PROJECT: Playing a game that explores the roles of plants and animals in the forest
GOAL: To help kids understand the web of forest life
AGES: 5 to 12

MATERIALS

Ball of string or yarn
Scissors or jackknife
Plain white stickers
Pen

When you ask kids what a forest is, the usual answer is "a place with lots of trees." This activity, adapted from Joseph Cornell's SHARING NATURE WITH CHILDREN, is designed to show a child how trees work together with other plants and animals to create an interdependent ecosystem. It works best with a group of children, but it can be played with as few as three.

Before you leave for the woods, pack up a ball of string, scissors, stickers and a pen. At an opportune moment during your forest visit, propose that you all play a game. Have the children stand in a circle, and begin by asking them to name a tree that grows in the forest. Give the end of the string to the first child who speaks up. Ask the kids to name an animal that depends on that tree for food or shelter. Now hand the ball of string to the child who suggests an answer, thus creating the first strand of your web of life. Then, see if anyone can name an animal or plant that depends on the first animal, and pass the ball of string to the child who answers. Continue until each child has answered a question and is holding part of the web of string, thereby representing the plant or creature that he or she named.

To help kids realize how forest inhabitants are interconnected, ask them to imagine that a fire has wiped out all the trees in this particular forest. Have the child representing the tree tug on his end of the string and tell each child who feels a tug to give a tug in turn. Very quickly, each child in the web should feel the impact of the loss of the tree.

To make the web more intricate (and the game more interesting, especially if you are playing with only a few kids), let each child stand for two different members of the web. As the kids suggest ideas, write the names of the animals or plants on the stickers you brought along, and place one sticker on each of the children's hands.

As you play several rounds (roll up the string between each round), encourage the children to entertain more complex connections. Try to get them to build a web that spans the different layers of a forest. (See the Forest Glossary.) For instance, the raccoon lives in the canopy--but feeds on frogs and mice that live in the field layer. Mice live on insects, and insects feed on the rotting wood, new leaves, and fungi of the litter and soil layers. These, in turn, provide nutrients for the trees, which provide shelter for squirrels--and so the cycle goes.

A COMPETITIVE GAME

Trees and plants must compete for the things they need to survive: sunlight, water and nutrients. To play a game that demonstrates this to kids, you need paper plates (one per player), at least 18 slips of colored paper (six each of blue, yellow and brown), and at least three players, ages five and up.

Scatter the paper plates on the ground roughly 3 feet apart and have each child stand on a plate. The plate then becomes her "roots," and she becomes a tree firmly rooted to that spot. Explain that the slips of colored paper are natural resources: blue slips are water, yellow are sunlight and brown are nutrients. Scatter the slips on the ground evenly around the kids, then yell "Go!" The children must snatch up as many slips as they can--without moving from their plates. When they are done scrambling, ask if they have one of each of the resources necessary for survival. Talk about where trees and plants find the resources they need. What might prevent them from getting what they need?

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