This mallard hen is well-camouflaged in her nest of brown grass.
Camouflage --a way of blending in with the surrounding environment -- helps living things hide from predators, hunt for food, and communicate with one another. Camouflage is a scientific concept that is usually taught in early elementary school, and can be fun to teach with crafts.
Stick, or Walking Stick?
Make your own stick bug with a stick and some wire.
Walking sticks, also called stick bugs, are the grand-daddies of disguise. Hailing from the order Phasmatodea, trying to find one is always a challenge, and usually happens as a surprise. Make a decoy walking stick of your own with a stick and some thin, black wire. Fetch a dried-out stick, about 1/4-inch in diameter, from underneath the nearest tree. It should be about 4 inches long. Coil some pieces of wire around it to form 6 legs; add two more pieces in front to form antenna. Glue black seed beads on as eyes. Hide your stick bug in the nearest tree and challenge your friends to find it, or perch him on top of your computer as a decoration.
Katydid What?
An insect mimicing a green leaf.
Another master of disguise, the Katydid, is an insect that is closely related to crickets. Katydids usually bear a striking resemblance to leaves in both color and form. Make your own katydid with green craft felt or construction paper and some green wire. Shape the wire into a base with 6 legs and 2 antennae. Cut out the shape of a katydid from your craft felt or paper; with a dark green marker, draw the veins of the leaf. Attach the leaf shape the wire base; it can be oriented up and down, or flat. Glue two seed beads on for eyes. Who will be the first to find your katydid among the plants?
Owl Prowl
An owl's camouflage helps them blend in with tree bark.
Another well-camouflaged creature is the owl. Many owls are cryptically colored in order to blend in with tree bark, and are often mistaken for broken snags on a branch. Make your own camouflaged owl made with pieces of leaf litter and tree bark from the ground. Using a stencil as a guide, cut out an owl shape from a piece of brown construction paper or cardstock. You can also make a 3-D owl from a 1-gallon milk jug.
Glue pieces of leaf litter, bark, and other natural debris to your owl shape. Try to emulate the feather patterns of real owls, such as a Great Horned Owl, Eastern Screen Owl, or Burrow Owl. Lastly, glue on googly eyes and a beak made from a orange-colored paper triangle. Can you find a good place for your owl to hide outside?
Make an Animal Mask or Costume
Create a "Camouflage Costume" to wear during hide-and-seek.
Learn how helpful camouflage can be by wearing some yourself! Buy a plastic mask from the craft store and decorate it with leaves, sticks, bark, and other natural materials to create the face of your favorite camouflaged animal. Inspire your mask with animal coats and colors like those found on chipmunks, snakes, birds, or spiders. Affix tall, furry ears and a black nose to a fuzzy brown mask to become a deer; put a pink nose and whiskers on a drab brown mask to become a field mouse.
Complete your costume with your own animal camouflage cape. Take an old brown or green blanket -- or whatever color matches your mask -- and use hot glue or hand-stitching to attach natural-colored colored fabric strips that, when viewed from a distance, might resemble the body of your well-camouflaged animal. A fawn cape might be made with a beige fabric with white spots; a chipmunk cape would be dark brown fabric with black and white stripes. Become a snowy owl with a furry white cape with black spots. Wear your cape in the environment in which you wish to hide.
Take a walk outdoors and get inspired by what's around you! The possibilities are only limited by your creativity.
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