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Food chains and webs
What's eating you.
Food webs represent the complicated relationships between living things in an ecosystem. These science worksheets examine food chains and food webs .
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Food Chains and Webs
Who eats whom? Kids will love finding out about the food chain with mini-books, writing prompts, food web worksheets, science plays, reading response pages, informational texts, and fun crafts and games.
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Food Webs and Food Chains Worksheets
Understanding the difference between a food chain and a food web can sometimes take time and effort. Here are a collection of worksheets on food chains and the food web that will make you exam ready.
Suitable for : Grade 5, Grade 6
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How to Make Food Webs Interactive and Fun!
Are you looking for more engaging ways to teach the important concepts of food chains and webs? Do you want dynamic activities that you can refer back to over and over again?
Karen Sinai
Updated October 25, 2021
Here are some super fun activities that involve every student in a memorable, exciting way! They will completely understand the interdependence of food webs and the energy levels of food chains.
NGSS Standards
LS2-3 Develop a model to describe the cycling of matter and flow of energy among living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem.
LS2-4 Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations.
Food Chains First
It is best to start this unit by introducing the energy that moves through food chains in the different ecosystems. We discuss how energy moves from the plants all the way up to the top predators. The concept that only about 10% of the energy moves from level to level in the food chain, called the “10% rule“, is introduced.
If only 10% goes up to the next level then where does the rest of the energy go? At each level some energy is converted to heat during respiration, (before teaching this unit I introduce the photosynthesis and respiration equations and discuss the relationship between the two). Some energy is excreted as waste and some plants or animals die, without ever being eaten, so their energy is not passed on through the food chain.
This 10% rule also keeps a food chain from getting too long, since the top predator would not be getting enough energy if so much energy is lost at each level.
It is easiest to start learning about the ecosystem where your school is located. In my case, we are in the Northeast United States, so we look at animals from the temperate, deciduous forest. These are most familiar to the students.
Rather than simply showing the food chains to the students, I have them figure the order out using my drag and drop food chain activity . I am often surprised that, even in middle school, students don’t always understand which animals are carnivores and herbivores.
Students also enjoy creating the food chains from the African savanna . (food chain activities for the rainforest, desert and ocean are coming soon to my TpT store). I use these in my environmental science unit and in preparation for Earth Day activities.
Create a Huge Classroom Food Web!
Now the real fun begins! Using their knowledge of food chains, they are now going to make a giant, student interactive food web! Students sit on the floor, in a circle, and I hand them the cards that show what each animal eats and who eats them. In the case of plants, there is a list of who eats them.
Each student reads off what is on their card and I run around the outside of the circle, with a ball of yarn, and cut pieces to connect two students together.
For example, the fox will have a string connected to the rabbit. The rabbit will also have a string connected to the clover. By the time we are done, all of the students are holding multiple strings and they absolutely love it!
As they sit holding the strings with the food web completed, I have different students slowly raise their hand holding the strings to show the effects on the rest of the web. For example, if a disease were to hit the mouse population, there are many strings attached to the mouse and it would affect the food web quite drastically.
We discuss what would happen if the top predators were removed and watch how those strings touch so many others.
After the discussion is over, I enlist a student to carry the card labeled “pollution” to run through the middle of the web! After students get over being surprised, we discuss what just happened to the web. ( Blog post on how I do it )
Reinforce the Food Web Concept Using This Activity
To solidify the concept, students use my digital food web on Google slides (in their digital science notebooks ) to connect the food chain lines. It is a reinforcement of what they did while they were sitting on the floor in the yarn web activity. Depending on the level of the students, I have them try to remember the food chains themselves or I give them the food chain list and they add the connecting lines.
If the excitement level was high enough during the first food web circle on the floor, I may do another food web from a different ecosystem a few days later. My choices are the African safari, Rainforest , Ocean or Desert . Since my students don’t live in those ecosystems, using unusual plants and animals can be a little bit more challenging.
What Would an Invasive Species Do To a Food Web?
As we finish up the food webs, we can start discussing how important biodiversity is and I prefer to start with the important question of “what if a different species came into this food web that didn’t belong there?” Not all students have heard of invasive species and may be surprised at how many of the animals in their area are actually not native!
I assign my brief Invasive Species research project on either a plant or animal that has invaded a specific ecosystem. I give them the list of choices, or they can find their own with my approval. Specific prompt questions in a graphic organizer help students stay on task. Students are usually given about four or five days to research and then they present their findings to the class.
Why is Biodiversity So Important?
Once students have presented their invasive species projects, and they understand how important it is keeping a food web intact, we delve deeper into biodiversity.
We discuss how having a lawn in their yard is very “unnatural”. They always seem so surprised to learn that man has created areas with only one or two species of plants which has changed the local ecosystem. This is also the case in areas growing food crops.
What would happen if we didn’t mow our lawn? What would it look like in a month? In a year? In five years? Students start to realize that the “natural state of their lawn“ would return if we didn’t stop it with our lawnmowers.
I take the students outside to areas of the schoolyard that are mowed and to areas that aren’t. I take a hula hoop out with me and toss it into different areas and then we try to roughly count the different types of plants that we see. We notice that the mowed areas have only one or two species.
We discuss the three main types of biodiversity, genetic diversity, species diversity and ecosystem diversity.
Genetic diversity is how many genetics variations there are in a population in a given area. For example, the different body sizes, fur color and tail thickness of gray squirrels depends on their genes.
Species diversity is how many different species there are in a given area and how many individuals are represented. Referring back to our food web, how do those different species interact with each other?
Here is a great video about how Yellowstone National park was damaged by the removal of the top predator wolves. When the wolves were reintroduced, the entire ecosystem repaired itself in dramatic ways.
Ecosystem diversity is how many different types of ecosystems are in a specific area? Each food web is found in a different area but quite often the food webs overlap , such as a deciduous forest with a stream or pond.
Play the Biodiversity Dice Roll Game!
Time for a game! This game involves students rolling a pair of dice to see what sort of natural or man made events can effect the food web. I bought big foam dice from the Dollar store to make it more visual.
Student groups are given a chart with different events that correspond with the number that they threw with the dice. For example, if they threw a total of five, the chart says “deer hunting season has been extended. Many more hunters than expected. Delete the line from the deer to the bear”. Student erase that line connecting the beer and deer on their food web. ( blog post on how we play this.)
Since each of the student groups are separate, they each get different resulting “damaged” food webs after throwing their dice. I have them roll four times and then each group presents their final web to the class.
This activity leads to a lot of great discussions and I also give them eight reflection questions(included in the product). Students realize that whether the events that changed the web were man-made or natural, there is a very delicate balance in every food web and everything is interconnected.
How About a Biodiversity Board Game?
This is a 2-3 player game where the students read each card that has an event on it from the rainforest ecosystem. Students determine if the statement increases biodiversity (move one space forward) or reduces it(move one space backwards). THESE CARDS MAKE GREAT RESEARCH PROMPTS!
For more depth, students use the playing cards to fill in a chart where they determine high or low biodiversity. I also have a Desert Biodiversity game.
Invasive Species Dice Roll Game
A variation on the game above is using the dice roll format to see what invasive species do to a specific food web. Students fill out the food web with the lines that connect the plants in the animals of the food chains. They then learn about eight different invasive species, from that ecosystem, that are causing problems.
Students roll the dice to see which invasive species is harming which native plants or animals. They use the chart to determine which lines they should ERASE between two organisms in the food web.
For example, the Burros(wild donkeys), in the desert, are aggressive and invading the territory of the Pronghorn Antelope. This will cause the Pronghorns to move out of the area. What will the affect be on the food web? The Mountain Lion will have less food so the students will erase the line between the Pronghorn and the Mountain Lion. What about the plants that the Pronghorns ate? Students will erase a line between the grasses and the Pronghorn. This activity is visually dramatic! Also, no two student groups will get the same results, which leads to awesome discussions.
Challenge Your Students with an Energy Transfer STEM Project!
Food chains are all about energy transferring from one organism to another in literally a “chain reaction”. What else has chain reactions? Rube Goldberg machines! This highly structured project involves each group of students given a four level food chain from different ecosystems. They are assigned a producer, first consumer, second consumer and a top predator. Their task is to create a four level Rube Goldberg machine to represent the food chain! I have several biomes such as a deciduous forest, ocean, rainforest, African savanna, tundra and desert in my Teachers Pay Teachers Store. You can click on the image below.
By the time the students have completed the above activities, they have a good understanding of the interdependence of the plants and animals in the ecosystems of the world. To finish up this unit, I take them outside to observe their local food chains. We begin discussing how the abiotic (nonliving) factors also tie into the ecosystem. Please see my blog post called GO OUTDOORS ON AN EXCITING SCHOOLYARD ECOSYSTEM SCAVENGER HUNT.
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Get your FREE food web worksheets when you sign up for my newsletter! These food web worksheets cover a variety of habitats. Students will analyze the food web on each worksheet and answer the questions. The focus is on the flow of energy in the food web and patterns of interactions between organisms.
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In addition to ecosystems and food chains, these printable worksheets also cover consumers and producers, as well as herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores.
Food Chain Worksheets
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Food Chain Articles
Articles about different animal species
Printable plant life worksheets
This page has everything you'll need for teaching students about owls, and for an owl pellet dissection activity. Includes bone identification charts, reading comprehension passages, and a sequencing activity.
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Food Webs Worksheet
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Description
This worksheet analyzes the various parts of a food web, including:
- Identifying herbivore, carnivore, omnivore, and apex predator
- Analyzing the effect of an extinct population on other populations in the web
- Recognizing energy flow through the web
- Identifying food chains in the web
Includes color coded answer key. Can be given as classwork or homework.
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The arrows in a food chain show the flow of energy, from the sun or hydrothermal vent to a top predator. As the energy flows from organism to organism, energy is lost at each step. A network of many food chains is called a food web . The trophic level of an organism is the position it holds in a food chain.
Food Web Worksheet. Read the passage then answer the questions below. Food Chain Page. This is a thumbnail of the "Food Web - Information and Questions Worksheet" page. The full-size printout is available only to site members. To subscribe to Enchanted Learning, click here. If you are already a site member, click here.
A food chain is the sequence of who eats whom in a biological community (an ecosystem) to obtain nutrition. A network of many food chains is called a food web. Food Chain Worksheets: Picture Prompt of Fish Eating Fish. Write a story about the picture of four fish (of decreasing size), chasing each other.
Printable Read-and-Answer Worksheet A printable worksheet on the food pyramid, food groups, and the nutrients in food, with a short text, a food pyramid picture, and questions to answer. ... Enchanted Learning ® Over 35,000 Web Pages Sample Pages for Prospective Subscribers, or click below. Overview of Site
Food Chain Page. This is a thumbnail of the "Food Chain - Trophic Levels - Worksheet: Write organisms for each trophic level" page. The full-size printout is available only to site members. To subscribe to Enchanted Learning, click here. If you are already a site member, click here.
plants get energy from the sun. , some animals eat plants, and some animals eat other animals. is the sequence of. in a biological community (an ecosystem) to obtain nutrition. A food chain starts with the. or boiling-hot deep sea vents. The next link in the chain is an. organism that make its own food. from the primary energy source -- an ...
Food webs represent the complicated relationships between living things in an ecosystem. These science worksheets examine food chains and food webs. Worksheet #1 Worksheet #2. Worksheet #3.
This video covers the idea in more detail. 4. Put together a food chain puzzle. Food Chain Puzzles via adabofgluewilldo.com. These free printable puzzles are a fun way for kids to learn a variety of food chains. (For virtual classrooms, try a digital version instead .) 5. Use a paper plate to show the circle of life.
Worksheet (attached), Pencil. Lesson Details Overview Students will learn about food chains and food webs by exploring a beaver pond food and the life within it. Activity 1. Begin by introducing the concept of a food web. Additionally, explain what a food chain is and how energy is transferred through it. 2.
Food Web Worksheets. Use this group of printable worksheets to learn how energy is transferred from one living organism to another in a food web. Build your knowledge better by solving the worksheets. Suitable for: Grade 5, Grade 6. A Food Web Worksheet. Download PDF.
Kids will love finding out about the food chain with mini-books, writing prompts, food web worksheets, science plays, reading response pages, informational texts, and fun crafts and games. Scholastic Teachables— worksheets, lesson plans, learning games, and more! Formerly known as Scholastic Printables, we offer printable activities for any ...
Here are a collection of worksheets on food chains and the food web that will make you exam ready. Suitable for: Grade 5, Grade 6. Food Chains and Webs Worksheet. Download PDF. 5th Grade Food Webs and Food Chains Worksheet. Download PDF. Food Web vs Food Chain Practice Worksheet. Download PDF.
Now the real fun begins! Using their knowledge of food chains, they are now going to make a giant, student interactive food web! Students sit on the floor, in a circle, and I hand them the cards that show what each animal eats and who eats them. In the case of plants, there is a list of who eats them. Connect all your students with yarn using ...
See State Standards. Manage Classes & Assignments. Sync with Google Classroom. Create Lessons. Customized Dashboard. Find lessons on Food Webs for all grades. Free interactive resources and activities for the classroom and home.
Browse by curriculum code or learning area. Teaching Resource Collections. Explore resources by theme, topic, strategies, or events. Teaching Resource Packs. ... Forest Biome Food Web - Worksheet Challenge students to create a food web and explain how energy flows between organisms with this cut-and-paste worksheet.
FREE Food Web Worksheets. Get your FREE food web worksheets when you sign up for my newsletter! These food web worksheets cover a variety of habitats. Students will analyze the food web on each worksheet and answer the questions. The focus is on the flow of energy in the food web and patterns of interactions between organisms.
2nd through 4th Grades. View PDF. Food Chain Vocab Cards. This flash card set has vocabulary words and definitions for your unit on food chains. Words include carnivore, omnivore, herbivore, producer, consumer, predator, prey, food chain, food web, organism, and scavenger. 3rd through 5th Grades.
Introduction to Food Webs. This packet of worksheets introduces children to food webs, an important life science concept. Kids can learn the definition of producers, consumers and decomposers, as well as the role the sun and plants play in creating food for animals. Fun graphics and matching exercises make learning these important science ...
The interrelationship between species in the river, wetland, grassland, and woodland habitats of the Platte River prairie ecosystem is a complex, dynamic food system. By exploring food chains and food webs, you will discover how energy is transferred from one organism to another. All living things are connected.
Yes. $1.50. Quantity: Add to Wish List. Description. This worksheet analyzes the various parts of a food web, including: Identifying herbivore, carnivore, omnivore, and apex predator. Analyzing the effect of an extinct population on other populations in the web. Recognizing energy flow through the web.
Click here.) Our subscribers' grade-level estimate for this page: 4th - 5th Food Web Worksheet Read the passage then answer the questions below. Food Chain Page This is a thumbnail of the "Food Web - Information and Questions Worksheet" page. The full-size printout is available only to site members. To subscribe to Enchanted Learning, click ...