Grade Level(s): 3rd. and 4th

Subject:  Science

Learner Outcomes:

• The students will be able to define food chain and food web.
• The student will construct several food chains and food webs given the parts of a food web.
• The students will create a food web.
• The students will classify animals as herbivore, carnivore, and omnivores.
• The students will be able to draw a picture of an animal's habitat and identify which animals are the consumers.

Materials:

• white paper
• string
• animal pictures
• coat hangers
• index cards
• magazines
• large picture of the sun
• plant pictures

• Computer with Internet Access
• CD-ROM (World Book 1997, Multimedia Encyclopedia)
• CD-ROM (Compton's Reference Collection, 1996 Ed.)
• Scanner

• Teacher will need to buy or prepare cards with animal and plant  pictures on them for the sorting activities.  These can be purchased from AIMS Educational  Foundation.
• Magazines need to be provided by the teacher for Lesson 3.
• Teacher will need to prepare a picture of an animal or plant for each student and the picture will need to be placed on a string to be worn around the students neck.
• Teachers may wish to purchase Zoo Book magazines, Ranger Rick magazines, or Natural Geographic for Kids to have an adequate amount of animal pictures.
• Teacher made criteria for group evaluation

• The students will draw a picture of their favorite pet.
• When the pictures are completed the students will form a line.  The students will place themselves in order from smallest to largest.
• The students will tell what their pet enjoys eating.
• Discuss with the students whether the food their pet eats is a plant or animal.  Divide into groups accordingly.
• Explain to the children that the sun is the source of all energy.

• Teacher Observation
• Student's proper placement into groups of animal or plant consumer.

• The teacher will discuss the terms herbivore, carnivore, and omnivore with the class.
• The teacher will show pictures representing each type of animal listed above.  The pictures can be found in wildlife magazines or Zoo Book magazine.
• The teacher will then divide the class into groups of four.  Each group will be given a stack of 10 cards.  The students will be asked to sort the cards into the groups discussed above.

Enrichment activities:  Students can research how the animals would differ in the food chain depending on their habitat.
 

Evaluation:

• Use group evaluation form.
• Teacher Observation

• The teacher will divide the students into groups of two.
• Give each group of students several magazines that contain pictures of animals and plants.
• The students will cut out pictures and place the cards in correct order beginning with a plant life.
• The teacher will then have the students place their cards on a bulletin board in the classroom.  The bulletin board will have a large picture of the sun on the top to reinforce the concept that all life gets its energy from the sun.
• The students will then comment on the similarities or the differences of their food chain.

• Teachers can use larger groups for this activity or students may work alone.
• Teacher may wish to use only animal food chains.

• The students can draw a food chain that they can identify in their own backyard.
• Students can research what would happen if an animal in the chain became extinct.

• Teacher Rubric Criteria and student group evaluation form
• Teacher Observation
• Proper creation of a food chain on the bulletin board.

• The student will be asked to move one animal from the food chain placed on the bulletin board into another food chain on the board.
• The student must explain if the removal of that animal and the addition of another animal would affect the food chain.
• The teacher will explain that the process is so interwoven, it is called the food web.
• The students will then play the game, Cajun Games.

• Teachers can use other computer games that contain animal content.
• The teacher can make board games that enhances the concept of the food chain.

• Students can make a "step book" of a food chain.
• Visit a natural history museum to view animal collections.  Before you go, give the children a list of questions to keep the field trip focused.  How many specimens do they have?  What countries are represented?  What is the largest animal?  What is the smallest animal?

• The students will be given 6 circles of construction paper and each student will be asked to draw 6 plants or animals that represent a food chain..
• The students will scan the circles into the computers so that they can organize them into different groups and create food webs.
• The students will find out how many possible groups that they can make from their plants and animals.  Then, they will add the pictures of other students to their chain and see how many combinations are possible.

• If a scanner is not available the teacher can combine the food chain of several students and  have the students form a food web.

• The teacher will observe to see if the student knows how to properly scan their food chain.
• The teacher will observe to see if the student can place the animals in a food chain correctly.

• The teacher will give each student a picture of an animal that she has placed on a string.
• The students will wear these around their necks.
• Each student must hold hands with a person who wears an animal that eats the animal that they are wearing, and they must hold hands with a person who is wearing a plant or animal, that the animal they are wearing, eats.
• The students should form a large food web when this is completed.

• The food web activity works best if performed on the playground or in the gymnasium.

• Teacher observation of proper placement of children holding hands in the food web.

• The students will make up their own game using index cards.
• Each card will include a picture of an animal, what it eats, what it is eaten by, and whether the animal is an omnivore, carnivore or herbivore.
• The picture can be drawn by the students or printed off of the  Internet, or CD-ROMS (Multimedia Enc..)
• The game is played by a group of 2 students at a time.  The students will take turns telling the name of the spider they are holding.  The other student must give all of the details on the card their partner is holding.  If they cannot give the details then the card is lost.  If they can correctly give the details from the card, the card becomes property of that person.  The person with the most cards wins the game.

• Teacher observation of students playing game.

• Science Grade 3

• Science Grade 4

National Standards:

NRC Standards
                All animals depend on plants.  Some animals eat plants for food.  Other animals eat animals that eat the plants. Populations of organisms can be categorized by the function they serve in an ecosystem.  Plants and some microorganisms are producers-they make their own food.  All animals including humans, are consumers, which obtain food by eating other organisms.  Food webs identify the relationships among producer, consumers, and decomposers in an ecosystem.

NCTM (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics)
              Collect, organize and describe data.

Project 2061 Benchmarks
                A great variety of kinds of living things can be sorted into groups in many ways using various features to decide which things belong to which group.
                All organisms, including the human species, are part of and depend on two main interconnected global food webs.
 

 References:

• Field Detective Investigating Playground Habitat by Aims
• Cajun Game
• CD-ROM World Book 1997
• CD-ROM Compton's Reference Collection, 1996

• Sandi Basagic
• Cindy Keeling
• Jean Underwood

 

Lesson 1	Lesson 2	Lesson 3	Lesson 4	Lesson 5	Lesson 6