Teachers: Kristen Cathey, Caitlin Foerstner, Milani Bowman, Emily Taylor
Subject area/course/grade level: Science 4th grade
Guiding Questions:
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What is the role of a producer, consumer, and decomposer in the food web?
Explain the importance of the sun in the food web?
What happens when certain parts of the food web are removed?
Assessment: The students will be able to know what producers, consumers, and decomposers are and
their importance in the food web.
Differentiation strategies to meet diverse learner needs: ELL Students- We will have a lot of
picture throughout this lesson and these students are also allowed to fill in their Frayer Model with
more pictures than words. The hands on approach of the food web will benefit the kinesthetic learners.
Engagement: Read the book Seed, Soil, Sun by Chris Peterson.
Explanation:
1. After reading the book, make a list on the board of different kinds of life that can be
found in a forest.
2. Explain what Producers, Consumers, and Decomposers are.
3. Then ask the students to place a P, C, or D next to the item on the list with each producer,
consumer, and decomposer.
4. Next place a picture of a tree on the board and make a word bank involving all of the
words that are going to help make a food web for the tree. (i.e Caterpillars eat the tree’s
leaves for nourishment; beetles live on the tree and eat the bark; woodpeckers eat the
beetles living on the tree; jays and squirrels eat the acorns; and the oak tree makes its own
food with energy from the sun through the process of photosynthesis.)
5. Explain/ go back over the definitions of Producers, Consumers, Decomposers, and photo
synthesis.
Exploration: The whole class will be participating in the food web. We will discuss producers,
consumers, and decomposers by creating a web out of string. Each student will be given a producer,
consumer, or decomposer. One person will be the sun and one person will be a human. Each person will
have to figure out where they get their food source or energy from and where their energy goes.
Eventually everyone will have a few pieces of yarn and the food web will begin to grow bigger and more
complex. We will discuss what happens when certain species are removed or extinct. What happens
when the sun pulls on its string? What happens when decomposers become a part of the food web?
Elaboration: The students will have gained some knowledge about the flow of energy through
the previous teachings of the food web and food chains through the engagement, exploration, and
explanation parts. This portion will extend what they have learned and allow them to apply their
new acquired knowledge.
1. I will explain to them that they are going to apply what they have learned by building their
own food web.
2. I will break the class into groups of four and give each group a bundle of flashcards. On those
flashcards are words of different types of organisms.
3. Each group will have to order the organisms written on the flashcards from producer to
consumer and to decomposer. I will walk around the room and monitor what they are doing as
my form of assessment.
4. The groups have to create a food web using the flash cards as their guide by drawing the
organisms out on a poster board. They have to draw arrows between each organism to show the
flow of energy between the organisms. I will continue to walk around and monitor the class.
5. After they have drawn the different organisms, they have to label what they are. (Each group
will be given eight to ten minutes to complete this assignment.)
*On the flashcards, the following organisms will be stated:
-sun
-snake
-grass
-grasshopper
-deer
-eagle
-mouse
-cougar
-squirrel
-fungi
6. After each group has finished their food webs, we will discuss it as a whole class. I will
determine if they have the food web correct by going over what each organism is and how it
gains its energy.
Evaluation1. Have students get out their science notebooks.
2. Instruct students to make and fill out a Frayer Model, where they explain how energy
flows through the food web.
3. Walk around the room to check for understanding by looking at finished Frayer Model.