🌿
Outdoors Activities
Grab your boots and head outside.
Build homes for wildlife, make muddy art, grow a garden, and become a backyard scientist. Bring a Safety Pilot, look closely, and see what you can find right where you live.
🌿 Build It
Make something useful for backyard friends.
🔬 Science
Ask questions, test ideas, and keep track of what you find.
✂️ Crafts
Use leaves, flowers, sticks, mud, and other backyard treasures to make something new.
🐝 🦋 🐸 🪲
Your Backyard Is a Living Habitat!
A backyard can be a busy place. A porch pot, a pile of leaves, a shady shrub, or one patch of soil can give wildlife food, water, shelter, and room to live.
You can help make space for bees, butterflies, toads, beetles, birds, and the tiny cleanup crew that works under logs and leaves. That makes you a Habitat Engineer.
🌎 What Is a Habitat?
A habitat is the place where a living thing finds what it needs to live.
Every animal needs food, water, shelter, and space. Some need sunshine. Some need shade. Some need damp leaves, soft soil, or a small hiding spot.
A toad looks for cool, damp cover. A butterfly needs sunny places, nectar flowers, and plants where caterpillars can eat. A mason bee needs a small dry hole for her nest.
When you build a habitat, think about who might use it. Then give that wild neighbor what it needs.
Food & Nectar
Flowers, leaves, seeds, berries, insects, and other good meals.
Water & Moisture
A shallow water dish, damp soil, puddles, dew, and shady places.
Shelter & Nesting
Logs, leaf piles, shrubs, hollow stems, clay pots, and small nest spaces.
Space to Roam
Room to crawl, hop, fly, hunt, rest, and hide.
Sun & Warmth
Sunny rocks, open patches, and warm places for animals that need heat.
Decomposing Matter
Old leaves, fallen sticks, and rotting logs that feed fungi, bugs, worms, and other cleanup crew members.
Two Ways to Engineer a Habitat
Garden Discovery Guide
Plant flowers and host plants that help pollinators all through the year. You can help butterflies from egg to caterpillar to adult.
Think flowers, leaves, nectar, and places to rest.
Think flowers, leaves, nectar, and places to rest.
Habitat Engineering
Build places for wildlife to hide, nest, and stay cool.
Think clay pots, logs, bamboo, leaf piles, and little homes with no rent due.
Think clay pots, logs, bamboo, leaf piles, and little homes with no rent due.
Choose an Activity
🐝
Pollinator Garden
Plant flowers that feed bees, beetles, butterflies, and hummingbirds through spring, summer, and fall.
View Guide →
🦋
Butterfly Nursery
Build a butterfly-friendly space with host plants, sunny stones, and a shallow puddling spot.
View Guide →
🐸
Toad Abode
Make a cool, damp daytime hideout for a toad.
Build It →
🐝
Bee Condo
Build tiny nesting spaces for solitary bees, including mason bees.
Build It →
🪲
Decay Detective Log
Place a log in a shady spot and watch for beetles, pill bugs, fungi, worms, and other backyard cleanup workers.
Explore →
📔
Garden Journal
0 observations recorded
Write down what grows, blooms, crawls, flies, and changes in your garden.
📒
Habitat Journal
0 projects recorded
Keep track of the homes, gardens, shelters, and wildlife spaces you build.
Art, Science & Engineering
🎨
Nature Art
Make flower prints, sun-catchers, and muddy masterpieces with backyard materials.
Make It →
🔬
Backyard Scientist
Watch birds, listen for frogs, count insects, and share your observations with real science projects.
Explore →
⚙️
Engineering Challenges
Build stick rafts, solar crayon ovens, and seed flyers with things you can find outside.
Build It →
🗺️
Nature Passport
0 of 16 stamps earned
Complete activities, spot wildlife, and earn stamps for your backyard adventures.
🔍
Wildlife ID Guide
0 of 12 species spotted
Meet the wild neighbors who live near you.
🔍
Scavenger Hunt
0 of 10 items found
Look carefully. A backyard can hide a whole lot of surprises.
🛡️ Safety Rules for Backyard Activities
👀
Look, Do Not Touch: Watch insects and animals quietly before moving closer. Give every wild neighbor room.
🌿
Ask Before You Eat: Never eat a plant, berry, mushroom, or seed unless your Safety Pilot says it is safe.
🔨
Use Tools Safely: Use tools with a grown-up. Put rakes, forks, and other sharp tools down carefully when you finish.
☀️
Drink Water and Take Shade Breaks: Play outside during cooler parts of the day when you can. Wear a hat, use sunscreen, and drink water.
🐍
Check Logs and Rocks Carefully: Ask a Safety Pilot to help before moving logs, boards, rocks, or leaf piles. Use a stick first, keep your hands away from hidden spaces, and give anything underneath time to move away.
🧼
Wash Up: Wash your hands with soap and water after outdoor activities.
🌱 Native Plants for Louisiana and the Gulf South
Purple Coneflower
A tough flower that gives bees and butterflies a place to visit.
Black-Eyed Susan
Bright yellow flowers that make a good first garden plant.
Native Milkweed
An important food plant for Monarch caterpillars.
Coral Honeysuckle
A native vine with flowers that hummingbirds visit.
Passionflower Vine
A host plant for Gulf Fritillary caterpillars, with big purple flowers.
Native Viburnum
A shrub that gives birds cover and can provide berries in fall.
🐝
Build Your Pollinator Garden
A pollinator garden is a living feast — designed to feed and shelter the whole workforce of nature, from native bees to hummingbirds, with blooms from spring all the way through fall.
🌸 Five Key Features to Build
Diverse Flowers
Plant a mix of shapes (tubular for hummingbirds, flat for bees) and colors. Bees love blue, purple, and yellow blooms most.
Blooming Successions
Select plants that bloom from early spring through late fall so there is always a food source available — no hungry gaps!
"Messy" Nesting Spots
Leave bare soil patches for ground-nesting bees and keep dead hollow stems or small brush piles for cavity-nesters.
Pollinator Watering Hole
A shallow dish filled with pebbles and water lets insects land safely and drink without any risk of drowning.
Absolutely No Chemicals!
Avoid ALL pesticides and herbicides — even organic ones can be lethal to the very insects you're trying to attract!
🛡️ Safety in the Pollinator Garden
👀
Look, Don't Touch: Observe bees and wasps quietly — they won't sting unless scared or squished.
🌿
Never Eat Unknown Plants: Some common garden plants like Foxglove are highly toxic if ingested.
☀️
Sun & Hydration: Work in the cooler morning hours, wear hats, and keep water bottles handy!
🧼
Wash Hands: Always wash hands thoroughly after gardening to remove soil contaminants.
🐾 Who Might Visit Your Garden?
🐝 Native Bees🍯 Honey Bees🦋 Butterflies🪲 Beetles🪰 Hoverflies🐦 Hummingbirds🪳 Wasps🦟 Flies
🐝 New Pollinator Observation
🛡️ Safety Check
🧼 I washed my hands after gardening!
👀 I observed bees from a safe distance!
📔 Past Pollinator Entries
🏗️
Habitat Engineering: Build a Home!
Not all backyard neighbors fly through the air. Some hide under pots, burrow into logs, and sleep in tiny holes. These building projects let you and your family become architects for wildlife — constructing real shelters for the creatures that live on the ground and in the soil.
🐸
The "Toad Abode" — Amphibian Habitat
While pollinators take the sky, toads are the "night watchmen" of the garden. A single toad can eat up to 100 slugs, beetles, and mosquito larvae every single night — making them the garden's best free pest control!
🏺 Why Toads Need Our Help
Toads are cold-blooded and need a cool, damp, shady hiding spot to rest during the hot daylight hours. They're most active at night when they hunt. Without a safe damp refuge, they'll move on to a yard that has one!
🌑 Active at Night💧 Needs Moisture🌿 Loves Shade🐛 Eats Pests
🔨 How to Build It — Step by Step
What you'll need: One old ceramic flower pot (6–8 inch), a small hammer, a thick cloth or towel, adult supervision!
🏺
1
Find Your Pot
Look for an old ceramic or terracotta flower pot. It must be ceramic — plastic pots don't hold cool moisture the same way and are much less attractive to toads.
🔨
2
Create the Doorway (with adult help!)
Wrap the pot's rim in a thick cloth. With an adult's help, use a small hammer to carefully chip away a "doorway" about 3 inches wide in the rim. OR skip this step and simply lay the pot on its side in the dirt — the open hole becomes the door!
🌿
3
Choose the Perfect Spot
Find a shady, damp corner of the garden — under a bush, near a water feature, or beside a garden bed. Toads will not use a sunny dry location. The shadier and damper, the better!
🏠
4
Set It Up & Wait
Bury the pot slightly into the soil so it stays cool. You can add a tiny bit of leaf litter inside to make it cozy. Now be patient — toads may not move in for days or even weeks. Check gently at dusk!
🛡️ Toad Safety — Wet Hands Rule!
🐸
The Wet Hands Rule: Toads have incredibly sensitive, permeable skin. If you need to move a toad, always wet your hands with rainwater or clean water first. The oils and salts on dry human hands can actually harm a toad's skin!
👀
Observe, Don't Chase: Toads are most active at dusk. Sit quietly near the abode at twilight to watch for a new resident — don't try to catch or hold them without adult help.
🧼
Wash After Handling: Always wash hands with soap after touching any toad or the soil around the abode.
🔨
Hammer Safety: Chipping the pot rim must always be done by or closely supervised by an adult. Wear eye protection and place the pot on a firm, stable surface.
🔍 What to Watch For
A Toad Moves In!
Check at dusk. A toad may be sitting in the doorway, or you might notice a small depression in the soil inside from where they've been resting.
Fewer Pests in the Garden
Over weeks, you might notice fewer slugs and beetles in your garden — a sure sign your toad is doing their job as night watchman!
Toad Eggs in Spring
If you have a small pond or water feature nearby, look for strings of toad eggs in early spring — they look like long jelly necklaces, unlike round frog eggs.
📒
The Backyard Architect Journal
Document every build, every discovery, and every new resident you find. Great engineers keep great records — use this journal to track your habitat projects from blueprint to occupancy!
🏗️ New Habitat Project Entry
🌍 Habitat Environment
🔍 Discovery Report
Draw your habitat or what you observed underneath the log!
🛡️ Safety Checklist — Before I Close My Journal
🪵 Log Rule: I used a stick to tilt the log toward me first before rolling it over!
🐸 Wet Hands: If I touched a toad, I wet my hands with clean water first!
🔄 Roll Back: I carefully rolled the log back to protect the habitat!
🧼 Clean Up: I washed my hands with soap after my discovery mission!
📒 Past Habitat Journal Entries
🎨 🔬 ⚙️
Create & Discover
Your backyard is more than a habitat — it's a studio, laboratory, and engineering lab all in one. These Louisiana-inspired activities use nature as your art supplies, connect your observations to real science, and challenge you to build with only sticks, leaves, and sunlight!
🎨 Nature Art & Craft
These projects use the garden as a "supplies store" rather than just a place to grow things. Louisiana's lush plant life and humidity make the colors extra vivid!
🌸
Flower Pounding (Hapa Zome)
Japanese Natural Dyeing Art
Place brightly-colored flowers or leaves face down on a piece of white cotton cloth. Cover with a paper towel and gently hammer them until the natural pigment transfers to the fabric — creating a one-of-a-kind print. Each flower is different!
🌺
1
Collect Your Flowers
Pick the most brightly colored flowers you can find — pansies, marigolds, black-eyed susans, and zinnia work especially well. Fresh, newly-opened flowers have the most pigment.
👕
2
Set Up Your Canvas
Lay a piece of white cotton cloth on a firm surface (a wooden cutting board works great). Arrange flowers face-down in your desired pattern. Cover everything with a paper towel or thin cloth.
🔨
3
Pound! (With Adult Help)
Use a small hammer and gently but firmly pound every inch of the covered flowers. Lift a corner of the paper towel to check — the colors should be bleeding through onto the fabric. Keep pounding until the petals are fully flattened.
✨
4
Reveal & Preserve
Peel away the paper towel and carefully remove the pressed petals. Your fabric print is revealed! To make the colors more permanent, soak the cloth in a solution of 1 part white vinegar to 4 parts water for 20 minutes, then air dry.
🛡️ Safety Tips
🔨
Always have an adult supervise hammering. Use a rubber mallet or small tack hammer for kids — pound on a stable surface only.
🌿
Identify flowers before handling — wear gloves if picking any plant you're unsure about.
🧼
Wash hands after handling plants — some natural dyes can stain skin temporarily.
☀️
Nature Sun-Catchers
Light & Color Art
Create 3D art boxes filled with petals, leaves, and seeds from the yard using a cardboard frame and clear contact paper. Hang in a window and let the Louisiana sun turn your backyard finds into stained glass!
📦
1
Make Your Frame
Cut a frame shape from stiff cardboard — a square with a square hole in the middle. The outer frame should be about 1–2 inches wide all around. Decorate the frame however you like!
🌿
2
Collect Your Treasures
Gather flat, thin natural materials: flower petals, small leaves, fern fronds, grass seed heads, and small seeds. Press between books for an hour if they're thick to make them lie flat.
📎
3
Stick & Arrange
Cut contact paper slightly larger than your frame opening. Peel the backing and lay it sticky-side-up. Arrange your petals and leaves on the sticky surface in a beautiful pattern. Then place a second piece of contact paper sticky-side-down on top to seal everything inside.
🪟
4
Glue & Hang!
Glue or tape your sealed nature sandwich to the cardboard frame. Punch a hole at the top, thread a ribbon or twine through it, and hang in a sunny window. Watch the colors glow!
🎨
Mud Painting
Louisiana Earth Art
If you're okay with a little (or a lot of) mess — mix dirt and water to create natural "paint." Kids can use old brushes to decorate trees, logs, or rocks with patterns, animals, or murals. The next Louisiana rain washes it all away — leaving a blank canvas for next time!
Find Your Louisiana Mud
After rain is perfect timing! Louisiana's red clay-rich soil makes especially thick, pigmented mud. Mix different soils for different shades — dark topsoil gives near-black, red clay gives warm terracotta.
Mix Your Palette
Add a small amount of water at a time to achieve your desired consistency — thicker for bold lines, more liquid for washes. Try adding white sand for a lighter shade or ash for dark grey. You can also mix in berries (not for eating!) for extra color.
Paint Your Canvas
Tree bark, smooth logs, flat rocks, and the sides of clay pots are all great canvases. Use old paintbrushes, sticks, or fingers. Create animals, patterns, or abstract art — remember it's temporary and that's the fun!
🛡️ Mud Painting Safety
🧼
Wear old clothes — mud stains! Wash hands and arms thoroughly afterward with soap and warm water.
🐍
In Louisiana, always scan the ground before kneeling down to mix mud — especially near still water or dense vegetation.
🚫
Never put muddy hands near your mouth or eyes. Don't use mud near driveways or areas that may have chemical runoff.
🔍
Louisiana Wildlife ID Guide
Your backyard field guide! Tap any card to mark a species as spotted. Use the ID tips to know what to look and listen for — then check off every creature you find!
🕵️ Tips for Your ID Mission
👂
Listen First: You can often hear a bird or cicada before you ever see it. Stand still and close your eyes — what do you hear?
🗿
Move Slowly: If you run toward a butterfly or lizard it will hide instantly. Try to be as still as a statue and let them come closer to you.
🎨
Compare Patterns: Look at shapes and colors on a butterfly's wings. Count the spots. Notice the markings — every species has its own "fingerprint."
SPECIES SPOTTED0 / 12
🐞 Common "Creepy Crawlies"
🐦 Common Louisiana Birds
🗺️
Nature Passport & Louisiana Scavenger Hunt
Every adventure earns a stamp. Complete activities across the Habitat Hub to fill your passport — and use the Louisiana Scavenger Hunt checklist to find creatures and wonders specific to the Gulf South!
🗺️ My Nature Passport
Tap a stamp to mark it as earned. Complete all 16 to become a Master Backyard Naturalist!
STAMPS EARNED0 / 16
🔍 Louisiana Backyard Scavenger Hunt
These are things found in a typical Louisiana yard or neighborhood — some are easy, some will take patience and luck! Tap each item when you find it. Complete all 10 to earn your Louisiana Explorer passport stamp!
ITEMS FOUND0 / 10
Activities coming soon! Run the Setup Wizard to seed content.
Outdoor Activities with Your Backyard Friends
🌿 Outdoor Activity
Grenda’s Shrub Camouflage Hunt
With Grenda the Northern Rough Greensnake
Open Activity🌿 Outdoor Activity
Natalie’s Leaf-by-Leaf Search
With Natalie the Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Open Activity