Foxes, Rabbits, Plants
I learned this activity while working at Scanlon Creek Conservation Area.
Materials: "sun chips" (sun shapes made out of yellow foamie; you'll need lots); ID tags for players for sunbeams, plants, rabbits, and foxes.
Assign roles to all the girls in your group. 1/3rd of the group are sunbeams; 1/3 of the group is plants; the remaining 1/3 is the rabbits and foxes. There should be twice as many rabbits as foxes.
Set a container full of sun chips in the middle of the playing area. Sunbeams stand around the bin. Give the plants their ID tags and scatter them around the sun at varying distances. Foxes and Rabbits pin on their ID tags and wait at the sidelines.
On the start signal, the sunbeams pick up a sun chip and carry it to a plant then go back to the sun for another one. They continue to do this until the game is over. Once the plants are growing (they have a few sun chips) the rabbits are sent in. They hop to a plant to get food. The plant will give them a sun chip. The rabbits continue to hop around to the various plants collecting sun chips. Then the foxes join the game. They must walk and tag a rabbit to obtain food. When they tag a rabbit they get one sun chip. Foxes keep their first sun chip to show that they have food but after collecting the next chip they must take it to the sun chip bin and drop it in before they can tag another rabbit. If a rabbit is tagged and is left with no chips it falls to the ground. The Decomposer (leader) may decompose the rabbit after a short time and send it back into the game. When plants have only one chip left they start to look wilted. Sunbeams will rush a chip to the plant. If a plant is tagged and left with no chips it dies and it can be decomposed by the Decomposer or Sunbeam.
At the end of the game discuss the flow of energy from the sun to the plants to rabbits and then to foxes. Review what happened in various situations during the game.