Kids explore winter indoors, out of the cold

Winter is a time of wonder.

At the Water Resources Education Center’s Second Saturday event, that sense of wonder was explored using a hands-on, science-based approach. The free event gave kids and their parents an opportunity to build “snowmen” out of recycled items, learn about the uniqueness of snowflakes and turn sticker-adorned plastic bottles into water gauges.

And despite the lack of snow outside, there was plenty of white stuff inside, as children made their own flakes out of tissue paper.

“I made a snowflake,” Harper Cohen, 5, said excitedly, holding up a flake she’d constructed out of a round piece of tissue paper, carefully folded and cut to make it symmetrical.

“Look at this, daddy.”

The girl’s mother, Shoshana Cohen, said she’s begun bringing Harper and her sister Violet, 7, to the Second Saturday events more often as they’ve gotten older. Winter was a topic she thought her kids would be interested in, she said.

Marilyn Feddeler, 75, has volunteered at the center for 16 years, often with her husband, Bill, a retired educator.

On Saturday, she helped children turning blank tissue paper into unique snowflakes and learning that every flake that falls from the sky is an original creation.

She keeps returning to the center because there’s something new for her to do every month.

Her philosophy for working with kids: “We leave it to them.”

Kids use their imaginations for most of the activities, she said.

And on a crisp but otherwise sunny Saturday that gave the impression that winter had yet to arrive, there was plenty of imagination on display inside.