Teacher sheet · Ages 6–7 · about 45–50 minutes
Who eats whom?
Lesson page: echoesof.science/school/food-chains/ages-6-7/ · Pupil worksheet: echoesof.science/school/food-chains/ages-6-7/print/
Learning aims
- A food chain shows who eats whom.
- Plants are producers; animals are consumers.
- Herbivores, carnivores and omnivores.
- Decomposers break down dead things and return food to the soil.
Lesson plan
| Time | Activity |
|---|---|
| 5 min | Starter: what did you eat for breakfast? Where did it come from before that? |
| 10 min | Read the text together. |
| 20 min | Make a paper food chain. |
| 5 min | Play Producer, consumer or decomposer? or do the quiz. |
| 5 min | Share: hold up your chains and read them from bottom to top. |
Materials for the experiment
- Strips of coloured paper (about 3 cm × 20 cm)
- Crayons or felt-tip pens
- Glue stick or sticky tape
- Pictures of grass, a grasshopper, a rat, a snake and a hawk (or draw them)
Safety: Use round-ended scissors if you cut the strips. Wash hands after using glue.
Common misconceptions
| Pupils may think… | Actually… |
|---|---|
| The arrow means 'eats', so it points from the fox to the rabbit. | The arrow points to the animal that does the eating: it shows where the food goes. |
| Plants get their food from the soil. | Plants make their own food using sunlight. |
| Dead things just disappear. | Decomposers such as fungi and bacteria break them down. |
Worksheet answers
- Any correct chain, e.g. grass → rabbit → fox, with arrows pointing to the eater.
- A consumer.
- It would have less food and could go hungry, or it would have to find other food.
Quiz answers
- What does a food chain show? Who eats whom. A food chain shows who eats whom.[1]
- Which one is a producer? Grass. Plants make their own food with sunlight.[1]
- In grass → rabbit → fox, what does the fox eat? The rabbit. The arrow goes from the rabbit to the fox.[1][2]
- What do we call an animal that eats only plants? A herbivore. Herbivores eat plants.[1]
- What do fungi and bacteria do in a food chain? Break down dead things. Decomposers give food back to the soil.[1]
Going further
Make a class food chain with string and pictures for a local pond or garden. Which animals are omnivores like us?
Sources used in this lesson
- [1] Food Chain (National Geographic Education): reliability Medium-high
- [2] Food Web (National Geographic Education): reliability Medium-high
Full list with links and a note on each source's reliability: echoesof.science/school/food-chains/sources/
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