Pritchard Park, 100 Library Drive, Chapel Hill, provides an opportunity for kids to learn and play outside, in an unstructured way.
There’s a nature play space where kids can dig, and can build, using stumps and logs from a large, old willow oak that was replaced on Franklin Street, and boulders from sites around town.
Kids can borrow a backpack with binoculars, magnifiers and a scavenger map of the park.
There are also learning programs at the park.
UNC Institute for the Environment and the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center are partners in the Explore More at Pritchard Park program, which is funded by the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services.
Here are two events coming up:
Monarch Madness
Saturday, September 21st, 2019
1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Free
Learn about one of the planet’s coolest flying bugs – Monarch butterflies!
From 1:30-2:00, Phyllis Simon and husband Bruce Taggart, who live in northern Orange County and have their own monarch raising operation, will lead a multi-media presentation in Meeting Room B.
From 2:00-3:00, we’ve got a whole host of caterpillar and butterfly crafts and activities for kids. We’ll draw, build, and learn.
From 3:00-3:30, Aerialist Amanda Finch will perform on the Terrace (in a butterfly outfit!).
We’ll also have activities and more details on how you can get involved in citizen science projects that report sightings of adults, eggs, captive-reared, and wild butterflies.
Story Walk
Tuesday, September 24th, 2019
4 p.m. to 4:45 p.m.
Free
As part of Take A Child Outside Week, Chapel Hill Public Library is hosting a StoryWalk. The basic concept is simple: choose a children’s book, pull out the pages, laminate them and post them along a trail. Families follow the trail from page to page, reading the story as they go.
The StoryWalk in Pritchard Park will use Señorita Mariposa, a bi-lingual picture book about monarch butterfly migration. The pages of the book will be laminated and fastened to a wooden post and placed along the trails in the park.
The walk will start at the trail head on Library drive and end at the pollinator garden so that kids (and adults) can witness nature in action!
