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Balanced Diet | #aumsum #kids #science #education #children

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Eat Healthy Stay Wealthy | Short Moral Stories For Kids | English | Cartoon Stories For Kids

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Expose the secrets of animal camouflage with these eye-opening science activities.

Hide and Seek: An Introduction

Assemble a selection of photographs of camouflaged creatures for students to look at from books and websites. Next, ask students, working in small groups, to visually search each picture of a camouflaged creature from a distance of at least 15 to 20 feet. Do students see something hiding in the pictures? Can they find each creature? Ask students: Why is this difficult to do? Once every student has been able to locate each of the creatures, explain that the animals are hard to find because they are using camouflage to blend into their surroundings. Some animals use camouflage to hide from their enemies; others use it to go unnoticed as they search for food themselves.

Teaching Camouflage

Once students have experienced camouflage in action, discuss in more depth the different features that help to camouflage each of the animals they have seen. Here are the four main types of camouflage that animals use (sometimes in various combinations):

BLENDING is when the colors on an animal's body match its surroundings. Examples: crab spider, white-tailed ptarmigan, polar bear, flounder.

PATTERN is when an animal's stripes, spots, or other color markings make the outline of the animal's body hard to see. Examples: tiger, zebra, leopard frog, blue-ringed octopus.

DISGUISE is when an animal hides in plain sight by looking like an object in its surroundings. Examples: leaf-mimic katydid, walking stick.

MIMICRY is when an animal's looks and behavior imitate that of a harmful or distasteful animal, which makes enemies shy away. Examples: king snake, longhorn beetle, viceroy butterfly.

Hunting Like a Hawk

Even the most effective camouflage can fail if a hidden animal suddenly moves and catches the enemy's eye. Conduct this fun, kinesthetic demonstration to show how movement can attract predators' attention. You will need two or three student volunteers to be "hawks." The rest of the class will be prey. Have the class move about the room while pretending to be small animals (such as songbirds, squirrels, and so on). When you call out "Hawk!" the prey must freeze. The hawks will then visually search for movement; any student that moves even slightly must take his or her seat. Afterwards, discuss with the class what would really happen in the wild. Why is camouflage alone not enough protection?

Hiding in the Habitat

Divide the class into small groups and give each a length of bulletin board paper. Invite them to choose an animal habitat to research, such as a forest, prairie, desert, polar region, or coral reef. They can also choose a mini-habitat such as a bush, tree, or flower garden. Have each group create a mural of its selected habitat, including drawings or cutouts of camouflaged animals. Next, ask each group to make a list of all the camouflaged animals found in its habitat. Display each mural with the corresponding list. Finally, challenge students to visit each of the habitats to search for the animals on the list. Can they find all the animals on each mural?

What You See...

Is what you get. Or is it? Explain to students that some creatures are very well hidden. A tiny twig on a tree branch may turn out to be alive, and a green leaf may reveal itself to be a katydid or a praying mantis. Insects such as these are masters of disguise - they look just like something that's found in their natural surroundings. Other creatures use disguises such as dead leaves, rocks, and even bird droppings to camouflage themselves from enemies. And some caterpillars, butterflies, and moths even have markings on their bodies that look like large animal eyes. When these "surprise" eyes are exposed, the would-be predator is often startled and scared away. Using books and online resources, share photographs of some of these curious creatures. Then challenge kids to use craft items and their imaginations to create fantastic animals that use disguise as a camouflage method. To display their creations, set up a camouflage museum inside your classroom. Invite each student to present his or her work to the class and explain how the animal's camouflage helps it hide from enemies.

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Critter Camouflage Science Activities | Scholastic

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Expose the secrets of animal camouflage with these eye-opening science activities. Assemble a selection of photographs of camouflaged creatures for students to look at from books and websites. Next, ask students, working in small groups, to visually search each picture of a camouflaged creature from a distance of at least 15 to 20 feet.

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STEM activity - engineering an animal for a habitat

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STEM activity - engineering an animal for a habitat

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Get Caught Engineering - STEM Resources for Teachers & Parents

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Best STEM Challenge Ever!

Do you teach animal adaptations and habitats? We have a great STEM challenge that is easily integrated into your science unit. Part of our "Is It In Your Nature?" Workshop created for the Smithsonian Natural History Museum, our "Engineering an Animal for a Habitat" requires students to use their imaginations and apply the required science concepts.
STEM and Animal Adaptations Improve Student Learning with a STEM Challenge
Adding STEM and engineering to your lessons is a fun way to improve student learning and assess a student's understanding of concepts that have been previously taught. Students love the hands-on lessons and as they create their models or prototypes, teachers know instantly who needs more instruction.

"STEM and Animal Adaptations" addresses several NGSS standards for life science and engineering.

Use a model to represent the relationship between the needs of different plants and animals and the places they live.

Ask questions, make observations, and gather information about a situation people want to change to define a simple problem that can be solved through the development of a new or improved object or tool.

Develop a simple sketch, drawing, or physical model to illustrate how the shape of an object helps it function as needed to solve a given problem.

Make observations of plants and animals to compare the diversity of life in different habitats.

Why Students Love this STEM Challenge
First of all, students learn the required science concepts and vocabulary. Next, by examining a variety of animals and their traits and characteristics, they discover how animals' adaptions help them survive in their environment. Finally, with a solid understanding of how animals survive in their habitats, it's time to get those creative juices flowing. Therefore, we like to begin with some favorite books such as the fabulous What If You Had An Animal Nose? by Sandra Markle and illustrated by Howard McWilliam. This story is one of a wonderful series that combines humor and facts with hilarious pictures that captivate readers and inspire careful consideration of animal adaptations.
What If You Had An Animal Nose?
Armed with scientific knowledge and filled with inspiration, your students are now ready to tackle the STEM challenge of creating a new and unique animal that will survive a particular habitat. Not only must they be able to justify how their animal's adaptation will help it survive but their animal prototype must also have a moving part. As a result, this life science and mechanical engineering activity is perfect for a concept review or to assess your students' comprehension. In addition, the engineering aspect keeps them engaged in a creative problem solving challenge.
Why Teachers Love This STEM Challenge
We continue to hear from teachers that they love to integrate engineering and STEM into many subjects. "STEM and Animal Adaptations" has been a favorite choice for many teachers this year.

"This was soooo much fun! My students loved creating the animals and it was a great addition to our study on adaptations!"

"If you teach animal adaptations, this activity is a must!"

"A great activity to use during my Biome-Go Unit!"

"Great source for inspiring higher level thinking!"

"I LOVE THIS! Using it for Animal Adaptation Assessment."

STEM and Animal Adaptations
Ready for more lessons on this topic? We also have an activity packet on behavioral adaptations.
STEM and Animal Behavioral Adaptations
We hope you and your students"Get Caught Engineering" this spring!

Wendy and Cheryl

*We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
Need some more ideas? Check out these other fantastic resources from our favorite STEM teachers!
More Amazing STEM Challenges

Your Students Will LOVE

Click on any of the images below to read about more STEM challenges from other STEM educators.

Graphics and Font Credits: KG Fonts and PhotoClipz

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Best STEM Challenge Ever - Get Caught Engineering - STEM Resources for Teachers & Parents

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Do you teach animal adaptations and habitats? We have a great STEM challenge that is easily integrated into your science unit. Part of our "Is It In Your Nature?" Workshop created for the Smithsonian Natural History Museum, our "Engineering an Animal for a Habitat" requires students to use their imaginations and apply the required science concepts.

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Report writing for beginner/emergent writers

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Report writing for beginner/emergent writers

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Students learn to describe animals by labelling pictures. Higher level expectations - more detailed descriptions.

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Falcon Adaptation Labelling Cut and Stick Activity Sheet

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This beautifully illustrated matching activity can support your teaching on the adaptations of the majestic falcon.

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This can double as an English task as it implements a report writing structure.

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These fact writing cards are perfect for opening the topic of habitats and adaption, encouraging children to research the information they need, and is a great activity for both individual and group work.

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Students will study Arabian animals and

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This PowerPoint helps teach children about how animals that are native to the UAE use camouflage to survive in their environment.