
September 3 – December 17 (Extended day (1 PM) on September 24, October 29, November 19 and December 17, no program November 26)
Fee per Child: Tier A-$570 | Tier B-$496 | Tier C-$422
Limited to 12 participants
Hitchcock’s Nature Play Afterschool Program is designed to let kids be kids. Together we will run, jump, climb, invent, imagine, play and be free-range kids all while developing self-confidence and learning valuable social skills. During Fall Nature Play we will explore wooded trails and fields, jump in leaf piles, build forts, climb trees, and make new discoveries about ourselves and the world around us. Our instructors provide a safe setting for children to explore nature and encourage children to stretch their limits. For those parents deciding between the junior and nature play programs, the latter often travels further and is away from the Hitchcock Center’s play yard longer.

Hitchcock Garden Party
2025-09-03 17:30 - 19:00
Garden Party & Herbal Infusion Demo
Wednesday, September 3rd
5:30 pm in the Hitchcock gardens
Join us for a casual gathering in the Hitchcock Center’s beautiful gardens and enjoy a demonstration on how to make a variety of infusions with seasonal herbs and flowers and learn more about the work of the Hitchcock Center with Executive Director Billy Spitzer. Light refreshments from the garden will be served.
Email Shelly Kahan or Kim Snyder to RSVP

Wild Children of the Woods
2025-09-08 15:30 - 17:30
Wild Children of the Woods
Grades 3-5
Mondays 3:30-5:30 PM
September 8 – December 22 (no class October 13)
Tier A: $438 | Tier B: $381 | Tier C: $324
Limited to 12 participants
We go to the woods to think, learn, play, and explore in this afterschool series for upper-elementary schoolers. We will roam the grounds of the Hitchcock Center as we watch Fall turn to Winter. We will visit stump city, ferns, and the far-away woods, play some organized games, and learn about the animals, plants, and life in these woods, including ourselves.
