ðŋ outdoor
Build a Toad Abode
Build a cool, damp shelter from a broken clay pot and turn your garden into a home for the night watchman of the backyard.
ðŦ Teacher Portal
NGSS-aligned lesson plans, field guides, and Grandma's Backyard Share classroom resources.
âĻ Type:
ðŽ NGSS:
ðŪ game
Memory Match â Backyard Friends
Flip the cards and find matching pairs of Tootie's backyard wildlife friends. How fast can you match them all?
ðŪ game
Backyard Banquet
Help Tootie & Yoshi find the right foods for 25 North Louisiana wildlife species across three difficulty levels!
ðŪ game
Grandma’s Garden Helpers
Sort the good bugs from the bad ones and help Grandma Rose, Tootie & Yoshi keep the garden thriving!
ðŪ game
Tootie’s Toy Sort
Drag and drop 135+ North Louisiana species into the right habitats across 10 progressive levels!
ðŪ game
Backyard Crossword
Use nature clues to fill in the squares. How many backyard words do you know?
ðŋ outdoor
Build a Bee Condo
Construct bamboo and wood apartments for solitary mason bees â the most efficient pollinators in the backyard.
ðŋ outdoor
Decay Detective Log
Place a log in a shady corner and discover the entire secret world of decomposers living underneath â the cleanup crew of the forest floor.
ðŪ game
Wildlife Word Search
Find all the hidden wildlife words lurking in the grid!
ðŪ game
Backyard Maze
Guide Tuffy the Titmouse through the backyard maze to find the feeder!
ðŋ outdoor
Stick Raft Racing
Build a miniature raft from sticks and a leaf sail, then race it in a puddle. You're solving the same problems ancient shipbuilders solved.
ðĻïļ printable
Backyard Coloring Book
Color your favorite backyard friends â Tootie, Yoshi, Gee the Anole, and more!
âïļ craft
Flower Pounding (Hapa Zome)
Transfer living color from fresh flowers directly onto fabric by pounding them â a Japanese natural dyeing technique that turns your garden into an art supply store.
ðŋ outdoor
Build a Pollinator Garden
Design a living feast that feeds native bees, beetles, and hummingbirds from spring through fall â a real working wildlife habitat.
ðŋ outdoor
Build a Butterfly Nursery
A butterfly garden supports the full life cycle from egg to adult. The right host plants, warm basking rocks, and a mineral puddling spot make it work.
âïļ craft
Nature Sun-Catchers
Seal petals, leaves, and seeds in contact paper, frame them in cardboard, and hang in a window. The Louisiana sun turns your backyard finds into stained glass.
âïļ craft
Mud Painting
Mix Louisiana dirt and water to make natural earth paint, then decorate logs, rocks, and clay pots. The next rain erases it â leaving a blank canvas for next time.
ðŋ outdoor
Citizen Science: Report From Your Backyard
Real scientists need data from backyards across the country â and kids can provide it. Every bird you count and every frog call you hear goes into a database researchers actually use.
âïļ craft
Solar Crayon Recycler
Build a foil-lined solar oven from a shoebox and use the Louisiana sun to melt broken crayons into brand-new rainbow-swirl crayons.
ðŋ outdoor
Seed Dispersal Challenge
Plants can't walk â so they've evolved amazing tricks. Study helicopter samaras and sticky hitchhikers, then engineer your own seed dispersal method using only natural materials.
ðŽ NGSS Strands Covered
Every Friend, Story, and Activity on Tootie's Backyard is tagged to a Next Generation Science Standard so you can map content directly to your curriculum.
LS1.A
Structure & Function
How living things are built and what their parts do.
LS1.B
Growth & Development
How organisms grow and change over a lifetime.
LS1.C
Organization for Matter & Energy
How living things get food and use energy.
LS1.D
Information Processing
How senses help animals survive.
LS2.A
Interdependent Relationships
How plants and animals depend on each other.
LS2.B
Cycles of Matter & Energy Flow
Food webs and energy in ecosystems.
LS3.A
Inheritance of Traits
How traits pass from parents to offspring.
LS4.D
Biodiversity & Humans
Humans' role in protecting biodiversity.