Catch Ya Later, Pollinator!

Together with your child, play a game to model and observe how animals transfer pollen as they move from one plant to another. Your child will find out that animals and plants depend on other living things to meet some of their needs. Animals may depend on plants for food. And plants may depend on animals for pollination.

Directions

Print out all game materials. For best results, print the game board sections as images or as borderless photos.

Cut out the board quarters. Tape the pieces together to make the full board.
Cut out the pollinators from the player pieces page. Fold the pollinator pieces into boxes with the color facing outward, and tape the corners. You will put pollen pieces inside the boxes to carry the pollen across the board.
Cut out the die from the player pieces page. Fold and tape it together.
Cut out the pollen pieces from the player pieces page. There are three pollen pieces for each player. Fold each pollen piece in half, and crease it to make it easier to pick up.
Place one pollen piece onto each flower space that matches the player’s base color (i.e., the orange pollen pieces start in the flower spaces in the orange player’s base).
When you begin the game, you will place the pollinator animals in their matching-color starting spaces near the middle of the board.
(Optional) Print the Bee picture and two copies of the Flower picture. Cut out the bee from the Bee picture. Attach a small piece of double-sided tape or create a tape ring to the front of the bee on the legs or body.

Your child can observe the bee and flower photo to find out more about what it looks like when a bee has pollen. Your child can explain how the bee moves pollen from one flower to another.

(Optional) Your child may enjoy playacting how a bee flies from flower to flower. Set out two copies of the flower picture. Put a few peppercorns on one flower to represent pollen. Your child can land the bee on the flower and let the “pollen” stick to the tape. Then your child can fly the bee to the other flower and drop the “pollen.”

Now it's time to play! In the game, your child and other players get to be animals that carry pollen to flowers. Your child will notice what the animals do and what happens to the pollen.

How to Play

The youngest player goes first. Then play goes clockwise from that player.
On their turn, a player rolls the die. Then the player moves the number of spaces shown.
When a player lands next to a flower space, they can collect a pollen piece from that flower space, if there is one. On following turns, the player must return to one of their own flower spaces to drop off the pollen piece before gathering any more pollen.
Players keep taking turns. They keep picking up pollen to bring to their flowers.
Each flower space needs a pollen piece that is a different color from the flower space. The first player to fill their three flower spaces wins.

Game Rules

Players can only carry one pollen piece at a time.
More than one pollen piece can be in the same flower space at a time.
Players can move left, right, up, down, or diagonally. But players cannot occupy the same space as other players.
Players cannot jump over another player. However, they may move through a space occupied by another player with that space counting as part of their move.
For an extra challenge, do not allow players to move through a space that is occupied by another player.