Closer to Nature is a wonderful seasonal opportunity for teens and/or adults to get close and personal with our immediate landscape & wildlife in both scientific and art-creative ways.
We offer this program to anyone and to any organization in Cambridge/Somerville (Massachusetts) and around. You can pick and choose which class(es) you want, or you can sign up for an entire season program. Tell us when and where, provide us with an indoor location (with a large table, a white wall or a whiteboard, and enough chairs to accommodate your party) and we do the rest, including getting you all outside to explore your local wildlife–right where you live…
Contact us for details or set up a schedule » Sign up now! ✍
Closer to Nature is an Earthwise Aware program designed for teens (14+) and adults to explore and enjoy the natural world around them through storytelling, nature & naturalist walks, sketching & journaling, art, and science.
We sync our classes with the seasons, we adjust to our audiences. Every class starts with a short presentation and discussion of the topic before getting outside.
Closer to Nature cultivates a deep understanding that Nature conservation starts right where we live, in our own backyards, city parks, and forests. Each season program aims at inspiring its participants to become mentors in their communities by taking part in awareness programs and sharing their knowledge with communities, schools, friends and family members.
Date, Time & Duration: It’s up to you or your organization! Contact us and we’ll discuss a schedule that fits your needs. Each class is 2 1/2 to 3 hours long. We offer this program per season, following the school’s seasonal structure having a Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall session.
Class Size: The minimum class size is 3 participants. Quality is important to us, and we limit our classes to 8-12 depending on the audience age group.
❀ Seasons Themes’ Sample❀
Each program and its classes are tuned to the season’s natural events and ecology. Note that topics can & may be shuffled around depending on weather conditions. More classes and choices? Check EwA’s Nature Circles Activities & Lessons »
Season Celebration
Discuss Nature processes and cycles, focusing on the current season. Discover how the season was celebrated in Human history. The class includes the making of a decoration inspired by the season & Nature (using Nature material if possible).
Nature Awakening
A set of outdoor knowledge and sensory games to get to know each other while learning about Nature and our immediate environment. The activities help the participants bond and rekindle a sense of wonder in us so that we open our eyes, our ears, and generally our senses to what surrounds us.
Becoming an iNaturalist » The Magic of Biodiversity
Explore Biodiversity, and then focus on the species who live among us, right here where you live. Develop your observing skills and learn how to identify those species using field guides. Investigate Citizen Science and how to contribute to helping scientists all over the world with the recording of our observations. Learn what kind of information to record, and how to submit it using the iNaturalist app & platform.
Nature Journaling » Season’s Highlights
A Nature journal helps to deepen Nature experiences in that journaling—with the active recording of our observations—allows fixing the experience in our mind. Journaling makes us more alert to patterns and cycles over time. It is also a meditative, relaxing activity: it makes us pause and focus on details that we miss in our daily busy lives. Learn how to create and illustrate a Naturalist journal for recording our observations. This includes learning sketching and nature illustration skills.
Embrace your Tree Community
Learn about forest & tree communities (their behavior, their interaction with one another). Investigate their ecological role & importance to us. Explore the trees in our immediate environment. Learn how to identify trees from shape, leaves, buds & bark. Getting out in close by parks, discuss, describe, and sketch the trees that we see, without forgetting to observe and record the species that depend on them.
The World of Birds
What are birds? Discuss bird classification, their behavior, ecology, and importance. Learn how to sketch and describe birds in a Nature journal (and where to share our observations). Get outside, and practice how to spot (including how to master binoculars and scope), and how to identify our local birds by sound, shape, flight, behavior, and more…
The Life of a Plastic Bottle
The focus here is on one of our human environmental impacts: our plastic usage. Explore the different forms of plastic that we use daily without us noticing. Understand the ramifications of the impact on wildlife and our health. Find out what to do to curb, or even eliminate many usages of plastic. This class includes a recycled art activity—art that can become a means to raise awareness around you…
