Guess my Pollinator HEADBANDS Game
Activity Description: This is an interactive way for students to learn about different
animals and things in nature that help plants pollinate. This can be used as an introduction to a
study on plants or pollination. Similar to the game HEADBANDS, students have a mystery
pollinator on their back and they are trying to ask yes or no questions to figure out the answer.
This is great for student discourse and movement in the classroom. To differentiate among students, you can choose the level of
difficulty for the student ranging from the honeybee to more challenging pollinators like the wind. Some setup is involved to
prepare the cards, I made mine into necklaces for easy use. The learning objective for this activity is to describe what
pollinators do for plants and what types of things in nature are examples of pollinators.
NGSS Connection: LS2.A: Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems
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Plants depend on water and light to grow. (2-LS2-1)
Plants depend on animals for pollination or to move their seeds around. (2-LS2-2)
Teacher Tips/Resource:
Spend a minute or two reviewing the expectations with students. I warn students against the two biggest game mess ups: person
1: The person who tells everyone else what they are, and person 2: The person who goes around asking what their card is. Don’t
be a mess up, or we won’t take the time to play these games again. Usually students are pretty motivated after a brief reminder
to play and have fun.
I printed the cards on cardstock paper. I then put yarn through each card to make a necklace. As students were working on their
warmup activity, I went around and put the necklaces on.
Extension: After students identified their pollinator, they say with all of the students and filled out the attached capture sheet.
This became their expert group for the work we completed in class with pollination.
Time
Activity
5 min.
Activator: Do plants need pollinators? Why or Why not?
Answers; It depends on the type of plant, most plants need a pollinator to share the pollen from the male
part to the female part of the plant to reproduce and make seeds.
Explain the Guess my pollinator game
Students play the Game
Expert Group work
I had my students watch the Ted Talk on Pollination before trying the capture sheet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqsXc_aefKI
YouTube.com Search: Hidden beauty of pollination
Summarize: Have each group share why they are a great pollinator.
5 min.
10 min
15 min.
5 min.
Clipart for this Activity has been supplied by: Clipartbest.com
Borders for this activity have been provided by: Rocky Creek Studios
If this activity is working for you in your classroom, please consider checking out other items in my TpT store Middle School
Frizz. There you will find other games and activities for movement in the classroom.
Group Member Names _________________________________________________
Guess my pollinator Capture Sheet
Our pollinator is _____________________________________________
1. What is the job of a pollinator?
2. Is there a difference between pollination and pollinator? Explain.
2. Why is your organism/part of nature an effective pollinator?
(Think about the parts of your body or shape that would help spread pollen)
Challenge: Not every pollinator pollinates the same plants. What type of plant would you most
likely pollinate? There
Some possible ideas are: plants that are low to the ground, tall plants, plants with bright flowers,
plants that smell nice
Bat
Beetle
Butterfly
Bee
Fly
Hummingbird
Rain
Wind
Wasp
Moth
Ant
Mouse