Make a Gwiazdy

Looking for a fun winter craft with a wealth of tradition? Try making a Polish Gwiazdy (g-vee-azda)! While it may look like a conventional winter cut-out (gwiazdy even means star in Polish), gwiazdy have a history spanning two centuries and are 8-pointed rather than 6-pointed paper snowflakes. Various forms of paper cutouts called wycinanki (vĭ-chee non-key) originated in the 19th century in Poland.Two styles developed in the northern area of Warsaw: leluja (le-lu-ya), which are cut from paper folded lengthwise, and gwiazdy, cut from a round piece of paper. Each spring, the people of Warsaw white-washed the walls of their homes and decorated them with these colorful cut-outs. Celebrate winter the Warsaw way with these simple instructions.

1. Turn your rectangle into a square. Fold your paper all the way across to make a triangle with a bit hanging over. Cut off the bit that hangs over.

2. Fold your square in half (to make a rectangle)

3. Then fold it in half again to make a square. Now fold in half one last time (corner to corner this time) to make a triangle.

4. Draw a curved line and cut off the top of the triangle

5. Draw a symmetrical design. Don't draw any cuts all the way through or you'll end up with confetti instead of a star.

6. Cut along the lines you drew and unfold to admire your beautiful creation!

Sprouting Grass...Hidden Ginger

Photo Credit: Althea Dotzour

Dear Wonder Bugs,Signs of spring were sprouting up all over this week!  Grasses, flowering plants, weeds, and even ginger were showing their green colors. It was fun to “plant” dandelion seeds by blowing on the seed heads! Creeping Charlie and mint had interesting smells that some of us liked better than the smell of wild ginger.

Wild ginger is a fun, native plant because the flowers are like little surprises. Wild ginger flowers hide under the tall, heart-shaped leaves right along the ground; you have to carefully push the leaves aside until you find them.  I wonder why the flowers would be so close to the ground and not up in the air like the dandelion flowers?

There are insects that like the flowers and use them for different reasons!  There is a certain type of fly that lives underground through the winter. When it emerges in the spring, the flowers provide a warm and dry place to hide during the changing and surprising spring weather.  Once the flowers make their seeds, ants are attracted to a special part of the seed that makes a delicious food for the ants. So the ants follow the scent to the wind ginger seeds, carry the seeds back to their homes, eat the special, fleshy part, and leave the seed. If everything goes well, the wild ginger seed will sprout the next year into a new wild ginger plant!But the fun doesn’t stop there! Wild ginger can also sprout from their special root called a rhizome. Wild ginger makes a great ground cover because of its spreading ability!

Find that spring in your step!  There is more sprouting than grasses, dandelions and wild ginger- you just have to get outside and look. Create your own scavenger hunt sheet or fill up a page by drawing what you find.  Or try to sprout some seeds inside and watch what happens.

Over and sprout,
Miss Tara 

Remember to join us to share the Wonder Bugs experience with your entire family at our NEW Family Camps! Here are the details:

Evening Family Campfires (2 days each)
Wednesday & Thursday June 20-21 OR Tuesday & Wednesday July 31 and August 1
6:30-8:30 pm

Family camp is NEW for summer fun with grandmas, grandpas, parents and all the kids! If you have found yourself jealous of your kids going off to camp each summer, this one is for you. Bring the whole family for 2 evenings of nature activities, singing, storytelling, and stargazing around the campfire on a summer weeknight. Can you think of a better way to spend a summer evening?

Overnight Family Camps (AT our Black Earth Campus)
Friday, July 20-Saturday, July 21 OR Saturday, August 18-Sunday, August 19
6 pm-10 am

Bring the whole family for an overnight campout at our Black Earth Campus filled with nature activities, singing, storytelling, and stargazing around the campfire on a summer night! Bring your own sleeping bags, pillow (required) and tent (if you have one). Please indicate when registering if you would like to use an ALNC tent (limited supply available) or if you will be bringing your own.

Best of 2011

With the new year just around the corner, we're taking some time to reflect back on 2011! What a tremendous year it has been for us at the Aldo Leopold Nature Center! Thank you to everyone who has helped us reach more than 40,000 children, their families and teachers this year!

Check out these "best of 2011" photos from this past year!

Winter Survival with a Coffee Can!

Dear Readers,

My name is Rachel, and I am an intern at the Aldo Leopold Nature Center. When I was growing up, my aunt used to ask me, “What did you learn today that you didn't know yesterday but want to remember for a long, long time?” That can be a difficult question to answer but not the day I learned about Winter Survival at ALNC.


I've heard about how to survive outdoors in winter if I was to get lost but have never put any of that knowledge into practice. During Winter Survival, I witnessed 7th and 8th graders venture outside "to survive" in ALNC's basswood grove armed only with an empty coffee can, matches, garbage bag, bandana, water,and hot chocolate. In one hour,and under the guidance of their naturalists, they found enough tree branches and leaves to build a lean-to that could hold 6 teenagers! Outside the lean-to, a small fire was heating up hot chocolate in an empty coffee can. Warm and cozy...sweet.


I live in Wisconsin and love winter. There is nothing better than cross-country skiing far away from the city, surrounded only by evergreens and snow as far as the eye can see. But from now on, I will take my own winter survival kit. Armed with this new knowledge, I am ready to take on winter-let it snow (please)!


Do you have a survival story to share? Email devcomm@naturenet.com to share it with us.

Staying warm,
Rachel


P.S. Tap into your inner "survivalist" with our Winter Survival Mini-Camp!




Here's more info:

Winter Survival Mini-Camp
Friday, December 30, 2011
9:00am - 4:00pm
Registration Deadline: Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Any of us could find ourselves in a situation where we need to use winter survival skills. In this adventurous program, we’ll learn what nature provides to help us survive, learn how to dress appropriately, pack a survival kit and work cooperatively. After learning this, we’ll head to the woods to test our skills in building a fire without matches, creating a makeshift shelter, and cooking a snack over a survival fire.

Please bring a sack lunch; we’ll provide snacks, water and lemonade.

ALNC Members: $45/participant; Non-Members: $50/participant
Package Price for the Full Week (Tuesday, December 27 - Friday, December 30):
ALNC Members: $175/person; Non-Members: $195/person.



Click here or call 608-221-0404 x 1 to register.