South Side Nature Play - SSNP

🌿🌱🌳We welcome you to join us for a community restoration session and a free weaving workshop on invasive species.

Saturday, April 11TH || 11am – 2pm CDT

Audubon Great Lakes' Wild Indigo Nature Explorations, along with Artist Cori Lin, invite you to an educational experience to learn mitigation techniques of invasive species in Illinois, including phragmites and buckthorn, and how we can creatively utilize these plant materials.

This workshop is a great introduction to conservation, weaving, and a chance to connect with the land, our individual cultures, while also fostering curiosity about environmental and bird advocacy.

Location:
Ford Calumet Environmental Center
11559 S Stony Island Ave
Chicago, IL 60617

FREE SIGN-UP LINK:🌱🌿🌳
https://www.mobilize.us/audubon-great-lakes/event/933286/

🌱 Save the Date for the remaining spring sessions of Nature Play Dates: Field Study on 4/19 and 5/17!

🌱 We will spend the spring season at a beloved natural area in Chicago, at Big Marsh Park on the Southeast Side. 💚 By spending intentional time in one place over three months, we observe gradual changes in our natural environment. These changes might include trees budding and leafing out, wind gusting, sun changing position, or water level rising! On the marsh, spring bird migration announces change throughout the ecosystem. How will we embrace this transition - and all that comes with it?

🌱 Our curricular focus on urban wildlife continues this spring as we experiment with documenting nature discoveries in child-led ways. Nature journaling as a family can create space to reduce stress and engage in a practice of deep noticing: in what ways are we similar to an egret, a toad, or a salamander? And in what ways do we experience life on Earth differently?

🌱 See you soon on the South Side! 🐸 ☔️🪺

💛❤️💛❤️

☀️ Get ready for summer fun in the Forest Preserves of Cook County! Our Summer Guide is now available and full of information on upcoming programs, events and amenities, from indoor educational activities to unforgettable outdoor adventures.

☀️ Pick up a copy of the guide at nature centers, special events and programs, or download a PDF from our website. You can also check out our online events schedule at fpdcc.com/events

🏖️🏝️🐠🐟🍉🌊👙🎣🌺🏊‍♀️🥥

Bald eagle nesting update: We have our first confirmed eaglet The bald eagle population has been booming in Will County in recent years, and we're monitoring four active nests. 

🌕 SSNP is so ready to see you this Sunday at 2pm at South Shore Nature Sanctuary for Spring Equinox Play Date! With the Equinox comes thoughts of growth, renewal, and a thawing of soil, body, & mind. Mud play, lake observations, seed study, and the usual stories, songs, and bonfire will be waiting for you in the Sanctuary (see map on 3rd slide).

🌕 Since the March full moon has been nicknamed the Full Worm Moon in the Dakota language, we will show reverence for earthworms throughout our play. In behaving and thinking like worms, we will ground ourselves in connection to the Earth and all that is possible with rootedness. Gotta get down to get up! 🪱

🌕 See you so soon in the Sanctuary! Until we gather to celebrate this first weekend of Chicago Spring, we hope the sun shines upon you and sustains you like the crocus, an essential friend to our emerging pollinators at this time of year. 💜