Camouflage activity for young scientists

This is a great activity I used to do with younger scientists to give them a quick and fun intro to animal adaptations. I have a background in marine biology, so I like to focus on marine related activities. You can swap the fish stencil for a butterfly, lizard, bear or any animal that might use camouflage. Here’s the fish stencil I used.

This is a really great activity if you want to keep your kids engaged in STEM but only have a short amount of time to spare.

I start the activity by talking about animal adaptations in general.

Animals have adapted to the environment and lifestyle in which they live. Animals live everywhere on earth. They live in the deepest parts of the ocean and the driest parts of the desert. They live up high in the trees and even underground in the dirt. Animals can live in any environment because they have adaptations to suit their lifestyle and environment.

Adaptations are special features or skills the animal has to better survive. These adaptations can be physical or behavioural. Physical adaptations are special body features [wings, claws, colouration and body shape] that allow the animal to live in a particular place in a particular way. Behavioural adaptations are things the animal or group of animals do daily or seasonally; it is how the animals(s) act [songs, calls, migration, mimicry]. Many animals have both physical and behavioural adaptations.

Animals evolve over time in order to better adapt to their environments and lifestyle.

I like to ask the kids what their favourite animals are, what adaptations they have, and why each animal may use these adaptations. Here’s some examples:

Blue Tang or Surgeonfish (also known as our good friend Dory) have a sharp venomous blade by their tail fin to protect themselves from predators -physical adaptation

Meerkats have dark circles around their eyes that act like sunglasses to help them see even when the sun is shinning very brightly - physical adaptation

Canada Geese breed up north in places like Canada in the summer, but migrate south to the warmer States in the winter to avoid the cold and to find food - behavioural adaptation

Hippos sweat a pink oily substance that acts as sunscreen to protect and moisturize their skin in the hot sun - physical adaptation

Humpback Whales have their own regional language or songs to help them communicate with their families - behavioural adaptation

Koala Bears have extra fury bottoms to act as a cushion for the hard branches they sit on - physical adaptation

Elephants have large ears that act like a fan when they flap them in the heat to reduce their body temperature - physical adaptation

Mimic Octopus use mimicry to change the texture and colour of its skin as well as the shape of its body to look like something else so the are harder to spot - physical and behavioural adaptation

Texas Horned Lizard will shoot blood out of its eyes when it feels threatened - physical and behavioural

Since I used a fish stencil, here are some general adaptations of fish.

Streamline Body Shape -Easy to move though the water

Gill Cover - Protects the soft gills underneath

Mucus Covering - Protects from disease

Pectoral/Shoulder Fin - Helps with movement in water column (left, right, up and down)

Tail Fin - Helps stabilize fish and prevents body from rolling over

Nostrils - Used in smelling to track home rivers

Camouflage/Colouration - Hide from predators or ambush prey

Anyways, today we’re going to focus on camouflage. Camouflage is an adaptation that allows animals to blend into their surroundings. Many animals have evolved to use some form of camouflage in order to hide from predators in order to increase their chance of survival and pass on their genes. Camouflage can also be used by predators as a tool for hunting. The predator will blend into their environment and ambush or surprise their prey so they can catch them.

Why do you think a fish might want to use camouflage? To blend in with their surroundings to hide from predators or sneak up on prey.

Hand out one fish stencil cutout to each student and tell them to camouflage it by colouring it in so that it hides somewhere in the room. Tell them to get creative and that their fish can be colourful and camouflage at the same time. After all the kids have gone and hid their fish, it is your turn as the parent/educator to go around the classroom and try to find the camouflaged fish.

Choose an animal stencil and cut them out.

Have the Jr. Scientists colour/paint/decorate the animal stencils so that it can blend in or camouflage into something in the room.

Have Jr. Scientists hide their animal stencils in plain sight using camouflage.

Now you can have some fun and try to find the camouflaged stencils around the room.

Encourage the Jr. Scientists to get creative and remind them that something can be both camouflaged and multicoloured or patterned at the same time.

Just a quick note about the stencils - to make this hide and seek camouflage activity more challenging, make sure you don’t have a the black outline of the animal in the stencil cut out.