Outdoor lore

Nia MacLean, 5, has Katie Koerten check the temperature on sticks she was rubbing together to start a pretend fire Monday during the February vacation program for kindergartners and first graders at the Hitchcock Center in Amherst. Koerten, an educator at the center, was accompanying her daughter, Ursa, as she attended the youngest “Jumping Mice” group. STAFF PHOTO/KEVIN GUTTING

Yejun Ko, left, and Lucas Kravitz, both 6, hold stuffies of a deer and a rabbit - two animals they'll be learning about - during opening circle time for the kindergarten and first grade group of the Hitchcock Center's February Vacation program in Amherst on Monday, Feb. 15, 2021. —STAFF PHOTO/KEVIN GUTTING

Hitchcock Center educator Aemelia Thompson helps kids in her “Jumping Mice” group of kindergartners and first graders mark their track and sign books with a squirrel stamp on the first day of the February Vacation program in Amherst on Monday, Feb. 15, 2021. From left are Nia MacLean, 5, Yejun Ko, 6, Isaac Morris, 7, and Lucas Kravitz, 6. —STAFF PHOTO/KEVIN GUTTING

Participants in the "Jumping Mice" group, for kindergartners and first graders, runs back from an activity on the first day of the February Vacation program at the Hitchcock Center in Amherst on Monday, Feb. 15, 2021. From left are Katie Koerten and her daughter, Ursa, 5, Acadia Ripley, 6, Charlotte Ribe, a Northampton High School junior volunteering through the Key Club, and Roey MacLean, 7. —STAFF PHOTO/KEVIN GUTTING

Yejun Ko, 6, marks his track and sign book with a squirrel stamp on the first day of the February Vacation program at the Hitchcock Center in Amherst on Monday, Feb. 15, 2021. —STAFF PHOTO/KEVIN GUTTING

Ursa Koerten, 5, brings a shovel as the Jumping Mice group of kindergartners and first graders hikes to the "Squirrel Kitchen" for some nature play during the February Vacation program at the Hitchcock Center in Amherst on Monday, Feb. 15, 2021. —STAFF PHOTO/KEVIN GUTTING