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 looking for herbivores and carnivores to create a food web, identify trophic levels, and create a biomass pyramid. 

Concepts

herbivores, carnivores, leaves, litter

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Additional Tags

science

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Instructional Ideas

• Have some organisms placed in jars ahead of time to show classes the species they might find

Classroom Considerations

• Teachers need to gather leaf litter, sticks, and/or detritus for this lab
• Some pupils may be afraid of the spiders/bugs, so set expectations about voice levels (screams) and scaring others in the classroom

Pros

• Lesson provides all worksheets, background information, directions, and extension suggestions
• This is a great lab where class members can find all kinds of critters

Cons

• None

Common Core

RST.6-8.3