Creative Camouflage Nature's Hide and Seek!

OBJECTIVES Super Six Connection: At Headfirst, we show campers how they can flex their own optimistic mindsets by staying positive, seeing the “good” in a situation, and learning from mistakes. In this activity we discuss how animals are “optimistic” about their survival because they are artfully adapted to their environments.

Development and Learning: Today’s exploration provides an introduction to camouflage and behavioral adapatations, as dictated by the animal’s habitat. Camouflage is one way animals ensure they will outwit predators and be able to carry on their day-to-day lives; conversely, camouflage is also a way predators can go undetected, and increase their chances of successfully catching their prey. Campers will discuss real-world examples of camouflage based on an animal’s habitat. They’ll consider why an animal lives in a certain environment, and what might happen if the animal did not camouflage.

MATERIALS 1.Crayons, Colored Pencils or Markers 2.Scissors 3.White paper 4. Printer

SET UP & PREP Print a copy of the PAPER FROGS template (on page 3). If you don't have a printer, not to worry! You can draw your own frogs on a piece of paper! Cut out all of the frogs and trim them to shape. This activity can be done either outdoors or indoors!

INTRODUCTION Today we are going to learn all about animals and how they are OPTIMISTIC, or feel positively, about their ability to survive in their HABITATS. Do you know what a habitat is?

Copyright (c) 2020 Headfirst Events, LLC. All rights reserved. PAGE 1 INTRODUCTION A HABITAT is where an animal lives - like a home! A habitat is made up of the plants, other living creatures, the weather, and parts of the land! As you can probably guess, not every habitat, or home, works for every animal. We can tell a LOT about animals based on their habitats. For a habitat to be a good home for an animal, that animal needs to be able to live and survive there. This means an animal has a good chance of not getting eaten by a PREDATOR, another animal that wants to hunt it! When an animal BLENDS IN or hides itself in the habitat, it’s called CAMOFLAUGE. This is such an important science word because it helps animals to be OPTIMISTIC about surviving. If a PREDATOR cannot find it, that animal has a better chance of making it to another day! Today we’re going to use what we just learned about camoflauge, habitats, and predators to help us play a hide-and-seek game.

INSTRUCTIONS 1.Show your camper the blank paper frogs. Explain that their challenge today is to use their knowledge of CAMOUFLAGE to ADAPT, or change, the frogs to their environment! 2.Give them ten minutes to study the "habitat" (either an outdoor area or around the house) and select colors/patterns to help the frogs blend in. a.For example, if I notice the mulch by the tree is light brown with dark brown lines, I might choose these two crayons to camouflage my frog by the mulch. After I color my frog in to camouflage with the habitat to the best of my abilities, I’ll place it in the camouflaged spot to "hide," or adapt to the environment. 3.Tell your camper that once all of the frogs have been colored and "hidden", you are going to become a green tree snake predator for the frogs and try to find them! The better the frogs are camouflaged, the greater chance they will have of not being found. 4.All frogs MUST be visible, meaning they can’t be covered by any objects. Instead, you’ll help your frog not to be spotted by camouflaging! 5.Before getting started, remind your camper that the frog should be the same color as the place where they put it. For example, to look like the grass or trees!

DEBRIEF Ask your camper which frogs were difficult to spot and why? Anticipated response: The frogs that blend in the best are the hardest to find. This would help them live and not get eaten by the snake! What is an animal trying to do when it camouflages itself? How does camouflage help prey to survive? How does camouflage help predators? Anticipated Response: An animal is trying to blend in when it camouflages. It helps prey to not get eaten because it can’t be seen. It helps predators to hide and sneak up on prey! Why might an animal be more OPTIMISTIC if it is able to camouflage? Anticipated Response: The animal would be optimistic because it would have a better chance of surviving. Where might you have seen camouflage in the real world? Anticipated Response: I’ve seen lions look like the color of the grasslands when they hunt. I’ve seen fish look like sand in the ocean to not get eaten! Etc.