Form a circle of chairs with the seats facing out of the circle and the backs facing towards the center of the circle. Designate the chairs as trees and the students as squirrels with one tree per squirrel. Remove one of the trees due to a forest fire or being cut down for lumber. Play music and instruct students to walk around the circle of trees. When the music stops, all the squirrels must find a new tree for a home. The squirrel who cannot find a home is out of the game. Continue playing until only one squirrel is left. Create other examples of symbiotic relationships using chairs and students to represent different species: bees and flowers, birds and trees, squirrels and nuts, for example.
Make up pairs of cards that represent symbiotic relationships. For example, pairs can consist of a fallen log and a mushroom, a dog and a flea, a bee and a flower. Turn the cards over and mix them up, then lay them out in a square grid. Let students play a game of memory by flipping over two cards at a time with the goal of the game to locate symbiotic relationship matches. Once all the cards are revealed and matched, the player with the most number of matches wins the game. This game can be played one-on-one or in teams.
Draw a question grid on the board. Vertical columns should include point values (100, 200, 300, 400 and 500), and horizontal columns should include species categories: plants, mammals, fish, insects, for example. Instruct students, or teams of students, to pick a point value and a category, with lower point values being easier combinations and higher point values being more difficult combinations. For example, a student who chooses "insects" and "300" might receive the clue of "The relationship between aphids and ants." The student then answers, in question form, with the symbiotic relationship. In the example, the answer would be "What is a mutualistic relationship?" Gear the clues and answers to the level of your students, and include additional details within the clue if necessary.
Create cards with different species written on them, and assign one card to each student. Use various trees, flowers, mammals, insects, fungi, fish and amphibians, but ensure that the species you choose is fairly simple and that each species has symbiotic relationships with at least two or three other species. For example, a squirrel has a symbiotic relationship with both a tree and a nut, and a tree has a symbiotic relationship with both a squirrel and a bird. Challenge students to locate a partner to form a symbiotic relationship with. Award 1 point for parasitic relationships, 2 points for commensalism and 3 points for mutualism. Assign the cards randomly each round for new combinations. The student with the most points at the end of the game wins the game.