The
Circle of Life
Food Chain
OBJECTIVES
-
The
student understands the process and importance of genetic diversity.
-
The
student understands that there are many different kinds of living things
that live in
a variety of environments.
-
The
student understands that plants and animals are dependent upon each other
for survival.
-
The
student understands the competitive, interdependent, cyclic nature of living
things in the environment.
-
The
student understands
the elements of the story and can retell the main idea with supporting
details.
Duration
Three
one-hour periods
Advance
Preparation
Optional:
On a bulletin board place a big web made
of string or you can draw one. Have pictures of different animals and
plants that you can use to display and explain how a food web works after you
read the book.
Materials
Book: The
Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry, animal
and plant pictures, string, glue, markers,
EPA
Glossary from
A-Z about the environment. It can be used for all
lessons.
Vocabulary
food
chain, food web, interdependent , consumers, decomposers, producers,
population, prey, predator, scavengers, herbivore, carnivore.
Activities
and Procedures
1.
Discuss how all living things depend on each other for survival. Ask
questions such as:
a) Where do pets get their food from?
b) How do other animals get their food from? For example, where does a squirrel get it's
food?
c) Where do plants and trees get their food?
d) What animal might eat the squirrel?
e) What might happen if there is no food for the squirrel? or squirrels stop
existing?
f) What do wild animals like elephants, giraffes or lions eat?
2.
Read the story The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry.
3.
Determine the main idea of the story.
4.
The students will create a story map stating the problem and the solution
of the story.
Problem:
A man is going to cut the great tree down but it is the animals homes and they don't
want that to happen.
Solution: The man falls asleep and then he has a dream in which the animals show him
all about the rain forest and what would happen if the tree is cut. When he
wakes up a boy pleads with him and he sees all the animals so he drops his
ax and doesn't cut the tree.
5.
Discuss why the animals didn't want the man to cut the tree
down. Explain how everything in an ecosystem depends on other
things in that ecosystem to live.
6.
Introduce the food chain or web. Discuss the fact that all living
things are either producers, consumers, or decomposers. Read
or use as reference the book Food
Chains Cycles in Nature by Theresa Greenaway.
7.
The student will use ClarisWorks/AppleWorks, KidPix, or other software to create a
three page report.
a) One page will have an expository paragraph
explaining the food web. They will explain what a producer, a consumer, and a decomposer
is and name living things as examples for each.
b) They will draw a flow chart to show a food chain combination.
They
will get pictures from the Internet or scan the pictures from books.
c) The third page will be a questionnaire
completed on one of the websites visited.
8.
The students will search the following sites and read books to do their
report.
a. BrainPop
Food Chain Movie See movie on Food Chain and see how it all works.
b. Print
teacher's Questionnaire and answer
questions as you visit the site The
Web Of Life.
c. Countryside
Foundation Food Chain Read
about the food Chain. Complete the Food Chain Interactive Quiz 1 and Quiz 2 and
practice finding out different food chains.
Extension
The
students will construct an interactive bulletin board of a food web. They will
choose just one biome. The students will print pictures using their computer or
cut pictures from magazines. Place the pictures on the bulletin board.
Then, using string they will connect the pictures of plants, animals and insects
that eat or are eaten by each other in that ecosystem. They will label the
pictures to show if they are producers, consumers or decomposers. Some are
both consumers and decomposers like insects.
Home
Learning
Observe
your backyard and look for a backyard food chain. Write down your
observations. Write to tell what you observed and what food chain did you
find.
Assessment
1.
The student will explain using details, reasons and examples the different levels of a food chain. expository
2.
The student will demonstrate understanding of a food chain creating one using a flow chart .
3. The student will demonstrate comprehension of the story elements
of The Great Kapok Tree by constructing a Story map.
4. The student will show understanding of the Web of Life answering
the Questionnaire.
5. The student will demonstrate knowledge of the different web
chain by accurately connecting the animals and plants on the bulletin board.
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