How Scientific!
Focus: Life Science - Food Chains and Food Webs
4th Grade
Essestial question: How are animals dependent on plants?
Core Standard: 5 Structures and Functions of Living Systems
Compare and contrast how plants and animals meet their energy needs. Describe
how all animals are directly or indirectly dependent upon plants for their food.
Indicators:
3.4.4 Describe that almost all kinds of animals’ food can be traced back to plants.
4.4.2 Investigate, observe, and describe that insects and various other organisms
depend on dead plant and animal material for food.
4.4.3 Observe and describe that organisms interact with one another in various
ways, such as providing food, pollination, and seed dispersal.
4.4.4 Observe and describe that some source of energy is needed for all
organisms to stay alive and grow.
4.4.9 Explain that food provides energy and materials for growth and repair of
body parts. Recognize that vitamins and minerals, present in small amounts in
foods, are essential to keep everything working well. Further understand that as
pople grow up, the amounts and kinds of food and exercise needed by the body may
change.
Language Arts Skills
4.1.2
Apply knowledge of synonyms (words with the same meaning), antonyms
(words with opposite meanings), homographs (words that are spelled the
same but have different meanings), and idioms (expressions that cannot
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be understood just by knowing the meanings of the words in the
expression, such as couch potato) to determine the meaning of words and
phrases.
4.1.3
Use knowledge of root words (nation, national, nationality) to determine
the meaning of unknown words within a passage.
4.1.4
Use common roots (meter = measure) and word parts (therm = heat)
derived from Greek and Latin to analyze the meaning of complex words
(thermometer).
4.1.6
Distinguish and interpret words with multiple meanings (quarters) by
using context clues (the meaning of the text around a word).
4.6.2
Use simple sentences and compound sentences in writing.
Location: Our school yard, Randolph County, Indiana
Concept: interdependence
Topic: Plants, Animals Food Chain
Vehicles: Conservation Officer, Experiments, Study Trip to the school yard,
books, poetry
Resources: Pass the Energy, Please by Barbara McKinney. Field Detectives,
Investigating Playground Habitats, Aims Activities Grades 3 – 6, Follow the Trail,
A young person’s guide to the great outdoors, by Jessica Loy
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Day One – 4th Grade
Hall Greeting
Welcome 4th Grade Scientists!
A remarkable thing about the green plant
It makes its own food whereas animals can’t
Mixing carbon dioxide, water and sun
Mother Nature has photosynthesis fun!
Welcome Message
The Inside Story
Do you know where you get the food you eat?
Of course you do. You’ve probably helped buy food,
carry groceries, or even cook.
It is very different for plants and animals.
Like all living things, plants and animals must have nourishment
in order to have energy, grow, and stay healthy.
No one prepares meals for animals in the wild.
Animals spend much of their time searching for whatever
type of food they require: plants, other animals or both.
Task: In your How Scientific! journal make a list of all the plants you eat.
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Literacy Links
o Proper English: What is the comma rule if you are listing foods in a
sentence? I eat lettuce, celery, onions, and carrots.
o Predict: What will be the highest number of plants your classmates
list for the task in the Welcome Message?
o Put in Order: Change the order of the first sentence so that it isn’t
an interrogative sentence.
o Making Connections: What is your favorite plant to eat?
o Comprehension: What does nourishment mean?
o Fluency: Reread the Welcome Message with a study partner.
o Fun: Read the first sentence like you have a mouth full of lettuce.
Agenda What’s on your Menu Monday
1. Pass the Peas, please.
2. Words are powerful, and we are going to be learning some powerful words.
3. Can you decide which words are most important?
4. Let’s write an Exit Slip.
Community Circle: What do you think is in the Discovery Bags?
Discovery Bags are located in your resource materials. These bags will be used for
this activity.
You can hold up one bag without opening it. Students look at the discovery bag and
predict what will be in the bag knowing that we are studying the importance of
plants in the food chain.
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Behavior Procedure:
Create a Behavior Procedure with the students for handling the items in their
discovery bag. Who will go first? Who will record the ideas? Who will organize
the things in the bag? Where will we store the bag when we are finished? What
will we do if we need to look at the items in the bag again during the week?
Example: Discovery Bag Procedure: Number the students to match the number of
Discovery Bags you have. There will be a bag for each group. You can number the
students in each group for their jobs. You can add encouragers if you need more
jobs.
1. Number 2 will pick up the bag and open it.
2. Number 1 will record the information generated by the group.
3. Number 4 will put everything back in the bag.
4. Number 3 will be the timer and keep everyone on task.
Say it:
Vehicle: Poem
Inside this bag you will find.
Animals that need to eat, rain or shine
Is there a food source you can see?
Everything is hungry, what will it be?
Herbivores, Carnivores, Omnivores alike
Get their food without a hike.
What is close by that they can eat?
Look in the bag that’s your feat.
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Introduce / reintroduce the topic of the week and talk about the vocabulary.
Vocabulary
Herbivores – animals that eat only plants
Carnivores – animals that eat only meat
Omnivores – animals that eat both plants and animals
Food Chain - feeding relationships among organisms
Food Web – the interlocking food chains within an ecological community
Habitat – the natural conditions and environment in which a plant or animal lives
Survival – not dying or disappearing
Species – a kind, sort, or variety of something
Interdependent – unable to exist or survive without each other
Producer - somebody or something that makes things
Consumer – a buyer or user of goods or services
Energy – ability or power to work, to do things
Vocabulary Cards: You will find these in your resource packet (yellow and green
cards).
Herbivores
Carnivores
Omnivores
Food Chain
Food Web
Habitat
Survival
Species
Interdependent
Producer
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Consumer
Energy
animals that eat both plants and animals
feeding relationships among organisms
animals that eat only plants
animals that eat only meat
the interlocking food chains within an
ecological community
the natural conditions and environment
in which plants and animals live
not dying or disappearing
a kind, sort, or variety of something
unable to exist or survive without each
other
somebody or something that makes
things
somebody or something that uses things
by eating it, drinking it, or using it up
ability to do things
Play It Cards in resource packet labeled ‘vocabulary’.
Collaboration Structure: Move and Match (green structure set)
Cut vocabulary words and definitions apart giving each learning club six of the
words and their definitions. Students work together to match the words with
their meanings. Once they make the matches they check with their vocabulary list
making certain that all matches are correct. Then they can trade words and
definitions with another learning club and match the new set of words.
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This game can be played more than once during the week. A variation to the game:
add movement to act out what the words mean. Students create a movement
representing one of the words and the others guess what it is.
Relay It
Students star or highlight certain words on their personal list. They can mark the
words they know with one color and the words they need to study more with
another color.
Weigh It
To assess who understands the terms you can give the students a sheet with the
vocabulary and definitions and see if they can match them. Grade them together so
students will know what they need to practice.
Play It
4-2-1 (green structure set with your collaborative cards)
Each student records what they think are the four most important words on the
vocabulary list. Each student meets with a partner and reduces their eight words
to two. Two sets of partners get together and choose what they think is the most
important word. They are to tell why they chose that word when it is time to
share with the rest of the class. You can point to each group and they can have
someone report their word and why they chose it.
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Relay It
Have each students write the word their group choose in a complete sentence on a
post-it. They need to sign their name and put it on a chart paper in the room
titled: Important Words
Weigh It
Exit Slip (blue structure set of your collaborative cards)
Self Assessment: On a 3x5 card or Post-it write two words you already know and
three words you need to study. A large piece of chart paper or butcher paper
could be designated for the sticky notes (exit slips); a spot or basket could be
designated to collect the exit slips,
Teacher Reflection
Write in your “How Scientific” journal your thoughts about this lesson. What are
some extension activities you could do to reinforce the vocabulary?
Home Connection
What plants and animals do you have in your own backyard? Share in Circle.
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Day 2 – fourth grade
Hall Greeting
Hey watch out!
Today you are walking into a web.
We will learn about food webs.
Welcome Message
Food relationships within a habitat are complicated. Most organisms eat and are
eaten by at least two other organisms. Omnivores change levels, eating both first
level plants and second or even third-level animals. This network of feeding
relationships in the habitat is called a food web. A food chain can be thought of as
a strand within the food web.
Check out the food web and write what eats what. How many connections did you
make? Check with a partner and see if you have the same information recorded.
Once you decide it is correct, record it in your How Scientific! journal.
This is a food web.
Hawk
Owl
Sparrow
Frog
Ground beetle
Snail
Berry
Leaf
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Literacy Links
•
Proper English – Find a prepositional phrase.
•
Predict – Can you predict what parts of the food web we will find in the
school yard?
•
Put in Order – What does the suffix vores mean?
•
Connections – How many of these items on the food web are in your
backyard?
•
Comprehension – How many carnivores do you see in the food web?
•
Fluency – Read your vocabulary words with a study partner.
•
Fun – Read the vocabulary words as if you have a mouth full of lettuce.
Community Circle
One thing I already understand about the food web, one thing I want to know.
Agenda Time to Munch on Plants Tuesday
1. Life in the Food Chain. It’s a dog eat dog world.
2. I have. Who has? Do you feel like sticking your neck out?
Literacy Links
•
Proper English – Life in the Food Chain is not a complete sentence. What
could make it complete.
•
Predict – Who eats leaves?
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•
Put in Order –Which word in the agenda would come first in the dictionary?
Which one would come last?
•
Connections – What is your favorite meat?
•
Comprehension – What is an idiom? What two idioms do you see in the
agenda?
•
Fluency – Read the agenda like you were starving.
•
Fun – Tell a good animal joke
Say It: Have this text copied for each student or have it on an overhead to
mark the prepositional phrases.
What did you eat for breakfast this morning?
It usually takes large amounts of food at one level to support the life of a creature
at the next level. In a single meal, how much of the food you eat comes from
plants and how much comes from animals? Remember that the animals also need to
eat plants or other animals. This morning did you have cereal, toast, or pancakes?
These foods are made from grain. Grain is made up of seeds of certain plants.
Sugar, syrup, and jam are plant products, too. Did you have an egg? The chicken
that laid the egg needed grain to eat. Your milk came from a cow that ate a lot of
grass. Look at all the plants and animals in the different food chains that
contributed to your breakfast. WOW! Dirt made your lunch.
Literacy Links with Welcome Message
•
Proper English/Phonics – Underline the prepositional phrases with your
learning club.
•
Put in Order – Number the following words in ABC order. (grass, seeds,
plants, grain)
•
Predict – What do you think most of your classmates had for breakfast?
Let’s graph it on the board together when I call you back.
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•
Comprehension – What do you think this means: Dirt made your lunch.
•
Connections – What are some animals you have eaten? (bacon, hot dogs,
hamburger, etc.)
•
Fun - Tell a neighbor your favorite plant to eat.
•
Fluency - Read the prepositional phrases you underlined with your neighbor.
Play it: These blue cards are in your resource binder for 4th grade. They start
with I have consumer. Who has the word for animals that eat only plants?
Activity #1 I have. Who has? (green card set) Play this game every day and keep
track of how much faster they do it. Try to beat your time. They should get better
each day. This activity works with the vocabulary of the lesson. You could make two
sets of cards and play this in groups or you could have partners. The blue cards
are in your resource packet.
I have consumer.
Who has the word for
animals that eat only
plants?
I have herbivore.
Who has the word for
animals that eat only
meat?
I have food chain.
Who has the word for not
dying or disappearing?
I have survival.
Who has the word for an
animal that eats both
plants and animals?
I have carnivore.
Who has the word for the
feeding sequence where
energy travels to
organisms?
I have omnivore.
Who has the word for
unable to exist or survive
without each other?
I have interdependent.
Who has the interlocking
food chains within an
ecological community?
I have food web.
Who has the word for the
power and ability to do
things?
I have energy.
Who has the word for a
kind, sort, or variety of an
animal or plant?
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Play It
Activity # 2: Pass out sets of food chain/web cards to each group. These yellow
cards can be found in your resource packet. They start with “The Snake eats the
mouse”.
Have students make observations about the information on the cards. (Their
comments could be recorded on chart paper or on the overhead. Vocabulary words
could be added or highlighted as students make their observations.)
1. Give each group of students a set of cards. The cards show some of the
typical plants and animals on a school playground. Each group will sort the
cards to show a food chain or food web. They must explain how they
grouped the cards.
2. Ask one student in the group to pick an insect. Other members in the group
are to find a plant (first level; producer) that the insect (second level;
consumer) eats. Put the cards in order beginning with the plant, then insect,
then students find a card that has an insect eater (third level; consumer).
Keep building the food chain.
3. Ask groups to create the shortest food chain, then the longest food chain.
4. Have students use yarn, strips of paper, or other connectors to connect
food chains to make a food web.
Play it: These cards are in your resource binder. They start with Grasses and
Grains
Activity # 3 Mystery Bag: Place enough cards into a Mystery Bag that will include
all the children. Use the following cards first;
a. Grasses and grains, woody plants, broadleaf plants, fleshy fruits and
berries, dead plant material
b. Ant, caterpillar, ladybugs, cricket, earthworm, daddy longlegs
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c. Frog, rabbit, garter snake, raccoon, squirrel, toad
d. Robin, sparrow
e. Cat, screech owl, hawk
f. ADD these as the size of your class increases: fly, aphid, earwig, orbweaver spider, centipede, millipede
Relay it; *Students pick an animal and fill out the My Food Chain Card. This
sheet is the white sheet in your packet labeled My Food Chain. They will decide if
they are consumers, carnivores, etc. Put their card and paper together for use on
the next day. When they are finished, they could meet with a partner to talk about
what they have learned. (You could use Cell Phone Buddies. Refer to your
Collaborative Cards.)
Ask students for observations about Food Chains and Food Webs after doing the
activities. Students write in their “How Scientific” journal about their animal.
Weigh It
Students self assess.
What I know about plants and animals in
One question I have.
the food chain:
Teacher Reflection: What went well in this lesson? What would have made it
better? Write your reflections in your “How Scientific” journal.
Home Connection: Students ask their parents the difference between a food
chain and a food web. Be prepared to explain it to them.
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Day 3 – fourth grade
Hallway Greeting
What is the base word of these three words: survived, surviving, survival, survivor?
How is it spelled?
Welcome Message
Hello Class,
How do you feel about the television show Survivor? Today we are going to
be playing a game, and we will be trying to survive at the same time. What fun we
are going to have! We may need a Behavior Procedure so none of us get put ‘in the
doghouse.’ You have been learning all about food chains this week, and you will need
to remember what you have learned to survive. We will review consumers,
producers, herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores. How much do you remember?
Task: In your “How Scientific” journal, write a compound sentence to explain
what you have learned. Remember a compound sentence is two sentences put
together with words like and, or, or but.
Literacy Links with Welcome Message
•
Proper English/Phonics - Find the two sentences that are compound
sentences. What are the two sentences that have been combined to make
those sentences?
•
Put in Order - Where do you place the comma when you are creating a
compound sentence?
•
Predict - What do you think we will be doing that is similar to Survivor?
•
Comprehension - Can you find the idiom in the Welcome Message? What does
it mean?
•
Connections - Thumbs up if you like Survivor. What do you like about it?
Whisper to your neighbor.
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•
Fun - Tell a neighbor when you have been in the doghouse.
•
Fluency - Read the Welcome Message in a whisper voice with your Learning
Club
Agenda Where’s the Beef Wednesday
1. My favorite food is steak, and it is a consumer and a carnivore.
2. Could I have your order?
3. What animal will I be?
4. We are going to have fun with the cards, and we will learn more about food
chains.
5. Food Fight: Who will be the last survivor?
6. I’m not pulling your leg. You will be writing an animal story.
Literacy Links with the Agenda
Proper English/Phonics - Find the two sentences that are compound
•
sentences. What are the two sentences that have been combined to make
those sentences?
•
Put in Order - Find all the words that begin with C. Put them in alphabetical
order.
•
Predict - What do you think # 5 means?
•
Comprehension - Can you find the idiom in the Agenda? What does it mean?
•
Connections - Look at # 2. What does it remind you of? What is your
favorite place to go to eat?
•
Fluency - Take turns at your Learning Club and read the Agenda. Which part
of the agenda are you looking forward to the most?
•
Fun - Would you like to be on Survivor?
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Community Circle
What is your favorite food to consume? Is it a plant or an animal or something
else?
I like to eat ______________, and I think it is a ________________ or a
_______________.
Say It: Book
Pass the Energy, Please by Barbara McKinney. There will be a copy of this book for
your grade level. You can supplement this with any book or material you have about
Producers and Consumers. Read part of the book that explains about Producers
and Consumers or that reviews the food chain. Do some direct instruction about
how humans can be consumers or producers. Talk about what they consumed for
lunch today at school. What foods were produced?
Play It
Roundabout Conversations (green card set) Students will be going outside for this
activity or in the gym if it is raining. Each student will take their animal from the
Mystery Bag lesson. They can try to keep the name of their animal a secret.
Students will be put into two concentric circles. One group will move clockwise; one
group will move counterclockwise. When the teacher says, “It’s a Food Fight. The
children stop and turn to face each other. They say what they are and then check
to see who eats who. If they are eaten by the other child, they step out of the
circle and sit on the ground in a place designated by the teacher. The remaining
children get into two more circles. You will have to guide them into equal circles.
You might have a card just in case they are uneven. Choose one of the insects or
plants. Continue to do this until you have small groups and then you would not have
to do the circles anymore. Just let them go face to face. Do this activity a number
of times and reflect on who ends up standing most of the time.
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Relay It
Writing Connection: Write a narrative telling about your experience today. What
did you learn from it? Write about your own animal and how it fits into the food
web. This narrative needs to have two paragraphs. One paragraph will be telling
about what happened. The second paragraph should be about what they learned
about food chains and webs.
Weigh It
Narrative Rubric: A rubric is provided in your packet to use if you wish. You may
already have one that you already use regularly. You will assess the paragraphs the
students wrote in Relay It.
Teacher Reflection: What went well in this lesson? What would have made it
better? Write your reflections in your How Scientific! journal.
Home Connection: Parents can look at what they are having for dinner and ask the
students to identify producers and/or consumers.
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Day 4 – Fourth Grade
Hallway Greeting
Joke: Why did the chicken cross the road twice?
Answer: He was a double crosser.
Welcome Message
The Food Chain Song
Tune of Camptown Races
The sun produces energy in a food chain, food chain.
The sun produces energy in an animal food chain.
Energy from the sun
Energy from the sun,
The sun produces energy in an animal food chain.
Plants need water, light and sun to make food, make food.
Plants need water, light and sun to make food every day.
Producers make the food.
Producers make the food.
Producers make the food for all in an animal food chain.
Consumers
Consumers
Consumers
Consumers
Consumers
are the animals in a food chain, food chain
are the animals in an animal food chain
eat it all
eat it all
are the animals in an animal food chain.
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Literacy Links with Welcome Message
1. Proper English – Read the song. Decide if every sentence is a
complete sentence.
2. Predict – What could another line in the Food Chain Song could be?
3. Put in Order – Change the order of this statement in the song to make
a question. Consumers are the animals in a food chain.
4. Connections – Do you know a food chain song already?
5. Comprehension – Name an energy source, a producer, and a consumer.
6. Fluency – Sing the song with a study partner.
7. Fun – Create actions to the song to do while singing.
Agenda Thinking about Lunch Thursday
1. We’re going to learn a lot by singing the Food Chain Song.
2. What is your favorite song?
3. Can we play I Have Who Has in less time than the time before?
4. We’ll explore the vocabulary together by using the structure called Divide
and Conquer.
5. Use some elbow grease to do a little writing.
Agenda with Literacy Links
•
Proper English/Phonics - Find all the contractions and tell how to split them
apart into two words.
•
Put in Order - What is the verb in sentence 5. Can you think of the noun that
would be the subject of the sentences? What is the missing word that would
go in front of use to make sense?
•
Predict - What does the word conquer mean? What do you think we will be
doing when we Divide and Conquer?
•
Comprehension - Find the idiom in the Welcome Message and explain what it
means.
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•
Connections - When do you use elbow grease at home?
•
Fluency - Let’s choral read the agenda together.
•
Fun - Let’s try the I have. Who Has? activity again and see if we can beat
our time. When you finish ask the students to go to Community Circle.
Community Circle:
What is your favorite song? Teachers sometimes use songs to teach us something.
What song do you remember that was meant to teach you a lesson?
Say it: Song: Vehicle – Sing the song again. Look at the song again. Go over the
vocabulary that is included. Ask the students about the sequence of the song.
Review the sequence with the children.
Play it: Collaboration Structure: I’m on the Line (green structure set) – Students
are given a set of Food Chain sequence cards at their learning club. They are to put
them in order from what happens first to what happens last.
Plants use sunlight to produce food and energy.
Plants store the food they make in their roots, leaves, and stems.
An animal eats different parts of the plant. Some of the food in the plants is
stored in the animal’s body.
An animal’s body, such as a mouse, changes the food into energy to run, eat, stay
healthy, and breathe.
The snake eats the mouse. The mouse supplies energy for the snake to live.
Hawks, birds of prey, eat a variety of animals including snakes.
The hawk’s body uses the energy from the snake to live and grow.
This flow of energy from one organism to another continues throughout the food
chain.
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Relay It: Exploring Words Activity
Collaboration Structure: Divide and conquer (blue structure set); Divide the class
into groups of two or three. Put struggling students in with a group of three if
needed. Give each Learning Club copies of the Exploring Words page. This page can
be divided into sections and one member of the Learning Club is responsible for
their part. Of course you can choose whatever way you want to divide up the work.
However they can help each other, but not do each other’s work.
For example if two people:
Person 1: Root, prefix and suffix sections, definition, draw a picture
Person 2: Antonyms and synonyms, number of syllables, use in sentence, fun
ways to think of word
If three people:
Person 1: root, prefix, suffix, number of syllables, definition
Person 2: adding prefixes and suffixes, use the word in sentence,
Person 3: synonyms and antonyms, draw picture, fun ways to remember
Weigh It: Give the students a matching quiz to see if they have mastered the
vocabulary yet. There will be another opportunity to practice the vocabulary on the
last day if needed. Use the matching cards or the I have, Who Has? Cards to keep
practicing. The High Ability students who have mastered the vocabulary can work
on independent study of an animal they want to understand.
Teacher Reflection: What went well in this lesson? What would have made it
better? Write your reflections in your How Scientific! journal.
Home Connection: Send the song home with the students and ask the parents to
have the students sing it to them. Have the children explain the words consumer
and producer to their parents.
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Day 5 – Fourth Grade
Hallway Greeting
Are you ready? You will need to make hay while the sun shines.
Welcome Message
Do you feel like a scientist after our study of food chains and food webs? Are
you more observant? Do you look at your food differently now that you know you
are an omnivore?
Tell those around you the most fun part about studying how animals depend on
plants. What was the most important thing you learned? Write your notes in your
How Scientific! journal.
Literacy Links with Welcome Message
•
Proper English/Phonics – What is the base word for observant?
•
Put in Order – What is the first interrogative sentence?
•
Predict – Think of what you will choose to “show what you know”.
•
Comprehension – What is the difference between a food chain and a food
web?
•
Connections – What have you enjoyed most this week?
•
Fluency – Choose a song or a poem from the week to read with your study
partner.
•
Fun – Link with your learning club to make a food chain. Label each other.
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Agenda Filling in the Food Web Friday
1. Working with all you’ve learned.
2. Choice Activities
3. Are you ready?
4. Write your observations in the “How Scientific” journal.
Community Circle
I still need ________ before I’m ready to share.
I am most proud of _______________________ to share.
Relay It: Choice Activities (See Resources)
Directions:
Choose two activities from the menu page located in your resource section. The
activities must equal 10. Check the ones you will complete.
All activities are to be done by ___________________.
Weigh It: Activity Rubric (See Resources)
The rubric connected to the choice page is enclosed in your resource binder.
Teacher Connection: The idiom cards in your resource packet can be used at any
time when you are teaching idioms this week. You will find them on the green and
yellow cards that start with “Make a beeline”. Students can match these idioms
with their meanings. Have fun!
What would have been helpful for the students to present their activities?
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Parent Connection:
What I observed with my child’s science project this week.
Was their interest heightened?
Did they discuss food webs at home?
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