Friday, June 8, 2012

Hide & Seek Camouflage Game


My son wasn’t excited when I told him we were doing an activity all about camouflage. “I already know about camouflage animals, Mom,” he groaned. (sigh) I reassured him it would be fun and tossed a handful of his small plastic jungle animals on the table with a book I’d checked out from the library.

Curiosity definitely changed his mind.

To start, we read an absolutely captivating book written by David M. Schwartz and Yael Schy, with eye-tricking photos by Dwight Kuhn. This is actually the second book by the trio, but since our library system had the first checked out, we “settled” for Where Else in the Wild? More Camouflaged Creatures Concealed … and Revealed.



Oh my, was this fun! The book contains large-scale breathtaking nature photography with riddle-like poems that tease you into guessing the animal(s) hidden on the opposite page. Then readers lift the flap where the image is ghosted out, except for the camouflaged creature(s).

If you thought camouflage was just about frogs being green and leopards having spots, abandon this post and get to the nearest bookstore or library now. There were creatures familiar (e.g. crayfish) and far-out (e.g. Orchid Mantis) in this book. We learned so much and were eager to see what we could find. Sometimes it was easy, other times nearly impossible to spot the animals and insects.

This book was the perfect pairing for our little game. I gave my son his plastic miniature animals and had him imagine that our house was their natural habitat. It was up to him to find places where their coloring would camouflage them.

Off he went.

Forgive the pictures. He refused to let me see him hiding the animals because he wanted to challenge me to find them. And challenge me, he did!


Once they were found, he refused to move them. It was time for little brother to go a ’hunting. The fun continued then. And when Dad came home … yep, you guessed it … he was sent on a wild animal hunt, too.

So as it turned out, even though my son thought he knew everything there was to know about camouflage, he still learned something (did you know the snowshoe hare is white in winter then its coat molts and it is brown by summer? We sure didn’t!). He had a blast with our camouflage hide and seek game!

12 comments:

  1. This sounds like so much fun! I'm going to have to find one of those books at our library!

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  2. What a fun idea! My boys love anything that involves hide and seek (they still ask me to hide the Easter eggs on a regular basis). I can't wait to try this out with them.

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  3. It sounds like this activity went over big at your house! The book sounds really interesting.

    Thank you for linking to Read.Explore.Learn.

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  4. What a fun game, and that book sounds fantastic! I'll be looking for a copy at our library!

    Thanks for sharing with Learning Laboratory at Mama Smiles =)

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  5. What a great idea!! Here is my Learning Laboratory post: http://likemamalikedaughter.blogspot.com/2012/06/how-to-tuesday-tabletime.html

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  6. What a fabulous idea! It sounds like your son had a wonderful time and the book sounds lovely too! I will have to keep an eye out for it at our library.

    This post would be perfect for the non-fiction reading adventure link party I am hosting for the next four weeks called 'Keeping it Real!' It would be lovely if you could join us.
    http://honeybeebooksblog.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/keeping-it-real-our-non-fiction-reading.html

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  7. What a wonderful idea. I love the game and will have to check out the book. Thank you for sharing at Sharing Saturday!!

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  8. I love this idea!!! My kids are going to have fun playing this!
    Thanks for sharing with my Super Link Party! :-)

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  9. Love this. The book will be on our check out list. Your activity is great way to practice camouflage.

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  10. We did thisonce a few years ago and it was so much fun! Thanks for linking up to Science Sunday!

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  11. Thanks so much for sharing this last week on Saturday Show & Tell! You've been featured this week! We'd love to have you join us again! Have a great weekend!
    Mackenzie :)
    http://www.cheeriosandlattes.com/saturday-show-tell-15/

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  12. I just wanted to let you know we just found this book at the library! My guy loved it.

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