Now You See Me, Now You Don't

Challenge
Veterans Day is a holiday observed annually on November 11 that honors military veterans. It marks the anniversary of the end of World War I, which formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918. It celebrates the service of all US military veterans. These veterans are extremely important to us. Their uniforms are important to them. They use camouflage (make something blend in with their surroundings). Camouflage has been engineered over and over again to help veterans. Your challenge is to design camouflage for a soldier so that the soldier blends in with the room. What colors will work best? Where will the soldier blend in easiest/hardest? Will you need more than one color?

Your soldier should be colored and then hung up somewhere in the room so that it is camouflaged. It shouldn't be hung behind items but placed on top of the item. Challenge yourself to use more than one color of camouflage or place your soldier on different colors.  
*Thanks to Mr. Norman Glover at Portville Central School District for the idea/inspiration!

Materials

• markers
• crayons
• colored pencils
• paint
• Soldier Template

Hints and Tips for Success

1. Allow students planning and discussion time by having them choose where to place their soldier Experiment with the coloring items to practice blending and getting the right color.
2. After experimenting, allow student groups to camouflage their soldier and hang it around the room.
3. For differentiation, adjust the amount of colors needed for the camouflage, choose the places in the room for students, have students do more than one, give students a colored soldier that needs adjusted for better camouflage, or have the students place the soldiers on different items.
4. Make sure to standardize the amount of soldiers students camouflage. If they mess up or make a mistake, challenge them to maybe think of a different place in the room it could be camouflaged.
5. Connect to science by discussing adaptations, defense mechanisms, animal camouflage, inherited and acquired traits.
6. Connect to the Arts by discussing colors, blending, coloring techniques, clothing design.