Title: Intro to Food Chain
Subject: Science
Time Frame: 45 minutes
Date: November 24, 2009
SOL: 3.5 The student will investigate and understand relationships among organisms in aquatic
and terrestrial food chains. Key concepts include
a) producer, consumer, decomposer;
b) herbivore, carnivore, omnivore; and
c) predator and prey.
Objective: The student will:
Define what a producer, consumer, and decomposer is
Give examples of a producer, consumer and a decomposer
ANTICIPATORY SET
Have students look at the pizza on p. B15. Have students work in pairs for this activity. What
kinds of food do you see? Make a list. Next to each item on your list, record whether the food
comes from a plant or an animal. Write P for plant and A for animal. Look at the list of foods
that comes from animals. From which animal does each food come? What food does that
animal eat?
Think about it: If there were no plants, which foods would be left to make pizza? (Hint: think
about what animals eat in order to survive.) Do all foods come from plants? Explain your
answer.
INPUT/INSTRUCTION
Start discussion with students. Ask what they had for breakfast that morning (look for meat).
Write “bacon” on the board. Ask where the bacon came from. Students will say pigs. Ask
where the pigs got the energy to live. Grass, bugs… Where do the bugs get their energy to
live? Grass and other green plants, which get their energy from the sun. Explain that
everything we eat is connected in chain like this one, and that all food chains start with a
producer and the sun.
Read p. B16-B22 as a class. As you go, stop to explain the concepts to the class.
What does produce mean? To make something. So producers in the food chain are organisms
that make their own food. Who are the producers in the food chain? Plantsplants and
producers both start with the letter P. Producers get their energy from the sun; every food
chain starts with the sun. Consumers are animals that eat producers or other consumers to get
their energy. Producers and consumers together make up food chains, where organisms
depend on one another for food and energy. Show a food chain on the computer. Explain the
steps in the food chain. Explain that the arrows don’t say who EATS whom, but who gives
energy to whom.
Decomposers break down dead plants and animals and are usually one-celled bacteria. Some
bacteria are bad, like those that cause diseases, but decomposers are good bacteria. If we
didn’t have bacteria to break down dead organisms, what would earth look like? What
happens to this recycled material? It is recycled, and producers use it to make their own food.
Look at the picture of the food web on p. B20. A food web is made up of several food chains
that are connected together.
Energy pyramids (p. B22) are diagrams that show how energy moves up in food chains.
Explain how there are more organisms the further down you go in an energy pyramid.
Explain that, for example, one grasshopper might eat 5 plants, so there needs to be more
organisms at the bottom.
GUIDED PRACTICE
Have students answer p. B23 1-5 in complete sentences. They may use their text as a guide.
Offer help to students who need it.
CLOSURE
Review the main terms from today: producers, consumers, decomposers. What does each
mean? What is the job of each in the food chain? What are examples of each?
INDEPENDENT PRACTICE
Students will complete worksheet p. 67 for homework. This reviews the concepts of
producers, consumers, and decomposers with the students.
Homework: above
Assessment: class participation, questions, homework
Differentiation: students may dictate their answers to paraeducator, who writes them; listen to
material being read aloud.
Title: More Food Chains
Subject: Science
Time Frame: 45 minutes
Date: November 30, 2009
SOL: 3.5 The student will investigate and understand relationships among organisms in aquatic
and terrestrial food chains. Key concepts include
a) producer, consumer, decomposer;
b) herbivore, carnivore, omnivore; and
c) predator and prey.
Objective: The student will:
Explain why producers, consumers and decomposers are important
Explain the order of a food chain and why they operate in the order that they do
ANTICIPATORY SET
Collect last night’s homework.
Show brain pop on food chains.
http://www.brainpop.com/science/ecologyandbehavior/foodchains/preview.weml
Have students think, pair, and share with their partner their answers to the following
questions. Are there more producers or consumers in an ecosystem? Why?
INPUT/INSTRUCTION
Discuss above question with students. Have some students share their answers. Refer to
energy pyramid on page B22. Explain that one eagle may eat 3 mice in a day, which each
might eat 3 grasshoppers in a day, which eat might eat 2 plants in a day. There needs to be
more producers and organisms at the bottom of the food chain.
GUIDED PRACTICE
Divide students into groups of four or five. Each student will get one card with a term on it.
Group 1- SUNplantsinsectsbatowl
Group 2- SUNgrassgrasshoppertoadsnakehawk
Group 3- SUNcorngrasshoppermousefalcon
Group 4- SUNplantsfishweaselbobcatdecomposer
Students will have to arrange themselves in the correct order to form a food chain. Have
students explain their food chain after they have arranged themselves. Discuss with students
again that the arrows don’t mean who eats whom, but who gives energy to whom. (example:
plants give energy to insects, they don’t eat insects).
Hand out strips of construction paper. Have strips of yellow, green, brown, white, blue. On
the yellow, they will draw a picture of a sun, the green will have a picture of a plant, the
brown, white and blue can be a mouse, fish, fox, or any other animal in a food chain. They
will write out a food chain on their paper. After having their food chain checked by a teacher,
they will draw their animals on the paper strips and staple them together to make a paper food
chain.
Ask why decomposers are important. They break down dead material and allow it to be
recycled. Decomposer activityslice of bread and apple slices in two sealed bags left for a
week. Watch what the decomposers do to them!
CLOSURE
Ask students what producers, consumers, and decomposers are and why each is important.
INDEPENDENT PRACTICE
Food chain riddle activity. Students will work to answer the riddles about consumers,
producers, and decomposers. Homework if not finished in class.
Homework: above
Assessment: food chains, worksheet, class discussion
Title: Review of Food Chains
Subject: Science
Time Frame: 45 minutes
Date: December 1, 2009
SOL: 3.5 The student will investigate and understand relationships among organisms in aquatic
and terrestrial food chains. Key concepts include
a) producer, consumer, decomposer;
b) herbivore, carnivore, omnivore; and
c) predator and prey.
Objective: The student will:
State the steps in multiple food chains
ANTICIPATORY SET
Begin with review of the terms decomposer, producer, and consumer. Ask students what each
means and for an example of each.
INPUT/INSTRUCTION
Ask students what every food chain starts with. If they say plants or producers, then remind
students that they plants have to get their energy from somewhere. Where do they get their
energy from? The sun. Reiterate that all food chains start with the sun, no matter what kinds
of plants or animals are in the food chain. Also point out where decomposers would be seen
in the food chain. (at all stages)
Ask why decomposers are important. They break down dead material and allow it to be
recycled. Decomposer activityslice of bread and apple slices in two sealed bags left for a
week. Watch what the decomposers do to them!
GUIDED PRACTICE
Ask students for any animal. Then work together to think of the food chain that ends back up
at the sun. Repeat this. Make it fun for the students by challenging them to think of food
chains as a class that are 5 or 8 steps long.
Example food chains: fox, rabbit, grass, sun. human, bear, fox, rabbit, grass, sun. fox,
weasel, mouse, grass, sun.
As students get more practice, give them an animal to start out with and challenge them to
think of the food chain on their own.
CLOSURE
Ask students again for the start of every food chain. The sun. What are the organisms called
that can make their own food? Producers. What are the organisms called further up the food
chain who depend on the producers for their energy? Consumers. How many producers are
there relative to consumers? More producers than consumers.
INDEPENDENT PRACTICE
Students will draw their own food chain. Have them write one on their paper and have it
checked by a teacher. Then they will draw one on white construction paper. Have students
label consumers, producers, where decomposers would be in the food chain, herbivores,
carnivores, and omnivores.
Challenge: see if you can draw a food web, showing how different animals can interact with
each other.
Draw a food chain
Assessment: food chains written independently and as a class, drawn food chains, class
discussion
Differentiation: picture of a food chain where student had to label the correct parts rather than
drawing the whole thing