6 August 2021
Download our wildlife-themed kids’ activities
After a week of lockdown, most Queenslanders are hoping restrictions will ease on Sunday 8 August. We all have to continue doing our bit, but we also know that spending time in nature has well-documented positive benefits for our mental health and wellbeing.
Thankfully, Queensland’s restrictions still allow us to safely exercise and engage with nature within 10 km of home, and those of us with yard space can still enjoy some backyard wildlife if we look hard enough.
Parents juggling work with homeschooling are probably already experiencing lockdown loopiness (Who isn’t?), so we’ve put together some fun backyard activities, colouring-in sheets and wildlife-themed ideas to help kids ‘keep the wild alive’ during lockdown.
Keep the kids engaged with these fun ‘backyard biology’ tasks
- Feeling ‘bugged’ by lockdown? Send the kids on a backyard creepy-crawly hunt to see how many bugs they can find. Remember, look but don’t touch!
- If you’re ‘going batty’ at home, get the kids to colour in this cool lesser long-eared bat mask and learn a bit about the species in the process.
- Climbing the walls? It’s the perfect time to build a frog hotel for our equally jumpy friends.
- Retreat to the serenity of being ‘under the sea’ for a moment with these marine-themed colouring pages or take a paddle with a platypus by completing our Platypus Puzzle & Activity Book.
- Create your very own comic with a wildlife conservation theme. If you’d like to share it with us at communications@wildlife.org.au, we’d love to see it and share it on our social media.
- If the kids are stuck inside, check out this great list of 65 things to do at home.
- Science Week is coming up, so why not test out these cool science experiments?
- Download the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries Backyard Baddies Weedbuster Boardgame to teach kids about responsible gardening and weed control.
Stay safe and #sharesomesunshine
When we feel cooped up, just noticing a new bird visiting the birdfeeder, taking a photograph of a beetle in the garden, or watching a possum walk along a powerline at dusk can remind us that there is a big wild world beyond our backyard, and we are still a part of it and responsible for caring for it.
We’d love to see you #sharesomesunshine by showing us the little things that are making you smile during lockdown, whether it’s a photograph of a peculiar mushroom sprouting in your compost, a seedling flourishing in your garden, or a nightly flying fox coming to visit.
So, please, share your sunshine with us by emailing us your pictures or adding them to our Facebook page with the hashtag #sharesomesunshine.
Most of all, hang in there. Let life slow down for the weekend. And remember, lockdown gives nature a chance to take a little bit of a breather from us too.