Introduce children to camouflage by sharing books about how camouflage helps animals survive. Look for books with vibrant illustrations of animals in camouflage mode. Examples of books for elementary school children about camouflage include "Camouflage Changing to Hide" by Bobbie Kalman and "Animals in Camouflage" by Phyllis Limbacher Tildes. After reading the books, discuss how the animals in the books change to hide themselves and why it is necessary.
Instruct half of the children to wear light clothing and the other half to wear dark clothing. Play hide and go seek at dusk. Closely supervise the children. Select one child to cover his eyes and count while the other children hide. The counter must then find the hidden children. As each child is found, they join in on the search for the remaining children. After the children are found, discuss which children were easier for the other children to find. Ask the children if the color of their clothing made them easier or harder to find. Discuss why some animals blend in with their surroundings.
Create a habitat in a terrarium or aquarium to teach kids about camouflage. Use real specimens to study, such as crickets or lizards. Alternatively, use realistic plastic bugs or reptiles. Spend some time researching the animal and its habitat. Discuss how the animal uses camouflage in its environment. Observe how the animal uses camouflage to survive.
Scatter colored toothpicks in the grass to demonstrate the concept of camouflage. Ask children to sort a box of multicolored toothpicks into piles by color and then count and record how many toothpicks are in each pile. Mix all the toothpicks together again and scatter them in the grass. Give the children several minutes to find as many toothpicks as possible. Next, sort the toothpicks they collected by color and count the number of toothpicks that were found in each color. Discuss the colors that were the hardest and easiest to find. Talk about colors that are hard for animals to see in the grass. Review the concept of protective colors.