any kid who’s ever seen the lion king already knows a bit about food chains and food webs (“it’s the ciiiirrrr-cle…the circle of life!”). a food chain follows the direct path of energy between species. food webs are more complex and involve a give and take between many organisms in an environment. seriously, mufasa’s speech in the lion king is one of the best explanations of food chains and webs around. these free printable puzzles are a fun way for kids to learn a variety of food chains. turn kids loose with a stack of magazines, or print pictures from the internet. scholastic’s studyjams work for both in person and online classrooms. kids choose a food chain to illustrate, then represent each part of it inside the mouth of the next. teams fight it out to see which animal can create the best food web and ecosystem for survival! this very literal interpretation of a food chain is one that kids can easily do on their own, whether in the classroom or at home.
visit the link for a free printable to make these adorable ocean food chain nesting dolls. each of these cups represents one part of a food chain. videos are always a favorite with kids in every kind of classroom. this one does a terrific job teaching them about food webs and chains. use this in a classroom science station, or complete the activity together as a whole class virtually. try using different colors of yarn to represent predators, prey, scavengers, and more. head out to the playground for a socially-distanced interactive food web game! lay out cards showing all the organisms in a food web and have kids help place arrows for the flow of energy. she has a degree in secondary english education and has taught in middle and high school classrooms. she’s also done training and curriculum design for a financial institution and been a science museum educator.
organisms living in an ecosystem are all connected and intertwined. a food chain shows how each living thing gets its food. for example, a simple food chain links the shrubs, the rabbits that eat shrubs, and the bears that eat the rabbits. each link in this chain is food for the next link. thus the living part of a food chain always starts with plant life and ends with an animal. plants are called producers because they are able to use light energy from the sun to produce food (sugar) from carbon dioxide and water. there are three groups of consumers: primary, secondary, and tertiary. animals that eat only plants are called herbivores and are primary consumers. animals—including people—that eat both animals and plants are called omnivores. these decomposers speed up the decaying process, which releases mineral salts backinto the food chain for absorption by plants as nutrients.
in a food chain, energy is passed from one link to another. therefore, when the herbivore is eaten by a carnivore, it passes only a small amount of the total energy it has received to the carnivore. because of the large amount of energy that is lost at each link in the food chain, the amount of energy that is transferred up the chain gets less and less. the above energy pyramid shows many trees and shrubs providing food and energy to giraffes. this shows that as we go higher up a food chain, there are fewer and fewer consumers. in other words, a large mass of living things at the base of a food chain is required to support a few at the top. there cannot be too many links in a single food chain because the animals at the end (top) of the chain would not get enough food—and hence energy—to stay alive. most animals are part of more than one food chain and eat more than one kind of food in order to meet their food and energy requirements. when many food chains weave together, they create a food web. have students draw a 2-d depiction of the food web the class created. for homework, have students draw a food web of a different ecosystem.
1. start with an anchor chart 2. introduce food webs and food chains during storytime 3. let the lion king explain the concept 4. put in this food chains and food webs lesson plan, which is adaptable for grades k-8, students use brainpop resources to construct a food chain and explain how a food chain shows how each living thing gets its food. some animals eat plants and some animals eat other animals. for example, a simple food chain links the, food chain activity, food chain activity, food chain and food web lesson plan, food chain activity high school, food chain game activity.
bring your instruction on food chains to life for students with a simple yet interactive hands-on classroom activity. suggestions for supplementary lesson plan with cut & paste activity about the ocean life & its food chain. fun and interactive! subjects: environment, other (science), our food chain lesson plan introduces students to the path by which plants, animals, and other living organisms get their energy. free pdf!, digital food chain activity, food chain stem activity, food web lesson plan 4th grade, food web activity high school. how do you introduce a food chain to students? what are 5 food chain examples? how do you teach a food chain to grade 5? what is a food chain lesson?
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