Chris Hewett
ED505 Spring1 – 2012
Lesson Plan Title: Food, food, and more food…and then food again!
Concept/Topic to Teach: Food Chains/Interdependence in Ecosystems
Standards Addressed:
Science COS – 5th Grade
9.) Describe the relationship of populations within a habitat to various communities and
ecosystems.
• Describing the relationship between food chains and food webs
• Describing symbiotic relationships
Specific Objectives: The students will be able to:
- define abiotic factors, biotic factors, producer, consumer, decomposer, and scavenger
- explain the difference between primary, secondary, and tertiary consumers
- illustrate an example of a food chain, label the parts, and show how they all connect
Required Materials:
- Notes previously taken in class
- Fifth grade science textbook
- Computers
- Numerous books about ecosystems and food chains
- Paper/pencils
- Elmo/Promethean Board
Anticipatory Set (Lead-In):
- Ask the students to jot down all of the items that they ate yesterday.
- Ask the students to think about where that food came from.
- Pick out a few students at random to explore the food chains that they have been a part
of within the last day.
- As you trace the steps of the food chain, record them on a piece of paper shown on the
Elmo or on the interactive whiteboard.
Step-By-Step Procedures for Teaching the Lesson: (This will be at least a two day assignment.)
- Begin by showing a picture of a chain and use student answers to describe the chain,
pointing out how it is linked together and how each link needs to be strong to keep it
together
- Shift student thinking back to Food Chains by writing four organisms on the board:
grass, mouse, snake, hawk.
- Lead the students in coming up with a food chain from beginning to end…explaining
which organisms are the producer, primary consumer, secondary consumer, and tertiary
consumer.
-
After the food chain is complete, explain that abiotic factors help the plants make
energy: carbon dioxide, water, nutrients, soil, and sunlight.
Explain that once the tertiary consumers die, decomposers break down dead material
and connect both ends of the food chain…illustrate this on the Elmo or Promethean
board.
Guided Practice/Monitoring:
- Write sets of organisms from a food chain in random order on the board. Have students
at their desk figure out how they fit together and illustrate them simply. Use these sets:
o wolf, grass, rabbit
o mouse, acorns, hawk, snake
o use this website to show these food chains and more if needed:
 http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/content/animals/kidscorner/foodch
ain/foodchain2.htm
- Call on students at random to show their food chains and correct where needed.
- PowerPoint assignment: (Our computer teacher does a great job of teaching the
students how to create a PowerPoint, so they do not need much help with this process.)
o You will need to reserve the computer lab for a time after the anticipatory set
and the first part of the guided practice sections are complete.
o The students will create a PowerPoint slideshow of a food chain that was not
covered in class. It will feature abiotic factors, a producer, primary consumer,
secondary consumer, tertiary consumer, and decomposer. There should be at
least eight slides:
 Introduction of student and assignment
 Abiotic factors
 Producer (with its definition, the example, and two fun facts included)
 Primary consumer (with its definition, the example, and two fun facts
included)
 Secondary consumer (with its definition, the example, and two fun facts
included)
 Tertiary consumer (with its definition, the example, and two fun facts
included)
 Decomposers (with its definition, the example, and two fun facts
included)
 Completed food chain
o Students will present their slideshow to the class.
Closure (Reflect Anticipatory Set): Use the website above to quickly review the concepts
mentioned.
Assessment Based on Objectives: (Checklist is at the bottom of the lesson plan.)
Using PowerPoint, the students should be able to do the following things with 80% accuracy:
- define abiotic factors, biotic factors, producer, consumer, decomposer, and scavenger
- explain the difference between primary, secondary, and tertiary consumers
-
illustrate an example of a food chain, label the parts, and show how they all connect
Adaptations (For Students With Special Needs):
I will assign one of my higher functioning students to work with my student diagnosed with
autism. Though this student is high functioning, he needs help staying on task and getting his
thoughts written down and expressed in his assignments. I will also monitor them closely to
ensure things are going smoothly.
Extensions (For Advanced Students):
I would assign advanced students to research food webs and create an example of a food web
to present to the class after the PowerPoint slideshows have been presented.
Possible Connections to Other Subjects:
- Math problems could be based on animals at each level of an energy pyramid.
- AR books can be used to research the topic and teach skills like main idea, finding
details, and drawing conclusions. They could also be used for fluency practice.
Reflection:
- I do not suggest doing the PowerPoint activity unless you have a class that is familiar
with the program.
- I would suggest doing this in pairs or groups of three that are mixed in ability and
fluency with computers. This helps prevent the teacher from having to help many
students at the same time.
Food chain PowerPoint checklist
Name
PowerPoint
completed
correctly
Demonstrated
understanding of
key words
Illustrated food
chain correctly
Defined all
vocabulary