Designs of Nature - Camouflage

Focus: Many creatures are shaped or colored to blend into their surroundings, and these different designs of camouflage are critical to the survival of those animals.

Puppets (Marsha Mouse, Sammy Skunk, Herbert Hare, Freddie Fox, Ellie the Red Eft)

Materials Checklist
Hard to See (slide show, projector, screen, or pictures of animals showing camouflage)
Secret Shapes (wallpaper samples 8” x 11” pieces and scraps, glue sticks, scissors)
A Bird's Eye View (two-inch pieces of colored yarn – green, brown, red, yellow, blue - 10 pieces of each color)
Hidden in Plain Sight (10 synthetic objects)
Camouflaged Critters (sticks, leather and cloth scraps, pipe cleaners, tissue paper, glue, tape, scissors)
Puppet Show (puppets, script, big birthday cake)
Daring Disguises (5/6 ELF) (Protective Coloration Chart, sticks, pipe cleaners, tissue paper, leather and cloth scraps, glue, tape, scissors)

Supplemental Reference Materials (Protective Coloration chart; Slide show scripts, Grades K-2, Grades 3-6; Camouflaged Animal Illustration; 5/6 ELF Activity: Daring Disguises)

Additional Reading/Resources
"How the Leopard Got His Spots" from Just So Stories, by Rudyard Kipling.

ELF Notes - Template for newsletter on Camouflage
* Word document * pdf file

For Younger Children
Many of the activities in VINS's new Small Wonders book can be used in ELF, too. To find appropriate activities for children aged 3-6, click here.

Teaching Suggestions
Secret Shapes
For kindergarten classes, volunteers can cut out shapes ahead of time, and then have children glue them on the backgrounds.

For kindergarten children, you can cut out animal shapes from wrapping paper and give one to each child. Place large sections of the different wrapping paper used on tables and have children find the best background for their animal to hide in.

Cut a strip off one side of the background wallpaper sheet from which students can cut out shapes.

Give students magazine photos of animals and have them color a camouflaged background.

Birds Eye View
In pairs have kids tape together their last three fingers and separately the index finger and thumb so that the human hand works more like a bird's beak.

Set up this activity and Hidden in Plain Sight ahead of time OR have one volunteer set it up while the other is presenting the slide show.

For older students, use a big circle to make finding the hidden yarn more challenging. Colored marbles can be used.

This activity is tough to set up in the classroom with students around, so plan on setting it up outside or in an empty room.

Let those children who found only a few worms in the first round go first on the second round of hunting.

Indoors, a yard of patterned cloth makes a good background. "Worms" can be colored paper dots or thin strips of fabric cut from the cloth.

In a city environment, you might do the same activity in two very different but adjacent locations such as grass and blacktop or mulched playground. The colors that blend well into one background may be highly visible at the other location. Animals designed to 'disappear' in their wild habitat may have more difficulty hiding in the city. A white moth would have trouble hiding against a brick building.

Hidden in Plain Sight
One volunteer demonstrated this idea by turning herself into the background! She wore an intricate floral blouse with objects pinned to it.

Camouflaged Critters
Young children can color scraps of paper to match their clothing, tape it to their bodies, and challenge a partner or a small group to find it.

In a city environment, you could have the children create an animal especially suited to blend into the urban landscape. Or they might choose to design a 'camouflage coat' for an existing animal, mimicking how human hunters use camouflage clothing to blend into the woods. The new design might look like part of a building, car, dumpster other manmade object familiar to the children. The animal or its camouflage coat can be drawn or created from the materials suggested. Don't forget to ask the children what behaviors allow the camouflaged animal to escape detection.

Extensions
Copy a page size line drawing of a butterfly and have kids color it then hide it in plain sight in the classroom.

Learning Goals

Concepts/Ideas

• Camouflage is protective coloration or disguise.
• Some of the different types of camouflage in nature are: matching color or shape, disruptive coloration, countershading, masking, mimicry, and warning coloration.
• Camouflage is most effective when an animal can remain perfectly still and its shape, color, and texture blend in with the surroundings.
• Some animals' bold coloration serves as a warning to others to keep away.

Vocabulary: camouflage, protective coloration, matching color, disruptive coloration, countershading, masking, mimicry, warning coloration (definitions)

Skills

• Active listening and observing to discover different types of camouflage found in nature and how these help animals to survive.
• Investigating the effectiveness of camouflage by hiding and searching for objects.
• Constructing a three-dimensional model that would be well camouflaged for a specific habitat.
• Role-playing to experience how shape, color, and size contribute to the effectiveness of camouflage.

Grade Expectations:
Grades PK-K (S30) Living animals are shaped or colored to blend into their surroundings; this helps to protect them in the places they live.

Grades 1-2 (S30) Animals may have protective coloration or disguise that enables them to survive in their environment.

Grades 3-4 (S30) Animals have physical and behavioral characteristics that protect them from predators in the places they live.

Grades 5-6 (S38) Protective coloration or disguise combined with behavior helps animals blend into their surroundings. Bold coloration acts as a defense, warning predators to stay away.

Return to October, March or April ELF.