Camouflage Game
(from Hosting a Bug Camp for Kids by Robinne Weiss)
G
Theme:
Many insects hide from predators and prey by blending in
with their environment.
Activity:
Students search for multi-coloured pipe cleaners hidden
in a natural environment.
Props:
•
•
Multi-coloured pipe cleaners (equal numbers of
several colours including red, yellow, orange, black,
green and brown)
Boundary markers
Introduction/Set-up:
“Plant” pipe cleaners (about three per student) in a natural area (a
wooded area is best, but tall grass works, too). You can simply scatter
the pipe cleaners over the ground, but the game is more challenging
and realistic if you wind pipe cleaners around tree branches, wedge
them in bark, or place them partly concealed under rocks, logs or
leaves. All pipe cleaners should be at least partly visible without
moving anything.
Discuss insect tactics for avoiding predators (flying, running,
burrowing, camouflage, warning colours, stings, etc.) Explain that
students will be playing a game to illustrate one of these tactics.
Play:
Explain to students that there are pipe cleaners hidden within the
boundary markers. On a signal from the teacher, students should
enter the playing field, collect just one pipe cleaner and return to the
start. Record the number of each colour pipe cleaner collected.
Send students back into the playing field, this time for two minutes.
Students are to collect as many pipe cleaners as they can find in this
time.
Conclusion:
Discuss the numbers of pipe cleaners of each colour collected.
Explain that there were equal numbers of each colour placed in the
playing area. Why were more red, orange, and yellow pipe cleaners
collected in the first round? How did those numbers change in the
second round? Why? If you were an insect, what colour would you
rather be? Why?
If all pipe cleaners have not been collected, send students back to
finish collecting them.
A good follow-up to this activity is to have students search for real
insects in the same area. What colours are the real insects? Where did
you have to look for them? Was it easy or difficult to find them?
What strategies other than camouflage do the insects you found use
for defence?
NOTE: This activity can be done with any multi-coloured objects.
Paper squares, jelly beans, and coloured beads work just as well as
pipe cleaners. Choose items appropriate to your group and resources.