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outdoor
Build a Toad Abode
Make a cool, shady hiding place from a broken clay pot. A toad may use it as a daytime rest stop.
Start Activity →👩👧 Parent Base
Resources, mission kits, and science-aligned activities for parents and teachers.
🏫 Grandma's Backyard Share
Bring Tootie's Backyard into your classroom! Grandma's Backyard Share program provides NGSS-aligned lesson plans, printable field journals, badge systems, and weekly nature observation guides.
📚 Learn About Classroom Licensing🦉 Grandma's Owl Eyes Safety Approach
🎒 Family Activity Kits
Hands-on backyard adventures for the whole family. Gather a few simple supplies, head out with a Safety Pilot, and see what wild neighbors you can notice together.
🌸
craft
Flower Pounding
Use fresh flowers and leaves to make colorful prints on fabric or paper. Ask a grown-up before picking anything.
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outdoor
Backyard Scientist Report
Count birds. Listen for frogs. Watch bugs. Write down what you find. Real scientists use observations from regular backyards, too.
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outdoor
Build a Bee Condo
Construct bamboo and wood apartments for solitary mason bees, the most efficient pollinators in the backyard.
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outdoor
Decay Detective Log
Place a log in a shady corner and discover the entire secret world of decomposers living underneath — the cleanup crew of the forest floor.
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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.
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outdoor
Build a Pollinator Garden
Design a living feast that feeds native bees, beetles, and hummingbirds from spring through fall — a real working wildlife habitat.
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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.
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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.
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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 — leaving a blank canvas for next time.
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outdoor
Citizen Science: Report From Your Backyard
Real scientists need data from backyards across the country — and kids can provide it. Every bird you count and every frog call you hear goes into a database researchers actually use.
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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.
Start Activity →🖨️ Free Printables for Families
Quick pages for porch time, backyard walks, rainy afternoons, and the moments when everybody needs a small mission.
Observation
Backyard Clue Hunt
🖨️ Download Free
Classroom Activity
Habitat Match Up
🖨️ Download Free
Outdoor Activity
Summer Backyard Checklist
🖨️ Download Free
Classroom Activity
Wildlife Kindness Promise Poster
🖨️ Download Free🎓 NGSS Connections
Each friend, story, and activity is tagged to Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), making it easy to find materials that match your curriculum. See NGSS tags on each Friend's profile page.