Homemade Cottonwood Salve & Star Sticks (Part 1)
Cottonwood Salve & Star Sticks for Preschool Children and older: Gathering (Part 1 of 3)
Looking for a fun project to do with your young child in Colorado’s front range? Look no further than your neighborhood cottonwood tree.
In this 3 part series, Thorne Nature Preschool's director and Certified Clinical Herbalist, Lorene Wapotich, will show you how to make a salve for dry skin from cottonwood buds. We’ll also show you how to find star sticks at your local cottonwood tree.
Homemade Cottonwood salve: Part 1
Gathering cottonwood buds: Watch this video for more information on how to gather cottonwood buds.
Go to part 2 to learn the next steps in making cottonwood bud salve.
How to find Star Sticks
While you’re gathering your cottonwood buds, keep an eye out for star sticks. The perfect star stick is a dry cottonwood twig that is down on the ground, not too old and not too new. Find a growth wrinkle on the twig (where there is a line like a plastic flex straw) and crack it in half on the growth wrinkle to reveal the star inside. It may take a few tries to find the a perfect star stick, but once your child does they will be mesmerized.
Follow this link for a Cheyenne and Arapaho folktale about cottonwood trees and the stars.
Thorne’s Boulder Preschool and Lafayette Preschool do fun activities like this often as a part of our hands-on, nature-based curriculum.
Thorne Nature Preschool is enrolling now for the fall and we have a few spaces remaining. Ages 3-6, locations in Boulder and Lafayette. Half and full-day options available. Thorne is a Colorado Universal Preschool provider.