EARLY LEARNING
Learning Opportunities at the SMNC
Education is the cornerstone of what we do at the Sally Manzara Interpretive Nature Center. Whether it’s interacting with one of our lovingly crafted indoor exhibits, watching our bees at work outside, or attending one of our educational events, our visitors have a wealth of educational opportunities to pick from. For our younger learners, we have developed a series of programs designed to offer young nature lovers a range pf experiential learning opportunities.
What we offer:
- Toddler Tuesdays: Our nature programming for the littlest nature lovers (aged 0-5) and their families
- Homeschool Programing: We are currently piloting a program geared towards homeschool families grounded in nature-based learning that encourages older students to learn by teaching
- Field Trips: We offer flexible scheduling, and unique educational opportunities for traditional and homeschool groups, scout groups and other organizations
- Summer Camps: Going into our fourth summer, we have summer camp offerings that vary according to topic, age range and duration
Toddler Tuesdays
Toddler Tuesdays offer a fun way to expose the little ones to outdoor and environmentally based experiences. The first hour will be exploring the theme of the day and the last 30 minutes will be a social hour, chatting with old and new friends and investigating all that the nature center has to share!
Each session goes from 10 a.m. to 11:30, and are open to kids ages 0 to 5. At least one adult caregiver must attendance for each child–one adult can attend with multiple children–and the price is $8 per person, adults included. Kids under one-year-old are free. For more information, or to sign up for our next Toddler Tuesday, go to our Events Calendar.
Field Trips to the SMINC
If you are looking for field trip opportunities, you could hardly find a more beautiful destination than the Sally Manzara Interpretive Nature Center at Sunfish Lake Park, featuring a talented and dedicated staff trained to provide your students with an interactive learning experience in nature. We offer flexible scheduling, varying pricing options, and a range of educational themes and topics to choose from. To schedule your trip, contact our Programming Coordinator, Verity Davis, at verity.davis@sminc-lake-elmo.org
Homeschool Programming
This is a series of 2-day field trips to Sunfish Lake Park and the Sally Manzara Interpretive Nature Center, in Lake Elmo, MN, for a local homeschooled-kids group (between 30-50 children; Ages from pre-K to 9th graders) (“grade level” varies depending on what the kid and abilities).
On the first day the presenter (nature center staffer) and the older children, roughly grades 7-9 (varies depending on what the kid and their abilities are), will learn about a predetermined environmental theme and determine how they will assist in teaching pre-k through 6th graders. Initially, there will be pre-selected programs for them to choose from to set up the next day’s field trip and then eventually they will figure out how to create aspects of the lessons on their own. Once the 7-9 graders construct their own lessons, they will then determine how to implement what they learned through outdoor/environmental education focused lessons to the lower grade children on the second day.
The second day will consist of the 7-9 graders implementing the mini-camp of lessons with supervision and guidance from the presenter. These sessions will be completely outdoors unless there is severe weather conditions present. If you would like to schedule sessions for your homeschool group, or would like more information, email Verity Davis at verity.davis@sminc-lake-elmo.org.
