How to Teach About Food Chains

Food chains are an important concept that students must be taught. According to the United States National Standards for science, students in all grades are required to learn about life science. Life science standards across various grade levels include concepts pertaining to organisms and environments, life cycles of organisms, structure and function in living systems, populations and ecosystems and the interdependence of organisms. Teaching about food chains is a part of implementing this standard.

Things You'll Need

• Paper
• Pencils or pens
• Pictures or figures of plants and animals
• Molding clay (optional)

Instructions

Building Concepts

1. Question to discover previous knowledge. Lead your students in a discussion in which you question them to see what they already know about food chains.

2. Explain the basics. The depth of your discussion will depend on the grade level. Discuss how a food chain describes how organisms obtain energy.

3. Discuss the roles of producers (plants, which use sunlight, water and carbon dioxide for energy), consumers (animals, which eat plants and other animals), and decomposers (organisms that obtain energy from decaying matter).

4. Explain the differences between carnivores (meat eaters), herbivores (plant eaters) and omnivores (meat and plant eaters).

5. Show visual illustrations of food chains. Discuss various examples of food chains.

Application (Younger Students)

1. Divide the students into groups of two to four children, and provide each group with a collection of pictures or figures representing a food chain. An example might be some grass, a grasshopper, a sparrow, a hawk and a lion. The items in the collection should be mixed, not in order.

2. Instruct the students to place their items in order in a way that would logically represent a food chain.

3. Have the students sketch or write about their food chain, along with another example of a food chain that they create on their own.

Application (Older Students)

1. Instruct students to create an imaginary animal that must fit into an established food chain.

2. Provide the requirements that the animal must be predator and prey, and that the students must describe what type of adaptations the animal possesses in order to maintain its role in the chain.

3. Lead students to write a paragraph (or more) about their animal, along with a sketch of the animal. If you have the time and materials, you also could allow the students to create a sculpture of the animal.

4. Allow students to read about and show their creations to the class.

References

• Food Chains & Food Webs
• National Science Standards

Resources

• Illustrations and worksheets