Our annual holiday event, Nature’s Noel, is just around the corner! If you are in the market for fresh evergreen decorations, handmade gifts of all kinds or frozen soups and appetizers, or if you just need a little help getting into the holiday spirit, come join us!

Mark your calendars! Nature’s Noel is Saturday, December 5th from 9 AM to noon.

Join us this Friday night, November 20th, at 7 PM for an evening crafting around the wood stove! Take this opportunity to create unique gifts for the holidays made from a versatile, renewable resource.

For more information, visit our calendar of events!

Indian Creek Nature Center is now offering an electronic mailing list! Follow this link and enter your email address. If you are a past or current member of the Nature Center, an email will be sent to you with instructions on how to manage your subscription. If you are brand new to us, it’s easy: just select your interests!

Help the Nature Center spread the word (and save some trees!) by signing up today!

Click on the picture below to see the web-based version of our latest publication:

Is anyone feeling hungry?

Join us at Indian Creek Nature Center for our annual Sierra Club Chili Luncheon and Silent Auction on Saturday, November 14th. Sample some delicious homemade chili and bid on a variety of outdoor equipment, including camping, hiking, gardening and boating items.

The auction and luncheon both begin at 11 am, with bidding on the auction items ending at 12:30. For prices and more information, click here.

We hope to see you out at the Nature Center to support two great causes!

(Photo courtesy of Su-lin. Used under Creative Commons guidelines.)

Sunday and Monday at the Nature Center were alive with the sounds of children experiencing nature. (Curiously, that sounds a lot like a marimba!) We dedicated the new trail on Sunday, and the media coverage drew crowds here on Monday as well. So far, it looks like a hit!

But now for what you really want. Pictures! (Above: staff, committee and crew members pose around the marimba with other instruments and cloth “flags”. I think we’ll call them the Sense of Wonder Jam Band.)

Two young visitors give the marimba a whirl. So far, this has been the hot ticket item on the sense of wonder trail!

Contemplating her next move, this tic tac toe player is using game pieces made from reused plastic and canning rings!

A family works together to build a “block city” out of natural materials called tree cookies!

There’s always something to see and do at Indian Creek Nature Center. While the staff takes a step back and a deep breath (and maybe even a nap!), come out and enjoy our newest feature. And, as always, stay tuned for what’s next!

(Please note: The photos in this blog were taken by Marion Patterson. The Nature Center has used them under Creative Commons guidelines. So if you use them, pass the credit for them back to Ms. Patt!)

Join us on Sunday, October 18th from 2 to 4 PM for the opening of our Sense of Wonder Trail, a natural playscape for children! (See below for a sneak preview!)

Do you know where your food comes from? It seems like a simple question, but if it is so simple, why is it so difficult to answer? In an age of industrialized food systems, the average consumer has little or no relationship with their food.

These concerns are why the Nature Center is hosting the Northwest Earth Institute’s discussion course Menu for the Future. This six-part class helps to foster a dialogue about food and its relationship to sustainability.

Our first session, “What’s Eating America” will be held on Tuesday, October 20 at 7 PM. The following sessions will be held each Tuesday for the next five weeks at the same time.

For more information about this program, check out the Institute’s overview. For program fee and information on how to sign up, click here.

(The photograph in the post is by Edward Simpson under Creative Commons guidelines. To see more of Edward’s work, click here.)

Last month, MOMS Club of Cedar Rapids – South* brought eight preschoolers out for one of our most exciting preschool programs: Busy, Buzzing Bees!

The preschoolers were just as busy as the bees as they jumped to answer Margaret’s bee questions. One was even brave enough to put on the beekeeper’s bonnet!

The Nature Center schedules many programs like this for small groups, schools and scouts. To find out more, visit our website and explore the preschool, school, home school and other youth programs that we offer.

MOMS Club is joining us again on October 20th for our bat program, and they are inviting other preschoolers to join them. We hope to see you and your group soon for one of our fall or winter programs!

* MOMS Club of Cedar Rapids – South is support group for stay-at-home Moms and is welcoming more members from the SE and SW side of Cedar Rapids. If you want more information, please email: momsclubcrsouth@yahoo.com or call Shelley at 364-2179.

Many thanks to Nadine Brock for her help with this entry.

It’s officially Autumn, and it’s time for something new and exciting from the Nature Center! For the last few months, our staff members in conjunction with Metro High School have been hard at work on the new Sense of Wonder trail, an outdoor interactive experience geared towards children, but for people of all ages.

A new movement has emerged (geared in part by Richard Louv’s book Last Child in the Woods) that is concentrating on correcting “Nature Deficit Disorder”, or the general lack of outdoor activities of our nation’s youth. The Nature Center’s mission has always been in line with getting children into the world of nature, but the collaboration with Metro came at a fortuitous time!

A lot of exciting progress has been made in the last few weeks…

Permeable pave (also called “grass pave”) was installed all around the building. This not only will create a more natural look for our play area, but when the grass starts to grow up through the holes, rainwater will soak in, instead of running off as it would on normal pavement. (In heavy rain situations, we’ll be helping to keep Indian Creek from flooding!)

You currently can catch the grass pave at an interesting time. Come see the newly installed pave, then cross the bridge over the ravine (take any of the paths behind the barn to reach points to cross the ravine) to see grass pave that was put in early this summer. This latter pave is in it’s growing stages, so be sure to take a peek!

Here you can see the brand new stage that we put in this summer, along with Metro staff and students planting flowers around it!

Even more exciting: We will soon be having our Sense of Wonder open house! Join us on October 18th to check the trail out for yourself. Click here for more information!

Honey is one very sweet reason to love bees. Can you think of others?

Come out to Indian Creek Nature Center on Sunday, September 20 from 1 to 4 PM for our annual Honey Fest! There will be games, crafts, music and things to learn for all ages. (And, of course, lots of honey!) One of our beekeepers will even wear a beard of live bees!

For entrance fee information, check out the program calendar by clicking here. You can also contact us via email or phone.