National Wildlife Week for Parents
Spend a few hours exploring wildlife with your kids during National Wildlife Week. Simple crafts, nature observation hikes and other outdoor activities are available here to get you started. Find games, crafts and activities for:
Activities for Ages 7 and Up
Observing Nature
• Wildlife Watch: Participate in a nature watching program for people of all ages.
• Be a Birder: Get started with birdwatching.
• Hawk Watch!: Watch for migrating and resident hawks in your area.
• Go on an Owl Prowl: Head outside at night to look and listen for owls.
• Create Your Own Nature Journal: Create a journal for your child's nature observations.
• Birds on the Move: Watch for migrating birds this spring.
• Firefly Fun: Fun activities for observing fireflies.
• Frog Fun: Look and listen for frogs.
• Bug Hunting Fun: Look for flying insects.
• Stick Insects: Hunt for stick insects.
• Make a Pitfall Trap: Make a trap to catch crawling creatures that come out at night.
Hiking
• Hiking Tips: Tips on how to prepare for and activities to do on a family hike.
• Nature Find: Find parks, trails and other nature sites in your area.
• Geocaching: How to get started with a GPS-based scavenger hunt.
• Be a Tracker: Look for animal tracks.
• The Great Tree Hunt: Look for interesting trees in your area.
• Really Big Trees: Look for the biggest trees in your area and see if they are record-breaking trees.
• Explore a Pond: Explore a nearby pond and its wildlife.
• Explore a Shore: Explore a nearby beach or shore and its wildlife.
Helping Wildlife
• Build a Frog Pond: Tips on how to create a pond for frogs.
• Go Batty!: Tips and projects for attracting bats to your yard.
• It's a Shore Thing: Ideas for helping wildlife that use nearby beaches.
• Think Outside the Box: Ideas for helping turtles in your community.
• Saving Sharks: Ways that you can help save sharks.
Crafts
• Giant Bugs: Make flying bugs on sticks to put in a plant or vase.
• Milk-Jug Bird Feeder: Make a bird feeder out of an empty milk jug.
• Make a Water Scope: Create a simple scope for viewing underwater wildlife.
• Make a Bug Vacuum: Make a tool to collect insects without touching or hurting them.
• 3-D Cutouts: Make wildlife scenes out of construction paper.
• Make a Wild Fan: Make a fan out of a paper plate.
• Mask Mania: Make animal masks.
• Mask Patterns: Bat, spider and more!
Activities for Ages 4-7
Wildlife and Outdoor Activities
• Animal Tracks: Go on a hike to look for animal tracks.
• Ant Picnic: Make a picnic for ants to learn what they like to eat.
• Bird Listening: Try to identify birds by their calls.
• Creatures by the Foot: Survey the creatures within one square yard in your backyard.
• Flap Happy: Can your child flap his or her arms as fast as a bird can flap its wings?.
• Tree-mendous Mystery: Take a look at what's living in a rotten log.
• Wild Moves: Have fun moving like animals.
• Watch Out for Birds: Put feeders in your yard and watch the birds that come to feed.
Crafts
• Bat Mobile: Make a bat mobile from an egg carton.
• Clay Birdhouse: Make a birdhouse out of clay.
• Splashy Birdbath: Make a small birdbath out of a clay pot and saucer.
• Word Bird: Make a paper bird to hold vocabulary cards for your child.
• Snake Puppet: Make a snake puppet with craft foam and a party blower.
• Scary Spider Plant Pot: Decorate a plant pot to look like a spider.
• Spider Hat: Make a spider hat out of construction paper.
• Spooky Spiders: Make spiders out of styrofoam balls and pipe cleaners.
• Salamander Armband: Make an armband out of poster board.
• Frog Friend: Make a frog out of felt and construction paper.
• Frog Mask: Make a frog mask out of a paper plate.
• Pom-Pom Frog: Make a frog out of pom-poms.
• Ant Motel: Make a home for ants out of two glass jars.
• Bottle Cap Turtle: Make a turtle out of a plastic bottle cap.
• Egg Carton Turtle: Make a turtle out of an egg carton.
• Feed the Bear: Make a simple game to feed a paper bear blueberries.
• Turtle Bank: Make a turtle piggy bank out of paper plates and plastic containers.
Activities for Ages 2-4
• Get Moving: Encourage your child to imitate animal movements.
• Memory Game: Match the animal pictures.
Crafts
• Bat Finger Puppet: Create a simple finger puppet with construction paper.
• Bird Mobile: Create a mobile from old catalogs and magazines.
• Floating Fruit Fish: Create bathtub fish out of citrus fruit.
• Handprint Fish: Make a fish and fishbowl cutout.
• Turtle Tub Toy: Make a tub toy from a plastic lid.
• Froggy Hopscotch: Make a hopscotch game out of felt.
• Froggy Toss and Catch: Make a toss and catch game out of plastic soda bottles.
• Turtle Soap: Make a turtle-shaped bar of soap.