Preparation

Choose pictures of some animal species that you have been studying or that live nearby.

Mount the pictures on to card and find a way of attaching them to a person's back. 

Playing Instructions

1. Choose a volunteer and place the animal picture on their back, without letting them see it. The volunteer has to turn their back on the rest of the group so that they can see the picture.

2. The volunteer then asks key questions to enable them to build up sufficient information to make a reasonable guess as to what animal it is.

3. The questions have to be phrased so that the group can only answer 'yes', 'no' or 'maybe'. Questions need to be linked to food, habitat, behaviour, size and colour.

Example questions could be:

• Do I eat seeds?
• Do I eat insects?
• Am I bigger than a mouse?
• Do I live in trees?
• Do I migrate?

4. A limit of 10 or 20 questions could be given. If you want to make it competitive, you could award points based on the number of questions asked.

Teachers Note

This game can be played in a different way. The volunteer looks at the picture (hidden from the group) and the group then asks questions to guess what animal it is.

Discussion or Follow-Up

1) What was the most distinctive thing about the animal? What was the key thing that gave away its identity?

2) Get the participants to design an imaginary animal suited to life in a particular habitat.

3) Discuss why animals have different adaptations.