Don’t miss: Upcoming Outdoor Family Fun Weekend at Epcot’s Flower & Garden Festival

The Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival is in full bloom, with two more months left to enjoy festival favorites. And although there are plenty of activities every day of the festival to entertain children, a new upcoming Outdoor Family Fun Weekend offers families visiting Epcot free activities that also have an educational component. How could learning at Walt Disney World be anything but fun?

The Outdoor Family Fun Weekend takes place April 8 through 10, and Disney’s Animal Kingdom cast members will be in several of the gardens at Epcot interacting with guests in multiple activities, according to Kyle Huetter, education manager of Animals, Science and Environment at Walt Disney Parks and Resorts.

“In the Backyard Habitat garden, we’ll show guests how to find the appropriate plants to go with the region. Guests are asked to place the correct plants in the environment they live in. Multiple families can participate at once, and there can also be one-on-one interactions,” he said.

The sorting game is played on a 3-foot by 3-foot magnetic board that includes wetlands, deserts, grasslands and forests. The Backyard Habitats garden is located along Imagination Walkway near the new Backyard Garden Melodies.

At the Pollinator Paradise near The Land pavilion, guests can take part in a Butterfly Citizen science project. They receive a handout showing photos of butterflies common in Florida, mark off the butterflies they saw at the garden, and hand it in to cast members collecting the data. “It’s very easy for guests to follow, and they will actually be participating in a project for horticulture and Disney science,” Huetter said.

In the center of Future World, along the central walkway to World Showcase, guests will find the new Ranger Mickey Garden, which celebrates the 100th anniversary of the U.S. National Parks Service. The topiaries make a beautiful photo backdrop, and each day, actual U.S. rangers will be on hand to answer guests’ questions. During Outdoor Family Fun Weekend, guests can put together puzzle pieces as they discover, through park photos, how diverse the national parks are.

Future World is open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. all three days of Outdoor Family Fun Weekend.

Visitors who stop by Epcot’s Flower & Garden Festival Center during the weekend can get an up-close view of bugs, such as tarantulas, centipedes, Madagascar cockroaches, spiders and other arachnids. Animal Kingdom cast members who take care of the creatures will be on hand to interact with families. The Festival Center is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day.

Finally, at the African outpost in World Showcase — across from “The Jungle Book” sand sculpture — there will be a matching game. Guests will try to guess which animal facts belong with each photo of an animal from “The Jungle Book.” The remake of the movie premieres April 15.

World Showcase is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. each day during Outdoor Family Fun Weekend.

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