Native American Winter Traditions

Dear Nature Nuts, 

My name is Miss Rachel and yesterday was my last day as an intern at the Aldo Leopold Nature Center. Boy what a great day it was!

I assisted with the Native American Winter Traditions Winter Break Mini-Camp. Our first task was to follow our naturalist outside and look for snow snakes. Snow snakes? We hunted high and low past the old hickory, through the oak savanna, and down to the willow by the frozen pond. Along the way our naturalist pulled dried up Queen Ann's lace out of the ground. She pulled apart the root and asked us to sniff. It smelled like a carrot! We found all kinds of snow snakes- various sizes of dead branches. We used a sharp rock to get the bark off the branch and then colored our snow snakes. Native Americans would have made shallow trenches in the snow to race their snow snakes. We may not have had snow, but our snakes slid really well on the deck (the official no-snow snake raceway).


Dream catchers were used to keep bad dreams away. We used willow branches that we gathered down by the pond. Willow branches bend really well into the shape of a dream catcher. Yarn was used as the webbing to actually "catch" the bad dream. Feathers were used to decorate our dream catchers just like Native Americans used.  I don't think I'll have to worry about bad dreams tonight. Playing outside in the fresh air and sunshine is the making of good dreams.


Keep playing,
Miss Rachel

P.S. There is still room in all of our Winter Break Mini-Camps! Try one, or the whole week (Tuesday-Friday). Here are next week's sessions:

TRACKS IN THE SNOW
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
9:00am - 4:00pm
Registration Deadline: Friday, December 20, 2011
Enjoy the outdoors searching for signs left behind by animals as they make their way through their habitats. As animals hop, run, walk, wiggle or slither around, they leave tell-tale marks in soft snow or soil. Use your new skills all year long to find out the mysteries left behind by our furry and feathered friends. We’ll also spend some time practicing making “human tracks” in the snow on snowshoes! Please bring a sack lunch; we’ll provide snacks, water and lemonade.
ALNC Members: $45/person; Non-Members: $50/person
Package Price for the Full Week (Tuesday, January 3 - Friday, January 6):
ALNC Members: $175/person; Non-Members: $195/person.
Registration Form

WINTER BIRD EXTRAVAGANZA
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
9:00am – 4:00pm
Registration Deadline: Monday, January 2, 2012
While some birds migrate south to sunny skies and warmer winters, some birds stay here in Wisconsin and “tough it out.” We will learn about and see some of these birds as we hike the habitats of ALNC.
Please bring a sack lunch; we’ll provide snacks, water and lemonade.
ALNC Members: $45/person; Non-Members: $50/person
Package Price for the Full Week (Tuesday, January 3 - Friday, January 6):
ALNC Members: $175/person; Non-Members: $195/person.
Registration Form

LITTLE CRITTERS
Thursday, January 5, 2012
9:00am – 4:00pm
Registration Deadline: Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Learning about little critters can be BIG fun! We’ll spend the day learning about mice, voles, moles, shrews, bats and more. Go on a food scavenger hunt, search for signs and scat, find out how they stay warm in winter, dissect an owl pellet to put together a little critter skeleton, and try to observe a little critter up close through live trapping and release.
Please bring a sack lunch; we’ll provide snacks, water and lemonade.
ALNC Members: $45/person; Non-Members: $50/person
Package Price for the Full Week (Tuesday, January 3 - Friday, January 6):
ALNC Members: $175/person; Non-Members: $195/person.
Registration Form

WINTER IN WISCONSIN
Friday, January 6, 2012
9:00am – 4:00pm
Registration Deadline: Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Join us for a day of celebrating winter in Wisconsin at ALNC! We’ll discover all about our winter animals and how they adapt to the cold as well as do many activities Wisconsinites like to do outdoors in winter—animal tracking, build snow structures, predict the winter weather and much, much more! Please bring a sack lunch; we’ll provide snacks, water and lemonade.
ALNC Members: $45/person; Non-Members: $50/person
Package Price for the Full Week (Tuesday, January 3 - Friday, January 6):
ALNC Members: $175/person; Non-Members: $195/person.
Registration Form

For questions or to register over the phone, please call (608) 221-0404 x1.