North Mountain Park Nature Center Discovery Kits

Discovery Kits at North Mountain Park

Looking for a fun way to spend time in nature with your child?

Discovery Kits are available for use at no cost*, Monday - Friday, 8:30 am - 4:30 pm; and Saturdays, noon - 5 pm during the summer months. (Please be sure to check out the kits 1-hour before closing time.) The Kits are of various natural history topics and offer outdoor learning and exploration at the park for children ages 5 - 12 accompanied by an adult, and are ideal for home-school classes!

*A $10 refundable deposit or driver's liscense will be held while the kit is in use.

Peek inside our Aquatic Insects Kit

Step-by-step instructions which will help the adult both guide the lesson and feel like an authority on the topic while utilizing the kit with children.
A story book which helps prepare everyone for the lesson and gets children excited about the topic.
Lesson materials presented in the form of laminated cards which enable the adult to prep the children for the hands-on component of the kit and answer any questions that may come up during the activity.
Lesson props which help bring the lesson materials to life! Props are intended for children to handle and explore on their own.
Two sets of kid-sized and kid-friendly equipment for the hands-on component of the lesson as well as step-by-step instructions.
Colored pencils and a take-home journal for children to record their findings and discoveries.
Once the kits are returned to the office and inventoried, the children receive a take-home postcard related to the kit topic so that the learning can continue at home.

Available Kits

Bird Watching
North Mountain Park offers a variety of habitats for local and visiting birds. Within each habitat, you will be able to see many different kinds of birds. During the fall, winter and spring, our bird feeders are well stocked and in the summer our bird buffet is in full swing. In this activity, you'll learn about bird field markings, feathers and wings, then you'll grab your binoculars and go birding in four different habitats around the park.

Rock Cracking
Rocks from both the Siskiyou and Cascade Mountains can be found at North Mountain Park. Rocks from both mountain ranges tumble downhill and eventually make their way into Bear Creek. During floods, Bear Creek overspills its banks and deposits a wide variety of rocks into the Overflow Channel. In this activity you will have fun cracking open rocks and becoming a geologist for the day. See if you can identify the mountain range your rock came from!

Aquatic Insects
Explore the ponds at N MT Park and learn more about this important food source for other wetland animals. In this activity you will use dip nets to carefully collect aquatic insects in the pond and then observe them in viewing boxes before releasing them.

Owl Pellets
You may not see an owl during your visit to North Mountain Park, but you can discover what it eats by dissecting one of its pellets! This is a fascinating introduction to food webs and is always popular with children. Kids have fun using their puzzle skills and playing detective as they piece together the skeltons of small mammals.

Journals, writing and sketching materials are available with each kit. For more information, please contact the North Mountain Park Nature Center.

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