y2meta.com-Looking At Our Surroundings - Science For Kids - Lesson Preview

Maya loves to play outside. She has collected all sorts of interesting things from her garden. Today she finds some lovely pink flowers, some grey and mossy rocks and some long, skinny sticks. She picks up one very curious looking stick from a bush. Suddenly she hears a shout in a high-pitched voice. Watch out! A talking stick, Maya gasps. I'm not a stick. I'm a stick insect, the stick replies. Sure enough, when she looks closer she sees a long, thin brown insect that is the same colour and shape as a stick. You look just like a stick, Maya says surprised. Thank you. I try very hard to look like one. My name is Stanley. It's nice to meet you Stanley. I'm Maya. Would you like to play with me? Okay. But can we play hide and seek, asks Stanley. I'm good at that game. I'll hide first. Maya closes her eyes and counts to ten while Stanley hides. When she opens her eyes, she can't see Stanley anywhere. She looks through her veggie garden, in the short prickly rose bushes and around the thick brown tree stumps but she can't see him anywhere. Okay, I give up, she sighs finally, leaning up against a rough round tree trunk, exhausted from searching. Yoo-hoo! In front of you, says Stanley from a thin brown branch in front of her, waving to show where he is. He is really hard to see until he starts to move, because he looks just like the branch he is sitting on. Wow, you're really good at hiding, replies Maya. Okay, my turn. Stanley closes his eyes and counts to ten. Maya hides as well as she can, curling up under the grey branches and dry sharp leaves of a lofty eucalyptus tree, staying as still as a statue. Stanley spots her straight away. Found you, he points. How come you're so good at this and I'm not? Maya asks. Stanley explains. I'm only good at hiding in my nearby surroundings because I'm the same size, shape and colour as a stick. When I stay very still on a branch, I blend in and it's really hard to see me. This is called camouflage. But you're dressed in bright blue and purple and you have long blonde hair, so I can see you very easily. And you're much, much bigger than me, so you can't hide in plants like I can. Your legs and arms are too long. Then let's go into my environment, suggests Maya.