Food Chains: Integrating Science and Reading

In today’s school climate in which math and reading are heavily emphasized, science is often placed on the backburner by elementary teachers. Consequently, many young students are missing out on hands on investigations and engaging activities that enable them to connect with the environment around them.

In order to expose my students to more science, while still hitting required math and reading standards, I try to integrate it with reading and math as much as possible. For example, when introducing the concept of food chains, I like to use the children’s book "The Web at Dragonfly Pond" by Brian Ellis, as a read aloud.  The book tells the true story of the author’s experience as a young boy fishing with his father, during which he learns about the interconnectedness of the living things found around the pond (including himself!). 

I begin our discussion by asking the children to make predictions about the book. Many of them believe the book will somehow involve spiders as their experience with “webs” is related to those that trap insects.  Once I’ve read the book out loud, I introduce and discuss the term “food web.”  A food web is different from a food chain in that a web shows how different organisms are interconnected through many paths, while a chain follows a single path beginning with one organism (such as a plant) and ending with another (such as a hawk). To illustrate the point, I assign organisms that can be found in our area to each child (making sure that each student has a different organism). Some of the organisms I might assign include a duck, grass, a deer, an owl, a bee, a mosquito, a sparrow, a sunflower, a prairie dog, a butterfly, an oak tree, a coyote, a dragonfly, a frog, a rabbit, a clover, a hawk, a snake, a spider, a fish, a grasshopper, a mouse, and a worm. I also like to assign one child to be the sun, as all energy in an ecosystem begins with the sun.

Once students have written their organism on a sticky note and placed it on their chests, they stand in a circle.  The “sun” holds the loose end of a ball of yarn and tosses it to someone else.  He must state a way in which the sun is related to that organism (Example:  “I am related to the sunflower because it needs me to grow”).  The sunflower hangs on to the string between herself and the sun and tosses the ball to another organism (Example:  “I am related to a mouse because the mouse eats my seeds”).  This continues until all students have had the yarn at least once (some will have it many times) and a giant “web” is created between the entire class.  After the activity, we often go outside with our science journals and spend 10-15 minutes recording evidence of food webs in the environment near our school. 

Many different reading standards can be incorporated into this activity.  Students can compare and contrast food chains and food webs, discuss vocabulary terms such as herbivore, carnivore, and omnivore, sequence the food chain events from the story, and conduct a retelling of the story, either verbally or in writing. The possibilities are endless, and you’ll have given your students another reason to get excited about reading. What follows are  lessons and activities involving food chains and food webs.

Food Chain Activities:

Food Chains and Webs 

Students role play a predator/prey situation in order to explore the food chain. They then write a paper about it.

Food Chains  

Students determine if the food chain is possible and rearrange it to make a new food chain. They make their own food chain with a different set of 5 organisms, and identify the various components of the food chain (producers, consumers, etc.).

What do Owls Eat

Students do research on owls. They determine what owls eat, hunt, and the characteristics of owls that make them good hunters/predators. In addition, they dissect an owl pellet and identify the bone parts that are found.  Food chains for owls are explored and possible threats to the species are identified.

Ecosystem Lesson Plan: Food Chain/Food Web

Students talk about what ecosystems are using their knowledge of an ecosystem. Students receive an ecosystems document and look at the picture. Students discuss how the cover picture and the ecosystems are related. Students read and discuss the document and create their own food web.