Animal Survival

Objective: For the students to understand the basic necessities all

organisms need to survive and the obstacles they face in gaining these
necessities.
Target Age: Fourth Grade
Number of Participants: 17
Room Arrangement: Room to move around, yet also has obstacles
(tables, desks and chairs) to represent obstacles (trees, logs, streams,
lakes, etc.) within a habitat.
Materials: Signs with the words (or pictures) of food, water, shelter,
space, and deer (over half the class should have a sign with food,
water, shelter and space, while the smaller portion of the class will be
deer).
Source:
http://www.riverventure.org/charleston/resources/pdf/population
%20study%20game.pdf
Description of the Activity:
1. Hand out one sign to every student at random.
2. Explain the rules of the game:
a. Have all habitat elements spread out around the room
showing their signs to the group
b. At the teachers signal each deer (do not need to carry their
signs) needs to find one habitat element (a single person
that is holding a food, water, shelter, or space sign) and
link arms with them.
c. The habitat element that has a deer linked to them now
becomes a deer (place the habitat sign on the ground
because the element is no longer available).
d. Both of these deer now go off to find a new habitat
element to link to and make a new deer.
e. If a deer cannot find an element to link to, they die. When
they die, they pick up an element sign from the ground and
now become that habitat element.
f. The process continues until the instructor signals the game
is over.
3. Instructor gathers students together to discuss the obstacles
animals face in surviving within their habitat (competition,
population growth and decline).

Curricular Connection:
Science: Understanding competition, survival, population growth
and decline, and basic necessities needed for survival within a
habitat.
Variations:
Can use any animal in replacement of deer.
Can perform game within an open space without obstacles,
depending on students needs.
Can use pictures on signs for younger age groups who may still
just be learning how to read.
Can discuss how the deer needed to link onto an element in
order to survive, eliminating discussions of competition and
population growth and decline (sometimes competition within a
classroom is not the best to be teaching children).
This game could also be used to explain concepts within other
subject areas such as:
-Mathematics: Gathering the data of population growth
and decline of the deer. This could extend into charting or
graphing the data.
-History: Explaining struggles the early American colonies
faced in finding the resources they needed to survive (this could
include competition with the Native Americans for these
resources or detrimental weather conditions the settlers faced).