Food Web For Plants
PART I: Interconnectedness - Life Cycle
Objectives:
The kids will make a food web for the plants to gain an understanding of how all living things are interconnected and energy/life comes from the sun
show how plants and animals get energy, by telling other students which plants and animals are eaten by other animals.
explain that energy for life comes from the sun.
explain how all living things depend directly or indirectly on green plants for food.
use pictures and arrows to create a food web that includes the sun, green plants, and animals from the woodlands.
PART I: Interconnectedness - Life Cycle
Materials:
Balls of yarn
pictures of Woodland wildlife, plant life and people
Yellow Sun cutouts
poster paper (or large construction paper)
glue or tape
Background understanding:
Energy is the one necessary ingredient to any kind of change. We need to eat food in order to have the energy to play and grow. Guess what? ALL LIVING THINGS GET ENERGY FROM FOOD! Yup. Though not all eat a PB&J.. lol.. Plants actually make their own food, they are called Producers. They use the energy they soak up from the sun, and then they make their own food. Some animals eat these plants in order to have energy to grow themselves. Other animals eat those animals to grow.
THE SUN: (according the US dept of Educations Ag in Ed)
The energy in living things originates from the sun. Green plants are the only living organisms that can use the energy from the sun to make food. Although many children know that the sun keeps plants healthy, they may not know that plants rely on the sun’s energy to make food, or that this food can be used by the plant itself or by animals that eat the plant. For example, a maple tree uses the sun’s energy to make sugar, a food, in its leaves. The tree uses sugar for energy to grow and stay alive. If people eat maple syrup, they get energy from the sugar that was in the tree. But people cannot hold out their hands to the sun and make food in the same way that a maple tree can make food in its leaves.
Children may think that the sun is important because it keeps animals warm. The sun does provide warmth to the animals, but, more importantly, the sun provides the energy that green plants use to produce food. Animals get this energy when they eat plants. To help students understand that animals depend on the sun for food energy, have them think about how long a deer could live if it only basked in the sun and did not eat green plants. The relationship between the sun’s energy and the energy required by living things will become clearer as the children learn about food chains and webs.
Children may cling to the idea that plants draw in usable food from the soil through their roots. It is true that plants absorb water and essential minerals from the soil and that they need water to make food. Food contains energy, however, and the water and minerals in the soil do not contain energy. So plants use the energy from the sunlight plus the water and minerals from the soil along with carbon dioxide from the air to produce food that contains energy.
Food Chain Energy:
In a food chain, energy is transferred along the line. The animals that eat the green plants are called Herbivores. The ones that eat only the Herbivores are called Carnivores. There are even some animals that eat both, called Omnivores.
This ladder is called the Food Chain....the Producers (plants) absorb energy from the sun to make their own food. Then the Primary Consumers eat the plants, these are grubs and ants and worms, etc. Then the Secondary Consumers eat the Primary's. These include the mouse and spider. There are the
A Food Web:
This is like the food chain. It connects the predetors to teh prey, but instead of being done linearly, it is done in a circle around the Sun - which, as previously explained, is the source of energy for all land animals and most ocean animals.
How have humans affected the food chain?
When we spray pesticides, we put the food chain in danger. By breaking one link on the chain means all of the organisms above that link are in threat of extinction (like the domino effect). By hunting animals nearly to extinction, everything above the animal in the food chain is put in danger. A 'chain reaction' in the food chain can be perilous! Since the food chain provides energy that all living things must have in order to survive, it is imperitive that we protect it.
Links in the Food Chain Poem by: Unknown
There once was a flower that grew on the plain.
Where the sun helped it grow, and so did the rain--
Links in a food chain.
Nibbled on flowers for hours and hours!
The bug ate the flower that grew on the plain,Where the sun helped it grow, and so did the rain--
Links in a food chain.
There once was a bird who gobbled up bugs,And creepies and crawlies, and slimies and slugs.
The bird ate the bug, who nibbled on flowers,
Nibbled on flowers for hours and hours!
The bug ate the flower that grew on the plain, Where the sun helped it grow, and so did the rain--
Links in a food chain.
There once was a snake who often grabbed birds,And swallowed them whole, or so I have heard.
The snake ate the bird, who gobbled up bugs,
And creepies and crawlies, and slimies and slugs.
The bird ate the bug, who nibbled on flowers, Nibbled on flowers for hours and hours!
The bug ate the flower that grew on the plain,
Where the sun helped it grow, and so did the rain--
Links in a food chain.
There once was a fox, and I'll make a bet:He'd eat anything he could possibly get.
The fox ate the snake, who often grabbed birds,
and swallowed the whole, or so I have heard.
The snake ate the bird, who gobbled up bugs, And creepies and crawlies, and slimies and slugs.
The bird ate the bug, who nibbled on flowers,
Nibbled on flowers for hours and hours!
The bug ate the flower that grew on the plain,Where the sun helped it grow, and so did the rain--
Links in a food chain.
The fox, he grew older and died one spring day,But he made the soil rich, when he rotted away.
A new flower grew where he died on the plain.
And the sun helped it grow, and so did the rain--
LINKS IN A FOOD CHAIN.
can even be sung to Teh Old Woman Who Swallowed A Fly.
Crafts For The Earth
- Paper Mache Globe Craft by Enchanted Learning.
- Earth Pendent/ Light Catcher by Enchanted Learning