Hi Kelsey,
We do a game called Nuts for Squirrels that deals with predator/prey and ecosystems.
Supplies -- long rope or other barrier, 3 plastic bins in 3 colors, 3 hula hoops, wooden acorns, flag football belts in 3 colors, 4 to 8 bright safety vests, images of 3 types of squirrels, images of hawks
Set up:
Lay out a rope or other "barricade" to define game area.
Lay out 3 hula hoops in the center, scatter in each hula hoop a good number of wooden acorns -- our are painted bright pink. (see below)
Place 3 bins of different colors in different locations at the edges of the barricade -- one marked "Red Squirrels", one marked "Grey Squirrels", one marked "Fox Squirrels" (will be a different type of squirrel in your region).
Activity:
Discuss with the students the relationship between predator and prey and how energy moves up the food chain. What happens when there is an abundance of prey and few predators? What happens when there is an abundance of predators and little prey? What effects do things like cars and pollution have on these systems?
Talk about the squirrels in the area being food for the hawks.
Assign approximately equal numbers of students to each of the squirrel nests, put on the belts for their squirrel nests, i.e. blue belt for grey squirrels, red belts for red squirrels, yellow belts for fox/Abert's/whatever squirrel.
Pull 2 kids to be hawks -- they wear the safety vests.
The job of each squirrel is to take one acorn at a time from the hula hoop oak trees to their nest -- the plastic bins. They can only carry one at a time. They must try to avoid the hawks. If a squirrel is caught by a hawk, the squirrel drops its acorn and is escorted by the hawk to outside the barricade (we call it squirrel heaven). If a squirrel or a hawk crosses the barricade they have ventured into the road and are hit by a car and are out of the game (squirrel heaven). A squirrel standing right next to the nest is "safe" from a hawk.
The round ends when all acorns have been put into a nest.
Play multiple rounds with different scenarios -- reducing the number of acorns, increasing the number of hawks, reducing the number of squirrels, allowing one group of squirrels to steal nuts from another group's nest, etc.