Faith Hollinger

Grade: 4th
Content: Science
Purpose:

The purpose is for the students to learn about energy flow through an ecosystem as
depicted by food chains. Students will learn how organisms depend on each other in
an ecosystem. They will be able to know what a producer, consumer, and decomposer
is. They will learn about food chains through hands-on activities and cooperative
learning.

VA Science SOL:

4.5 The student will investigate and understand how plants and animals, including
humans, in an ecosystem interact with one another and with the nonliving
components in the ecosystem. Key concepts include
a) plant and animal adaptations;
b) organization of populations, communities, and ecosystems and how they
interrelate;
c) flow of energy through food webs;
d) habitats and niches;
e) changes in an organisms niche at various stages in its life cycle; and
f) influences of human activity on ecosystems.

Objective:

The student will be able to classify organisms as producers, consumers, or decomposers

given a chart with 80% accuracy.

The student will be able to create a food chain given pictures of organisms with 100%
accuracy.

Procedure:

a. Introduction

Tell the students that today they will be learning more about animals and food chains.
Ask students what they already know about food chains.
Go through the PowerPoint presentation and ask students questions as you go over food
chains. (1st E: ENGAGEMENT) (Visual & Auditory)
Slide 1: What is an Ecosystem? (The interaction between living and non-living things).
Slide 2: Where do you think you get your energy to live? (Food)
Next show the short video clip about food chains. (Visual)

b. Development

After the PowerPoint presentation, do a class activity demonstrating a food web. (2nd E:
EXPLORATION)
Everyone in the class will stand in a circle and each student will get a sign to wear
representing an organism in a food chain. The student representing the sun should stand
in the center and start with the ball of yarn. Explain that the ball of yarn represents
sunbeams, or energy from the sun. Ask the student representing the sun to hold the end of
the yarn and toss the ball of yarn to someone else who can use that energy (a plant). Then
the student representing a plant would hold the piece of yarn and toss the ball of yarn to
someone else who could use that energy. (Kinesthetic)
First have the students practice a food web with your guidance. For example, a student
will be a seed, another a chipmunk, another a bear, and lastly a hawk. A string will go
from the seeds to the chipmunk, from the chipmunk to the bear, and from the bear to the
hawk. Tell the students to whom they should toss the ball of yarn to (where the energy is
going).
Then tell the students that there is a drought and the plants die before they can make a
seed. The seed drops its string and then so does everyone else. Ask students how the
drought affects the other animals in the food chain. Students will begin to see how
various organisms depend on each other. (3rd E: EXPLANATION)
Have students start a new food web. The ball of yarn will start out with the sun and this
time it can choose where to pass its energy. Then explain that one of the organisms got
extinct and it must drop its string. Ask students how this affects other organisms in the
food web.
Thank students for their participation and have them sit back down at their seats.
Students will then work with their table. They will have cards with pictures of organisms
that are producers, consumers, or decomposers within an ecosystem. (Visual) As a group,
the students will classify these pictures into the above categories. When the group is
finished classifying all organisms, each student will write them down on the Classifying
Organisms worksheet. They will also answer all three problems at the bottom. (Visual)
After students are done with the Classifying Organisms worksheet, have them make their
own food chain. Each student will have a paper with pictures of organisms and they must
cut and paste each organism where it would go in the food chain. They will be pasting
these pictures on the Food Chain worksheet.

5th E: EVALUATION- students will demonstrate what they learned working with their
table and filling out the two worksheets. The rubric will be used to evaluate student
understanding.

Differentiation:

There will be cooperative learning through groups to help students that will struggle with
the lesson.

Materials:

PowerPoint presentation

Pictures of animals/organisms pasted on index cards for Classifying Organisms

worksheet (for each group)

Small pictures of animals for Food Chain worksheet (for each student)

Index cards

Yarn

Classifying Organisms worksheet

Food Chain worksheet

Evaluation Part A:

I will assess the students knowledge of new skills taught by looking at their two
worksheets.

For the Classifying Organisms worksheet, I will assess students by checking to see if they
put the correct organism in each category of the table. Students will have a total of 7
animal pictures that they need to classify. They also have three questions at the bottom
about producers, consumers, and decomposers. Students must get 8 out of the possible 10
points to meet the objective. Each question and each animal classified is one point.

For the Food Chain worksheet, I will assess students by checking to see if they pasted
each organism in the correct place of the food chain diagram. Students must put the
organisms in the correct order starting with producers and then going to consumers.

Rubric- Classifying Organisms worksheet

Evidence

Present

Points

Categorizes organism as a
producer.

3 points (1 point for each

producer)

Categorizes organism as a
consumer.

3 points (1 point for each

producer)

Categorizes organism as a
decomposer.

1 point (there is only one

organism that is a
decomposer)

Matches the word producer

based on description of what
the organism is. (One of the
questions at the bottom)

1 point

Matches the word consumer

based on the description of
what the organism is.

1 point

Matches the word decomposer

based on the description of
what the organism is.

1 point

Rubric- Food Chain worksheet

Evidence

Present

Points

There is a producer directly

below the sun.

1 point

There is a correct consumer

below the producer.

1 point

There is another consumer

below that gets its energy from
that consumer.

1 point

All pictures are neatly cut out

and pasted onto the worksheet.

1 point