For you to try out
These are some of my favourite environmental games and activities- most work for me in all the situations I hope they do for you!
The only one I haven't added that I love is Instincts as it is too hard to explain- it is one of the best for animal interactions and food webs, you'll just have to ask us along to show you how it is done! if you struggle I would recommend getting a any book by Joseph Cornell (many of these are taken from his ideas).
Meet a tree
(need a blindfold per pair and some trees) This works with virtually any age group (with very small children you can play with no blindfolds)
Leaky bottles
Resources: The leaky bottles (made from 2litre juice bottles- with holes). Objective: To demonstrate how energy is lost down a food chain and the longer the chain the more inefficient the process. Activity: Hand out bottles to the participants. Explain how a food chain works. Place the “sun” next to the burn (big bucket) and line up the food chains from the sun to herbivore, low carnivore, higher carnivore etc. The highest carnivore stands next to the end bucket. The game is for all the food chain teams to pass the energy (water) up the food chain, pouring from one person’s bottle to the next to fill the end bucket the fastest. To make it interesting make food chains different lengths and hopefully the short chains will finish first and you can discuss the efficiency of herbivores in comparison to large carnivores. Age range: 5+. Precautions: care of slippage next to the burn.
Bat & moth.
Resources: 2 Blindfolds. Objective: Teach participants about bats- their eating habits and methods of hunting. Activity: Discuss bats and their feeding habits. Get the group into a circle and select 2 bats. These bats are lead into the centre of the circle and it is explained they must find the moths (who are selected later) by shouting “bat” as often as possible. Once they catch a moth they must identify it by touch and voice. When a moth hears “bat” they must respond “moth” immediately. Bats are then blindfolded and several moths chose out of the group. The moths must not duck down or try to escape the circle. The rest of the group form a circle, holding hands and become trees (no speaking, but stop the animals escaping). Age: 4+ .Precautions: take place on even ground
Colour palettes
Resources: palette- card, double-sided sticky tape, and natural materials. Objective: Look in detail at colours in nature. Activity: Create a competition environment. The aim is to collect as many different colours on the palette as possible. Therefore they need to collect wee tiny specs of colour. You can choose to do all the colours available or shades of a colour (green, brown, blues, yellows etc). Say the most I’ve ever counted was 80! To get them going (in reality its been about 140) Age: 4+ younger make area palatte bigger. Precautions: care when choosing natural materials – non-toxic.
Camouflage relay
Resources: Coloured wool/. Objective: Discuss why animals use camouflage & bright colours to attract or warn. Activity: Spread out the colour wool “worms” around a set area prior to the game commencing. Split the group into 2 teams. Explain coloured wool has been placed all around the zoned area (explain the boundaries). In turn each team member must run out, find a piece of wool and return it to the leader (you) and tag the next member in the team to find the next strand of wool & so on until all the wool has been found. The leader gathers the wool in order from each team. At the end, count up to see which team got the most & therefore won. In addition, discuss the order in which the wool was returned. It’s usually bright colours first. Why do plants & animals use bright colours? Then discuss camouflage. N.B. Ensure you know how many pieces of wool you put out!! Age: 3+. Precautions: Care when running, play of even ground, and set boundaries.
