Overview: Camouflage games and activities used to discuss the importance of ability of prey to hide from predator.
Grade level: Kindergarten
Time: 30-45 minutes

Purpose: The student will observe first hand what it is like to be the prey and what he or she must do to blend in and make themselves less noticeable.
TEKS:
5 c Observe and identify patterns
3 a make decisions using information
 b justify merits of decisions
 c. explain a problem and pose a solution

Materials:

• Book: Eggbert the Slightly Cracked Egg by Tom Ross and Rex Barron
• butterfly pattern
• M&Ms and candy corn
• box with various materials: brush, mirror, pencil, crayon, spoon
• crayons and markers

Getting Ready:

• Know meaning of camouflage
• Insects use camouflage to avoid being eaten by predators or to hide from potential prey. By varying their shape and color, insects disguise themselves so that they are difficult to perceive.
• Know the difference between predator and prey.
• Vocabulary: mimicry, adaptations, selection

Motivate:

• M&M activity: using M&Ms and candy corn in pan have the children pick out 3 colors of M&Ms.
• Count various colors and record findings.
• Explain to the children why some of the colors chosen were not the yellow and orange ones because they blended in well with the candy corn. Now we are going to see how many things we can see inside a shoe box. Some will be hard to see because they blend in well with the bottom of the box and others will be easier to see. I am going to show them to you very quickly so watch carefully as I come around. ( show the children)
• Write on the board all the things they saw. Tell them at the end of the lesson I will show them again and we will see if we saw all the items or if there are more to be seen that we missed the first time.

Activity:

Read Eggbert the Slightly Cracked Egg

Discuss the various things Eggbert painted on his shell so that he could blend in and people would not notice him.

Was it easy for you to find him?
Why was he all painted? If some of him was not painted, he would stick out and be easily seen.

Safety:

• Children must be careful when using markers and crayons.
• Children must stay on own paper when drawing.
• M&Ms not eaten in earlier activity must be thrown away.

Concept Discovery:

Have various butterflies hidden in front of room. Have the children point them out and use their words to tell me where to find them. Explain that for some it was hard to see because they blended in so well to what they were on that we could not see them.. this is called camouflage.

Going Further:

• Apply this concept to army men and women in the field and the colors they were to blend in to the surroundings.
• TJs Laser Tag: you must wear black so you will not be seen by the black lights.
• Ask: If your mother was making spaghetti for dinner... what color shirt do you think would be best for you to wear if you were to drip some on your new shirt?

Closure:

Today we talked about the importance of camouflage. Who can tell me what it is and why it is important? Pass around the box with all the various articles in.. Did we miss any?

Assessment:

Pass out paper butterfly and tell students you want them to pick a place in the room where they want to "hide" their butterfly. Using markers and crayons, the student is to begin working on coloring the butterfly so it will blend in to its surroundings. When finished, the students will wait for fellow friends to finish and go into the hall. One at a time the butterflies are hung up in the room. The "Going Further" activities could be done at this time.

Children all enter when the last butterfly is pinned and begin searching with their eyes for all the butterflies. Using their words, each child gets to point out a butterfly.

Connections:

• Language Arts: dictate a story to the 5th grade reading buddy about butterfly
• Math: Make patterns with butterfly (TEKS(5))

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