Curated OER
Producers, Consumers, Decomposers (3-5)
Students gather evidence to explain that organisms in an ecosystem are tied together by their need for energy. They see that decomposers break down dead organisms and wastes and release the nutrients they contain into the soil,
Scholastic
Study Jams! Food Chains
Rhinozilla is Mia's bearded dragon and the focus of this lesson on energy flow in an ecosystem. She uses him to explain the energy pyramid, from producers through third level consumers, and she likens the food chain to a video game. Mia...
Exploring Nature Educational Resources
Building A Classroom Food Web
From bears and owls to chipmunks and trees, all life depends on the sun for the energy to survive. Young biologists develop an understanding of this big idea as they arrange this series of plant and animal picture cards into food...
Curated OER
Ecosystem Game
Students examine the ecosystem by playing a game. In this ecosystem lesson, students are put into groups of decomposers, consumers, and producers. Students create a list of animals that fit into each group and items that represent...
Science Matters
Crawly Composters
Get your hands dirty with an interactive lesson that showcases the process of decomposing and returning nutrients back into the soil. After building a compost pile, pupils regularly observe the...
Science Matters
Matter Cycles — Sum It Up
Scholars become part of the cycle of matter with a reader's theater that showcases producers, consumers, decomposers, and the sun. A diagram and discussion concludes the learning experience and enhances comprehension.
Science Matters
Energy Flow
Budding scientists work collaboratively to reenact energy flow in a food chain. Scholars take on roles such as producer and consumer and perform tasks that symbolize energy flow in order to provide evidence of how much energy passes...
Curated OER
Forest Ecosystem
Students become familiar with the temperate rainforest. In this forest ecosystem instructional activity, students identify the producers, consumers and decomposers in the forest ecosystem. Students sort cards and identify the...
Curated OER
Marshland Ecosystems
Learners identify animals in ecosystem depicted on 16th Century ceramic basin and classify them as herbivores, carnivores, or omnivores based on physical characteristics and prior knowledge, determine which life forms in ecosystem are...
Curated OER
Energy Through the Ecosystem
In this ecosystem activity, students use a diagram of an ocean-based food web to complete 5 short answer questions about the energy flow through this ecosystem.
Curated OER
Food Web II
Young ecologists are shown a picture of eight animals and two plants. On another piece of paper, they are asked to construct a food web that includes the animals pictured. They must also identify the producers, consumers, herbivores,...
Science Matters
Formative Assessment #3
Thirteen short-answer questions follow a brief food web activity in a formative assessment designed to test knowledge of ecosystems and the energy that flows through them.
Curated OER
LEAF (Learning Exercises and Activities in the Forest
Students observe populations and determine the functions (e.g., decomposers, producers, consumers) they serve in an ecosystem. They investigate the energy flow ecosystems. Students investigate factors (.g., Resources, light, water) that...
Science Geek
Build a Food Web Activity
Entangle your life science class in learning with this collaborative food web activity. Using pictures of the plants and animals native to a particular ecosystem, young biologists work in small groups to construct visual...
Curated OER
Food Web
Students identify producers and consumers, including scavengers and decomposers, and discuss role each plays in food web. They then make diagram of possible food chain that might include skull pictured on Montana's quarter, and...
National Park Service
Living & Non-Living Interactions
What better way to learn about ecosystems than by getting outside and observing them first hand? Accompanying a field trip to a local park or outdoor space, this series of collaborative activities engages children in...
National Wildlife Federation
Habitat Web
Young scientists weave together an understanding of ecosystems with this fun collaborative activity. Taking on the roles of different living and non-living elements of specific habitats, learners use a ball of yarn to create...
University of Waikato
Build a Marine Food Web
Dive into a lesson on marine ecosystem interactions. Individuals learn about and devise a marine food web. The resource provides organism cards and pupils use article resources to discover interactions before modeling them in a food web.
Curated OER
Pond Water Web
Students familiarize themselves with the common organisms that live in a pond and discover their importance in a balanced aquatic habitat as they create food webs. They also investigate how an environmental change affects the habitat as...
Desert Museum
Daisy Ecology
Here's a fine lesson that combines poetry with life sciences. Learners carefully listen to a poem that's all about a food chain. As the poem is read, learners name the producer, the herbivore, the carnivore, and the omnivore. Lots of...
Curated OER
Cut and Paste Food Chain
Students study life science. In this food chain lesson, students discover the different types of animals that make up an ecosystem. They discuss as a class and then work independently on a food chain activity. This lesson includes a...
Michigan State University
Friend or Foe?
What one person thinks is a pest may not be a pest to someone else. Here, scholars examine the characteristics of living things and pests through grand conversation and a variety of activities. Class members play a game of pest or not a...
Curated OER
Fun With Food Chains
Students explore our ecosystem by researching animal eating habits. In this food chain lesson, students identify the links between predator and prey and the energy that passes between organisms based on what their diet consists of....
Curated OER
Focus on Food Chains
Third graders collect and analyze data about food chains. They conduct Internet research about the habitat of a selected organism, write a narrative, and create a computer slideshow using Kid Pix computer software that illustrates the...