Respect for nature

Little Nutbrown Hare spends a spring day in the meadow wondering whether he is special after a ladybug lands on him. He tries to attract a butterfly, keeps the ladybug overnight with a leaf and a drop of rainwater, then follows it home and finds its whole family. He decides to leave the ladybugs where they belong, and his friends and father remind him he was always special. The episode ends at bedtime with the familiar 'Guess how much I love you' exchange.

See all Respect for nature shows for 2-year-olds

For 3-year-olds

Three-year-olds start following animals as characters with their own lives: where they sleep, what they eat, who their family is. They also begin to grasp simple cause and effect outdoors, that rain makes puddles and wind moves leaves. Choose stories where the natural world has its own rhythm and is not just a backdrop for a chase or a joke. Small acts of care, helping a stuck creature, waiting quietly so a bird is not startled, land clearly now.

S01 E11

Pocoyo

Hush

Pocoyo spots a butterfly and desperately wants to get close to it, but his loud, excited chasing keeps sending it flying away. Guided by Sleepy Bird's 'shh' and a friendly narrator, and joined by his friends Pato the duck, Elly the elephant and Loula the dog, he discovers that being quiet is the way to stay near it. Once he calms down and stays still, the butterfly finally settles. His friends celebrate with 'Hooray for Pocoyo!' before the episode closes.

See all Respect for nature shows for 3-year-olds

For 4-year-olds

Around four, curiosity turns into questions with real intent: why, how, what happens next. Children can now hold onto the idea that animals and plants have needs separate from their own wishes. Look for stories that let a child explore outdoors, make a small discovery, and connect it to something familiar at home. This is also the age where a story can show that nature is not always tidy or comfortable, without turning that into fear.

S02 E29

Puffin Rock

Mossy Impossible

On a bright afternoon at Puffin Rock, the young puffin Una gets tangled in sea debris at the shore, near the cliff where unfriendly seagulls live. Her friend Mossy the pygmy shrew and the stoat Bernie work to free her, with Mossy climbing a cliff, swimming a lagoon and even riding on a puffin's back to fetch Una's parents. The puffins cut through the debris with their bills, and Una is freed just as the seagulls come back. The episode ends with Una safe and Mossy earning a rest after his effort.

S01 E08

Doug Unplugs

X Marks the Bot

A young robot named Doug joins his friend Emma, who is playing Pirate Captain, for a treasure hunt that moves from her attic bedroom to a sandy beach. Together with Emma's dad they dig through the sand, turning up shells, broken binoculars and a buried surfboard instead of gold. When Emma feels defeated, the children realize the litter they collected can be rebuilt at the Rebots booth into a spyglass, compass and treasure chest. The episode ends with Doug giving Emma a shell he shaped himself and both agreeing they had a treasure of a day.

See all Respect for nature shows for 4-year-olds

For 5-year-olds

Five-year-olds can follow a chain of ideas: this animal eats that, this habitat depends on that water. They enjoy real information and remember it, so accuracy starts to matter. Look for stories that explain a natural process step by step and invite the child to predict or wonder along. Respect deepens when a child understands what a creature actually needs, and sees people asking questions and checking before they act.

S04 E07

Molly of Denali

Tusk, Tusk, and More Tusk

Molly and her friends Tooey and Trini discover a large tusk buried in the mud near the river in their Alaska village. Grandpa Nat and an archaeologist named Olin Benedict identify it as a woolly mammoth tusk and explain the Ice Age, permafrost, and how the warming climate erodes the riverbank. The children help free the tusk through trial and error, measure it, photograph it, and give it the Gwich'in name 'Trilzok', meaning gentle. The episode ends with a separate live-action segment where children visit a museum to learn whether dinosaurs once lived in Alaska.

S04 E20

Molly of Denali

Happy Birthday, Qyah!

Molly and her best friend Tui set out to answer one question: how old is their Alaska Native village of Qyah, really? After Molly's dad finds a cave revealed by an earthquake, the two join archaeologists Nina and Olin to investigate signs that ancestors once sheltered there. They uncover a painted pictograph that matches an oral origin story, get briefly trapped by an aftershock before climbing out, and help carbon-date the find. The episode ends with a new museum exhibit, a corrected town website, and the news that people have lived in the area for at least 13,000 years.

SciShow Kids

Blobfish: The World's Ugliest Animal

Live-action host Jessi and her robot puppet Squeaks introduce the blobfish, a deep-sea animal once labeled the world's ugliest. They explain that it lives near the ocean floor off Australia, where it is dark, cold, and under heavy pressure, and that its soft, jelly-like body lets it float and feed with little effort. Jessi adds that the fish only looks blobby once nets pull it up from that pressure, and looks more ordinary at depth. The episode ends with the two practicing silly faces together.

SciShow Kids

Worms Are Wonderful

Jessi, a science host, and her robot friend Squeaks introduce earthworms and explain what makes them special. Standing in an illustrated set, she covers how worms differ from insects and snakes, how they move and breathe, why they live in burrows, what they eat, and how they enrich soil through tunnelling and composting. Real footage of worms, birds and soil is mixed with cartoon diagrams of worm anatomy. The episode closes with the message that healthy worms mean healthy soil and healthy people, and a thank-you to the viewer.

S01 E06

The Magic School Bus

Meets the Rot Squad

Ms. Frizzle's class holds a rotten-food contest, and winner Wanda receives a young tree she wants to plant in a vacant lot full of dead logs. When Wanda calls a service to haul away one rotting log, the Magic School Bus shrinks the class to bug size so they can see the fungi, beetles and slime molds living inside it. The children learn that rot is nature recycling itself and race to stop Larry from removing the log. In the end they save it, plant Wanda's tree, and feed it compost.

S01 E13

Gigantosaurus

Please Don't Pick The Flowers

In a colourful dinosaur land, four young friends, Rocky, Bill, Tiny and Mazu, spend the day near the swamp. When Bill discovers how tasty the floating flowers are and picks far too many, the whole food chain starts to break down, leaving the horseshoe crabs, the birds and even the giant Giganto hungry. Mazu explains how the animals all depend on one another, and the friends set out to dig up a bone, return the flowers and scatter seeds. By the end the ecosystem is working again and Bill has learned how one small choice can affect everyone.

See all Respect for nature shows for 5-year-olds

For 6-year-olds

By six, children can hold a bigger picture: habitats, seasons, that human choices affect animals and land. They also feel strongly about fairness, which now extends to how living things are treated. Look for stories that go into real depth, name species, show how creatures survive, and let characters weigh what to do when nature and people collide. Detail is welcome here; a six-year-old is ready to admire a creature for exactly what it is.

S02 E02

Pinecone & Pony

The Harvest Spirit

During a Harvest Festival dinner in the town of Sturdy Stone, Pinecone questions why everyone hides indoors from a Harvest Spirit no one has ever seen. She, her unicorn Pony and their friend Hawthorn set out on a nighttime quest, following an eerie moaning sound through the streets and into the swamp. They discover the sound comes from jilly-toads driven out of their flooded home by the town's heavy festival float. The town moves the float, frees the toads and celebrates together, agreeing to keep the tradition without harming the swamp.

S03 E10

Wild Kratts

Mystery on the Prairie

Brothers Chris and Martin Kratt explore the North American shortgrass prairie, where they investigate two animal mysteries: who is impaling insects and small prey on thornbushes, and why one egg in a nest looks different from the rest. With help from their crew aboard the Tortuga, they discover that loggerhead shrikes use thorns instead of talons, and that buffalo birds, also called cowbirds, secretly lay their eggs in other birds' nests. After mistakenly 'rescuing' a cowbird chick they name Moo, they realize the chick belonged where it was and decide to raise it themselves. Live-action segments with the real Kratt brothers and footage of actual prairie animals bookend the animated adventure.

S01 E01

Wild Kratts

Mom of a Croc

Chris and Martin Kratt shrink down disguised as crocodile eggs to study a Nile crocodile mother nicknamed 'Crocodilla' along an African river. They count 57 eggs, observe how she regulates nest temperature, and watch her defend the nest from monitor lizards, hippos and other predators while Aviva, Koki and Jimmy support from the Tortuga base. The team discovers that egg temperature decides the hatchlings' sex and helps move the baby crocs safely to the nursery pool. By the end Aviva, who started out disliking crocodiles, admits she was wrong to judge them before knowing them.

S02 E19

Wild Kratts

Rattlesnake Crystal