1. Make a home habitat — NWF can help you create and certify your own habitat at home in your yard or on your deck.  Learn about our Certified Wildlife Habitat program and get started today. Join 150,000 homes with their own certified wildlife sanctuaries.

2. Plant a Tree — NWF can supply your family or local scout group or school with tree planting kits that come complete with lesson plans about trees for kids of all ages. Order a Trees for Wildlife kit.

3. Become a wildlife watcher — Join NWF’s Wildlife Watch team!  Kids and adults across America help us keep track of and record wildlife sightings on line.  You don’t need to be an expert. Start recording species this week!

4. Read with Ranger Rick — Help kids read while they learn about wildlife. NWF offers award winning children’s magazines that are proven to improve their reading skills while getting them more interested an involved with wildlife. You can order these Parent’s Choice Foundation approved publications today: Ranger Rick, Big Backyard and Wild Animal Baby. Ranger Rick also comes with a free online educator’s guide.

5. Volunteer for Wildlife — You can become an official NWF Habitat volunteer! We call them Habitat Stewards and they take special training to learn how to help schools, homeowners, gardeners and others get more involved with gardening for wildlife. Learn more about how you can become and NWF Habitat Steward.

6. Help Support Wildlife Conservation — You can support wildlife during National Wildlife Week by donating or fundraising for conservation and education programs through our special Razoo page.

7. Green Your School — You can encourage your kid’s entire school to be greener. Our amazing Eco-schools USA program offers children of all ages the opportunity to learn about energy and water conservation, recycling and get more involved with outdoor learning and wildlife. You can also create wildlife habitat at your school or place of worship with NWF’s Schoolyard Habitat program.

8. Go on a Nature Outing — And if you want something even easier on National Wildlife Week, you can also help wildlife by getting the kids outdoors for a little fun time at a local park or nature center. Not sure if there is one near you?  Just plug your zip code into our Nature Find locator map and find great outdoor areas and events near you.

Celebrate National Wildlife Week

Our National Wildlife Week website celebrates extraordinary characteristics of 45 wildlife species and has posters, trading cards, lesson plans and more for kids and educators.

Readers are, of course, encouraged to support National Wildlife Federation’s work by making a much-needed contribution to our ongoing campaigns to protect wildlife across America.

Which might lead kids to wonder what snakes REALLY eat. Take our quiz below to test what you already know, then read the fun facts below to wow the children in your life with your snake smarts.

And download What Did Snakey Eat?, which is available for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch — and is coming soon on other devices.

7 Amazing Facts About Snakes

Garter Snake by Paul Marsh

Here’s some more info on snakes and their diets for those who are extra curious about the quiz answers:

1. The heaviest snake is the green anaconda. It can weigh more than 500 pounds—as much as a black bear or a lion!
2. The longest captured snake on record was almost as long as a school bus. The 32-foot python was discovered in Indonesia in 1912.
3. All snakes eat meat, including animals like lizards, other snakes, small mammals, birds, eggs, fish, snails, or insects.
4. The size of a snake’s prey depends on how big it is. The smallest snake in the world, the Barbados thread snake, eats ant and termite eggs.
5. The menu for bigger snakes, like pythons and anacondas, includes animals like deer, pigs, goats, and even jaguars and crocodiles.
6. Snakes must swallow their prey whole because they can’t use their teeth to chew or tear their food. They have very flexible lower jaws that allow them to do this, even if the meal is bigger than their own head!
7. How often a snake eats depends on how big it is, what kind of food it eats, how old it is, and when food is available. The emerald tree boa only eats once every few months. Other snakes eat once or twice a week.

Kids have sharp eyes. It’s hard to sneak anything past them!

So, if you know a child who loves National Wildlife Federation’s magazine for 4-to-7 year olds, they probably have already noticed that Your Big Backyard® has changed its name.

New name = Big Backyard®! Ta-daa!

We’ve updated our look but Big Backyard has the same great features:

• Ricky and Pals Adventure Stories
• My Little Book
• The Family Fun Guide for Parents
• A poster in every issue
• And of course TONS of eye-popping animal photos

We hope you like the new name and logo as much as we do! Find out how to subscribe to Big Backyard and the other magazines in the Ranger Rick® family.

Also, “like” us on Facebook and get activities, crafts, and other fun stuff for the 4- to 7-year-old kids in your life. (Or for yourself! Don’t worry, no one will know that you secretly made the Gnu puppet at work.)

And tell us what you think of the new logo!