Children can explore the different ways their senses work in the dark either while in their backyard or while on a camping expedition. In the fall and winter, the shorter days allow parents and children play these activities earlier. In the summer, warmer weather and the change in kid’s schedule means they can stay up to explore the night.
Owl Sight
Before it gets dark, have the children look through a pair of binoculars. Everything will seem a little brighter because the binoculars collect more light than human eyes can alone. Owl eyes are 100 times more sensitive to light than human eyes.
Firefly Flashers
Beforehand, create two matching sets of index cards with coded signals of dots and dashes. Each card has an exact match in the other set but no two cards within any set will be the same. Hand out a card and a flashlight to each of the children. Have the children practice making short and long flashes with their flashlight. Explain that fireflies find a mate by being attracted to a particular flashing pattern.
Then, allow the children to spread out over a field or yard. Each child will flash the pattern on her card while looking for her match. Players move toward one another and check the cards to see if they match.
Soundless Walk and Fox Ears
Participants block their ears with their fingers or palms and proceed along a route for about 100 yards. After a brief discussion of participants’ reaction to walking without hearing, present fox ears, in which participants heighten their hearing by cupping their hands behind their ears. With ears cupped, the participants turn their heads toward different sounds as they walk back along the route.
Spotting Deer
Discuss that animals like whitetail deer, cottontail rabbits, and skunk have prominent displays of white fur because even on a moonless night the white will show up at a distance. Next, in the yard or in a field, the children pretend to be deer and spread out as they browse. At some point, the leader flashes a white cloth (deer tail) and the group must return to the leader as quickly as possible.
Next, give white fabric to two or three of the children. Indicate that another child is a coyote. The coyote’s job is to try to tag one of the deer. To catch the deer unaware, the coyote should count to fifty before sneaking up on the herd. The adult deer (the ones with the white cloth) must pretend to browse but they must also look for any danger. The first deer to see danger and raise their tail, should lead the group away from danger. Deer do not run off in every direction. They stay together.
When the sky is dark children can play games in their backyard or at a campsite that explore how some animals sense their surroundings at night.
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