What Your Preschooler Will Learn

1. How to draw wildlife into the yard.

2. How to keep wildlife in the yard.

3. How to get wildlife to return frequently.

How to Create a Wildlife Observatory

Follow the steps below to attract wildlife and encourage frequent visits.

Step 1:

Attract wildlife to your yard with the promise of food, like bird seed or certain types of flowers. You don't need to revamp your entire landscape (unless you want to); one potted plant is enough to gain the attention of wildlife. Try to use a pot large enough to hold several plants of varying height.

Step 2:

Keep wildlife in your yard by providing a water source like a birdbath or pond.

Step 3:

Provide safe places to hide from predators and shelter from the elements.

Attracting Hummingbirds

Hummingbirds have an incredibly high metabolism, which means they need to stop often for nectar and water. They also spend a lot of time at rest in order to conserve energy for their lightning-fast flight. Providing safe places to rest near food sources will draw hummingbirds to your yard. Better yet, hummingbirds are territorial, so they'll keep coming back.

Food Sources for Hummingbirds

Take your preschooler to the nursery or garden center and have him/her choose which plants to include in your hummingbird observatory. Hummingbirds are drawn to bright colors, especially red. They also like tight clusters of flowers and flowers that are tubular in shape.

Hummingbird favorites include:1. Lilac

2. Columbine

3. Trumpet Creeper

4. Red Buckeye

5. Butterfly Bush

6. Fuchsia

7. Red Trumpet Honeysuckle

8. Penstemon

9. Flowering Quince

10. Flowering Sage

11. Weigela

12. Bleeding Heart

Attracting Butterflies

Butterflies love bright, open-faced flowers that provide pollen and nectar. *Wildlife hint: As open-faced flowers fade, seeds form and attract birds. Butterflies will also be looking for host plants (to feed future caterpillars), water to drink, and sunny, flat surfaces where they can sunbathe. Butterflies will seek shelter in protected gardens on windy days, so try to plant your butterfly flowers in a location that doesn't get a lot of wind.

Food Sources for Butterflies

While choosing hummingbird flowers with your preschooler, choose a few flowers that attract butterflies as well. Some flowers are favorites of both hummingbirds and butterflies, so these would be a good choice if you are limited in space.

Butterfly favorites include:1. Lilac

2. Butterfly Bush

3. Wisteria

4. Daisies

5. Coneflower

6. Black-eyed Susan

7. Hollyhock

8. Butterfly Weed

9. Monkey Flower

10. Nasturtium

11. Snapdragon

12. Crape Myrtle

13. Wild Cherry

14. Honey Locust

Attracting Birds

Preschoolers can easily encourage birds to visit. Bird seed is available in most garden centers and even hardware stores. Attract birds by providing perches and birdhouses for nesting, bird baths, and bird feeders of various heights and seed. If you enjoy gardening with your preschooler, try the Growing Birdhouses Preschool Nature Project and make your own birdhouse from start to finish! Provide fresh water for drinking and bathing, and shelter from predators. Evergreens make great bird shelters.

Food sources for Birds

Some birds forage for food on the ground. Preschoolers can help these types of birds by sprinkling birdseed on the ground and on rocks. Just be sure the area is safe from predators. For example, don't choose areas that are surrounded by dense foliage that predators can use for cover. Choose different styles of feeders and hang them at different heights. Birds also like fruit trees and shrubs with berries.

Bird favorites include:1. Holly

2. Fruit Bearing Trees

3. Thistle

4. Coneflower

5. Cosmos

6. Sunflower

7. Blueberries

8. Cherries

9. Mulberries

10. Bramble Fruits

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Helpful Tips for Parents

• Science is everywhere: the kitchen, the garden, the bathroom, the driveway. Narrating daily life as science keeps curiosity active between formal experiments.

• Science supplies don't need to be purchased. Vinegar, baking soda, cornstarch, salt, food coloring, and dish soap cover most preschool science experiments adequately.

Frequently Asked Questions

What everyday household materials are best for preschool science?

The essential preschool science pantry: baking soda, white vinegar, cornstarch, salt, sugar, food coloring, dish soap, and water. These materials enable: acid-base chemistry (baking soda + vinegar), non-Newtonian fluids (cornstarch + water = oobleck), color mixing (food coloring), surface tension (dish soap), crystal growing (salt and sugar), and density experiments (sugar solutions). Beyond kitchen supplies: magnets, a flashlight, a magnifying glass, and ice are the other essentials. The best science lab is an accessible kitchen shelf.

Related reading: See also our bubble experiments and our science experiments at home for more ideas on this topic.

🎓 Skills Your Child Will Develop

• ⚖️ Cause & Effect Understanding — Seeing that one action reliably produces a specific result builds the logical framework children use in mathematics, reading (one event causes another in stories), and everyday reasoning.
• 🏗️ Engineering Thinking — Testing structures, materials, and designs to see what works develops engineering intuition — the practical understanding of forces, materials, and design that underlies all physical construction and problem solving.
• 📝 Recording & Documentation — Drawing what they observe, recording measurements, and noting results gives children their first experience of scientific documentation — and connects science to literacy and numeracy in an authentic context.
• 🔍 Observation Skills — Paying close attention to what happens during an experiment — noting colors, textures, movements, and changes — builds the observational precision that all scientific and analytical work requires.

By Charlene Haukom

Preschoolers love animals, so indulge them by creating your very own wildlife observatory. Whether you hang a potted plant on your porch or modify the existing landscape, you and your preschooler can easily invite wildlife into your surroundings. Grab your gardening gloves and spend some time quality time in the yard with your preschooler. Then kick back with a glass of lemonade and observe the beautiful butterflies, birds, and hummingbirds that flock to your garden.