Brand-new youth classes are being offered at the Jay C. Hormel Nature Center this month.

Award-winning author and storyteller Kevin Strauss will teach participants how to find, craft, and tell stories on Tuesday Aug. 14. This two-part workshop for ages 9-18 will begin with an introduction to storytelling in the morning from 9 a.m. to noon and will continue with advanced storytelling after the lunch break from 1-4 p.m. The cost is $20, but full scholarships are available.

Nature Center favorite Ann Zimmerman returns this year with nature songwriting workshops for youth.

“When I sing songs with students, I hope to share with them the great gifts that are songs,” Zimmerman said. “But songs aren’t best learned by listening — they sink deep inside when they are sung. So I let the students sing. My hope is to get those songs tangled up with their thoughts, their feelings, their bodies, and their hearts. They listen, they move, they laugh, they write, they think, and they sing. Their minds, hearts, lives, get bigger because of songs.”

Zimmerman will offer two separate songwriting sessions. There will be a two-day workshop for ages 12-14 from 2-3 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday, Aug. 15-16. The cost is $25 with full scholarships available. There will also be a workshop for ages 9-11 from 10-11:30 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 16. Cost is $15 with full scholarships available.

For more information, visit www.hormelnaturecenter.org/summer-adventure-classes or call 507-437-7519.