AIM:  What is a rain forest food chain or web of life?

MOTIVATION:
    1.  Show students pictures of green plants.  Who is this food for?  Elicit a number of animals that might eat these green plants.
    2.  Taking those animals, ask students what other animals might eat those animals.
    3.  Keep on in this manner, until you have reached humans.
    4.  Ask students to tell where they get their energy from.  They might suggest from the food they eat.  Take this information and follow it all the way back to the green plants that get their energy from the sun.

PROCEDURE:
    1.  Introduce vocabulary associated with food chains and put in a database for children to look up on line at http://m-w.com  or  http://ran.org/ran/info_center/factsheets/k1.html

herbivores	Animals that eat only green plants
carnivores	Animals that eat only other animals
omnivores	Animals that eat both green plants and animals
producers	Green plants that make food others to eat.
decomposers	Tiny animals that break down dead matter and return the nutrients to the soil.
consumers	Any animal that uses plants or animals for food.  They consume the food.
interdependence	The concept that everything in nature is connected to each other, and cannot survive without the help of other plants, animals and abiotic factors (such as sun, soil, water and air) around it.
adaptation	A way of changing so that one species of plant or animal is suited to another for purposes of  food and reproduction.

    2.  Have students create a rain forest food chain.  Doing research from
http://ran.org/ran/kids_action/index.html
children should choose a green plant found in the rain forest, and see what animals have adapted to that plant and use it for food.  They should continue in this manner until they reach an animal that is on the top of the food chain.  Example:

    3.  Children working in cooperative groups should research one plant and one animal that have adapted to each other and show illustrations and examples of this.  Students can take turns being recorder, reporter, artist, leader, etc.
    4.  Review rain forest food chains by asking questions like:
        a.  How have we shown the interdependence of plants and animals in the rain forest?
        b.  What would happen if one of the plants or animals in the rain forest would become extinct?  How would that affect other plants and animals in the food chain?

ACTIVITIES:
    1.  Using KidPix, have students create a food chain of their own based on their research of rain forest plants and animals.
    2.  Children can also create a food chain with construction paper and triangles and circles.  The triangle is for the producer (green plant), and the circles are for the animals in the food chain (consumers, including herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores).  Let the students illustrate each plant and animal in the food chain on the appropriate shape, and connect with string.  They could be displayed on a mobile in the room.

FOLLOW-UP:  This lesson will lead into the next lesson- "Why is the rain forest important?"