Background: You may have played this game before under a different name. It is a simple concept and we use it only as an activity to fill time.

Grade Level: Any, but younger ages enjoy it most.

Duration: 5-15 minutes

Materials: Animal Cards plus one card with the word "Chainsaw" on it.

Objective: This activity illustrates the forces of extinction. It will also re-enforce their knowledge of the diversity and uniqueness of the rainforest ecosystem.

Method: Have the students sit in a circle facing each other and give each an animal card; one of them will receive the "chainsaw" card. Instruct them that no one else is to see their card. While the students sit looking at each other, the "chainsaw" blinks at its victim. If the student is blinked at, he/she needs to die dramatically. Once dead, he/she needs to announce (by reading off the card) which species has gone extinct. The purpose of this game is to figure out who is the chainsaw before the student is blinked at. Once a student thinks he/she knows who the "chainsaw" is he needs to say who. If the student is wrong, he/she dies and the representative specie is dead. If he/she is right, the game ends. Good observations and flair for the dramatic make this game enjoyable.

Rainforest Facts

-Mitsubishi Corporation is one of the largest destroyers of forests in the world, with operations in Malaysia, Borneo, Phi1ippines, Indonesia, Chile, Canada and Brazil. Its Brazilian operations reach clear across the Amazon basin to the borders of Columbia and Peru. We cannot boycott Mitsubishi Corporation directly, so boycott its fellow members of the Mitsubishi group: Mitsubishi Motors, Mitsubishi Electric (which makes televisions, stereos, VCRs and fax machines), Kirin beer, Nikon camera equipment, Bank of California and Mitsubishi Bank. For more information, contact Rainforest Action Network. -(Rainforest Action Network)