Photos by Joe Kline / The Bulletin Kids build a stream channel while learning about elements of a healthy stream during the “Watery Wonders” event at Shevlin Park.

In waterproof sandals, baseball caps, cargo shorts and other OK-to-get-dirty clothes, girls and boys sat on the banks of Tumalo Creek at Shevlin Park last week, ready to learn about the stream.

“We’re going to learn whether Tumalo Creek is healthy,” said Kolleen Miller, education director with the Upper Deschutes Watershed Council, to about 20 kids gathered around with parents and grandparents.

The council presented “Watery Wonders,” a free nature workshop for 5- to 10-year-olds, as part of the Children’s Forest of Central Oregon’s Discover Nature Days.

Miller read a storybook about the creek’s food chain: Leaves fall in the river and are eaten by bacteria and some invertebrates; the invertebrates are eaten by macroinvertebrates; and macroinvertebrates are eaten by trout.

How to explain macroinvertebrates to kids: show them bugs.

Miller waded into the creek with a large mesh net to demonstrate how to capture such critters.

She stirred up the rocks in the river with the bottom of her boot. As the rocks turned over, tiny aquatic insects floated into the net. Miller then transferred them to a number of water-filled bins set out on a picnic table nearby.

The kids eagerly climbed the table’s benches, craning their necks to peek around at the stoneflies, mayflies, caddisflies and more.

To move the macroinvertabrates into magnifying containers, the kids used plastic spoons.

At one end of the table, an ice cube tray filled with water housed a golden stonefly in one section.

“He a big bug!” Ezra McKinney, 2, said, his twin, Lucas McKinney, close by.

“They’re just getting to that age where they’re so curious,” said their mom, Rachelle McKinney, of Bend. “This is a great way to get them around other kids and get them learning.”

Although the workshop was aimed for kids a few years older, toddlers fit right in, often watching as older kids identified the insects.

McKinney came with her sister-in-law, Christie McKinney, also of Bend, who brought her daughter Grace, 3.

Rachelle McKinney said she and her husband have taken their kids camping from the time they were 4 months old. It’s important to them, she said, living in Bend, to get their kids out in nature.

All of the children there had no problem getting down and dirty, which came as a pleasant surprise to Bo Bonotto, a retired science teacher with Bend-La Pine Schools.

Bonotto’s granddaughter, Cora Boeck, 6, of Bend, isn’t usually one to get grubby. But Cora, who will start first grade at Jewell Elementary in the fall, was one of the kids leading the way at building a mini stream.

Katie Chipko, executive director for the Children’s Forest, set up a separate station where kids tried their hands at building small streams, in low, plastic containers a few feet long.

After watching them pack the containers with dirt for the river bottoms, Chipko encouraged the kids to collect twigs, leaves pine cones and other natural items to place in their streams.

Cora and other children working on one of the faux creeks, which they dubbed Tumalo Stream, arranged the sticks to appear like mini logs. Once it resembled a shrunken version of Tumalo Creek, Cora deemed it complete.

“Now I think we’re ready for water!” she said.

Bonotto crouched down to snap more photos — proof the workshop had Cora diving into dirt.

— Reporter: 541-383-0325,

kfisicaro@bendbulletin.com