Chicago Botanic Garden
Leaf Litter Ecology Lab
Some organisms spend their entire lives in leaf litter. The third in a series of six is a great lesson exploring the community of leaf litter. Groups gather and then spread leaf litter over white paper and remove leaves/twigs while...
American Museum of Natural History
Super Teeth
A brief comparison of human teeth versus animal teeth sets the stage for two worksheets. Scholars match a picture of a tooth-filled mouth to the animal to which it belongs and coloring pages featuring a different animal and informative...
Curated OER
Food Chain Activities
Transform young biologists into grasshoppers, lizards, and hawks as you teach them about food chains in an interactive life science simulation. Working collaboratively to act out three different scenarios involving...
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...
Curated OER
Food Chains, Food Webs, Biomass Pyramids and Cycle
In this food chains worksheet, students complete a crossword puzzle by placing 16 terms into the puzzle that match the clues given. Students review food webs, biomass pyramids, and the water cycle.
Curated OER
Food Chains: Simple or Complex?
Young scholars explore the relationships within the food chain between plants and animals. They construct modules of food chains, keeping them simple and not complex. They focus on what the animals eat and not on what eats it.
Curated OER
Dinnertime for Animals
Is a deer an herbivore? What about a spider? Experiment with the food chain in an interactive science experiment. After listing the herbivores from a selection of animals, third and fourth graders compare the skulls and teeth of...
August House
Go to Sleep, Gecko
Use this multidisciplinary instructional activity to delve into these subjects: English language arts, math, science, drama, and character education. After reading, discussing, and making interpretations about Go To Sleep, Gecko!: A...
Purdue University
Mammal Food Webs
You are what you eat—or at least a part of what you eat. Budding scientists examine owl pellets to develop their own food webs. They use tooth and skull identification techniques to classify what they find.
Curated OER
How Do Plants and Animals Get Energy?
In this food chain worksheet, students will determine where plants and animals get their energy by filling in the blank of 4 statements.
Curated OER
Life And Death
Students participate in an interactive game to review how living things are classified.
Curated OER
Keys and Webs
Students explore and classify organisms found in a Rocky Mountain Ecosystem. Through discussions, students examine the effects upon an ecosystem if a component was removed or a new component was added. As a class, they survey reasons...
Curated OER
Aquatic Food Webs
Students discuss producers, herbivores, omnivores, carnivores, and decomposers and analyze the difference between food chains and food webs. They participate in a food web yarn game, examining what can effect the breakdown of the web.
Curated OER
Animals Antonyms and Synonyms Worksheet
Create a cross-curricular connection for your upper elementary language arts kids. There are 15 vocabulary words listed in the chart, and each has to do with exploring different ecosystems. For each word, the learner must find an antonym...
Curated OER
Prairie Predator and Prey
Fifth graders brainstorm a list of animals that live on the prairie, and classify them as predators and prey. They conduct interviews where they ask the animals what they need to look out for to sustain life on the prairie.
Curated OER
Energy Flow and the Food Chain
Students complete discussions and worksheets about the Hawaiian food chain. In this food chain lesson plan, students research decomposers, consumers, and producers.
Curated OER
Bite on This!
Different types of teeth have different roles. Third graders study how molars, incisors, and canines function in a rabbit skull and a cat skull. After answering some questions about the teeth of herbivores and carnivores, kids...
Desert Museum
Daisy Ecology
Here's a fine instructional activity 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...
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,...
Curated OER
it's Lonely At The Top
Students explore the differnences between food producers in food webs and food consumers in food chains. Behavioral choices of primary and secondary consumers such as herbivores, vegetarians, carnivors, and omnivors are analyzed.
Curated OER
Animal Classification
Pupils watch video and slide shows as an introduction to animals. They discuss classifications of animals while moving from most common to least common of the animals. Types of classifications includes herbivores/carnivores;...
Curated OER
Who Eats Who?
Students recognize that some animals eat plants, some eat meat and some both. In this who eats who lesson, students chart animals in a food chain. Students research information from reading articles. Students chart what...
Curated OER
Striking a Balance
Students simulate animals in a food chain. In this food chain lesson plan, students are identified as grasshoppers, frogs or hawks. Popcorn is spread across a lawn and students are given baggies (stomachs) and colored sashes to identify...
Curated OER
Illinois Wild
Sixth graders identify different animals native to Illinois. They research a specific animal to study more about its characteristics, examine what makes a habitat, and recognize the difference between a food web and food chain.