Minibeast Survival

KS2

Objective – to help children understand that wildlife needs are very similar to human needs.

25 mins

EQUIPMENT:

- 4 sets of cards (water, air, food, shelter)

- coloured band/tabards for birds

- 4 baskets

- Pictures of a nest and a wildlife hotel

  • Discuss the four things that minibeasts (indeed all animals!) need to survive – food, water, shelter and air.
  • Put a different set of cards in each basket and place the baskets out quite a distance away from the group and spread out apart from each other
  • Explain that the children are going to be minibeasts and that they need to collect all the things they need to survive. Ask the leaders who are with the group to hold up the pictures of the nest and the wildlife hotel. All the minibeasts start in the wildlife hotel and have to get back with one of each of the four cards.
  • You now need to choose a child to be the bird and give him/her a band/tabard to wear. He/she starts in the nest and has to catch as many minibeasts as possible by tapping them. When caught the minibeast has to give their cards to the bird, then go to the nest.
  • The game ends when all the minibeasts have been caught or have got back to the hotel safely. Count how many have been caught and how many have made it safely back.
  • You can play the game again, but this time, with two birds making it harder for the minibeasts.
  • You could also remove some of the cards for the second round so that it is harder for the minibeasts to find everything they need.
  • Demonstrate mans impact on the environment by marking some of the cards in some way to represent pollution or pesticide poison, but don’t tell the minibeasts. If minibeasts have a marked card, they are dead, if the birds have collected marked cards from the minibeasts, they also die.