Lesson plan: Green Screen Food Chains
Learning objective: To investigate urban food chains, and create a food chain poem
Resources required
Duration
Theme
Subject focus
Age group
 Green card or string to
represent food in starter
game
 Urban food chain
presentation
 Interactive whiteboard or
large screen projector
 Chain Reaction poem
 Digital devices for
children’s use
 Filming equipment –
camera, tripod or iPads
 Green screen app
 Green background
 iMovie or Windows
Movie Maker Software
 Green screen
information
2 lessons
Nature
English and Science
Lower KS2
Adult Support
 Adult involvement in ‘fox
and rabbit’ game.
 General support and
guidance will be needed
throughout the session.
 Assistance with green
screen technology likely
to be necessary
Follow up activities
 Watch Best of Bristol
urban wildlife film
 Investigate the wildlife in
your area, with our ‘My
Green City’ lesson plans
and resources
 Develop digital skills even
further with our
Macrophotography
lesson and resources
Learning outcomes (differentiated)
 To investigate food chains, and predator-prey relationships
 To work collaboratively, in order to compose a poem about food chains
 To write in the style of a poet
 To develop their computing skills by using green screen technology
MUST understand that all living things are part of a food chain, and
participate in green screen activity
SHOULD design their own food chains, and work collaboratively to
compose a poem about them
Keywords
urban, food chain, food
web, habitat, producers,
consumers, prey,
predators, planning,
directing,
storyboarding, scenes,
takes, editing, sound
effects
COULD evaluate and edit their own work in response to peer feedback
Starter
Play ‘fox and rabbit’ food chain game! Adults need to make a large circle, ideally outside. Each
adult holds the food- ‘grass’ (either pieces of green card or pieces of green wool). Choose 1 child
to play the role of the predator (fox). All other children are prey (rabbits). The aim is to collect as
much food as possible. Rabbits need to hop from adult to adult, in order to collect as much grass
as possible to survive. They can go in any direction, and move across the circle, but must always
hop. After some time, introduce the fox, who is allowed to run: if the rabbits are tagged, then
they’re out, and must leave the circle. End the game, and assess how many rabbits are alive, as
well as how much food they have. The winning rabbits can become the next foxes! Redistribute
the grass to adults, and play again. This time, introduce the fox’s family (i.e. more foxes).
Continue playing the game with various changes- eg more foxes, due to a population boom, or
fewer rabbits (myxomatosis epidemics). Discuss how these changes affect the predator-prey
relationships.
Main activity 1
Head back into classroom, and ask children the point of the game they have just played, in their
own opinion. Partner talk. Draw out the concept of food chains, including predators and prey,
producers and consumers: identify the food chain featured in ‘fox and rabbit’. Use the food chain
presentation to illustrate concept if necessary. Depending on the group, this discussion could be
extended to include food web teaching also. Referring back to the game, when changes affected
predator-prey relationships, introduce the importance of balance within food chains for
ecosystems and habitats.
Small group work: Children to come up with 3 separate food chains, including at least 3 links per
chain, of their own. The longer and wackier, the better! Share ideas with class.
Watch Martin Kiszko’s Chain Reaction video. Discuss style, structure, rhyming patterns etc. What
do we mean by an urban food chain?
Small group work: Children work together to compose their own food chain poem, in the style of
Martin Kiskzo, using the food chain ideas they came up with earlier in the lesson.
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Plenary
Each group shares their poem with the class, and receives feedback. They can then make any
changes necessary before the next stage of learning.
Main activity 2
Introduce green screen software to the class: elicit children’s prior knowledge of the process, and
perhaps use a short ‘before and after green screen’ clip from a well-known film to demonstrate
how it works (these are easily found online).
Teacher to model use of green screen software, using child volunteers. Green screen information
sheet to be given to all groups.
In their poem groups, children work together to plan and select appropriate images to be used as
appropriate green screen backdrops for their food chain poems. Macrophotography images could
be used for inspiration, or any images appropriate to the habitat or lifestyle of the animals
featured in their work. If necessary, view the poem video again for inspiration.
Each group then needs to film their poem using green screen technology. The remainder of the
lesson can be spent editing: sound, music and images can all be added using MovieMaker on an
iPad (or other similar programmes).
Plenary
Celebrate what the children have created by holding a film showing. Why not invite another class
in to view the videos, and to give feedback to each group on their piece?
Extension tasks
 Children could write and film a persuasive trailer encouraging people to watch their films
 Children could investigate food webs, and extend their poems to include these webs
Reflective Notes
Curriculum links
English
 Listen and respond appropriately to adults and peers.
 Participate in discussions, presentations, performances, role play, improvisations and debates.
 Y3/4: Recognise some different forms of poetry (e.g. free verse, narrative poetry).
 Y3/4: Compose and rehearse sentences orally, progressively building a rich vocabulary (…).
Science
 Y3: Identify that animals, including humans, need the right types and amount of nutrition, and that they
cannot make their own food; they get nutrition from what they eat.
 Y4: Explore and use classification keys to help group, identify and name a variety of living things in their local
and wider environment
 Y4: Construct and interpret a variety of food chains, identifying producers, predators and prey.
Computing
 Select, use and combine a variety of software (including internet services) on a range of digital devices to
design and create a range of programs, systems and content that accomplish given goals.
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