CAMOUFLAGE
NATURE'S HIDE AND SEEK

Purpose: To illustrate the advantage of prey blending in with the surroundings to increase their chance of escaping detection by a predator.
Season: All
Materials: Five or more different colors of yarn cut into three inch pieces with a knot tied in the center of each piece. The numbers of the different colors should be equal, e.g. 5 green, 5 red, 5 yellow, and etc. Use a minimum of 30 pieces of yarn.
TEKS: K.2A,B,C,D,E    K.2A,B,C     K.4A    K.9A
Procedure:
  1. Divide the students into teams of two or four.
  2. Scatter the yarn over an area that is 15 feet by 15 feet. Make sure the students are not watching.
  3. Tell the students that each team is a flock of birds and the colored pieces of yarn are tasty worms. Each flock will have 20 seconds to feed on the worms. (The students collect as many pieces of the yarn as they can in this time.)
  4. Tally and record the number of the different colors of prey collected on the sheet provided.
  5. Repeat steps 2, 3 and 4 with each of the remaining teams.
  6. Declare the best worm catching team.
  7. Which color of worm was caught the most often? Which color was most successful at hiding from the birds?
  8. Ask students what color would let an animal hide the best in grass? On the rocks? On a tree trunk? The ability of an animal to blend in with its surroundings is called camouflage.
  9. Ask students to look for examples of camouflage in insects, spiders, birds and other animal that they might see as they walk along the trails.
  10. Let students make a complex bar graph to display these data.

Back to Elementary - Resource Grid

 

FLOCK #1

YELLOW ________________

RED ________________

ORANGE ________________

BLUE ________________

GREEN ________________

BROWN ________________

 FLOCK #2

YELLOW ________________

RED ________________

ORANGE ________________

BLUE ________________

GREEN ________________

BROWN ________________
FLOCK #3

YELLOW ________________

RED ________________

ORANGE ________________

BLUE ________________

GREEN ________________

BROWN ________________

 FLOCK #4

YELLOW ________________

RED ________________

ORANGE ________________

BLUE ________________

GREEN ________________

BROWN ________________