Good Learning Co.
SavannahYear 8

Year 4 · Teeth, digestion and food chains

Food chains: who eats who

Construct and interpret a variety of food chains, identifying producers, predators and prey

20 minutes4 checks6 exit questionsNational curriculum objective

Lesson overview

What you'll learn in this lesson

Construct and interpret a variety of food chains, identifying producers, predators and prey

Key learning points

  • • Every chain starts with a plant
  • • Which way do the arrows go?
  • • Predator and prey are jobs, not animals
  • • What if one link disappears?

This lesson at a glance

  • 20 minutes
  • 19 parts to scroll through
  • 4 quick checks
  • No marked quiz yet
  • Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses

Words to know

constructinterpretvarietychainsidentifying

Scroll down — the lesson carries on below

Part 1 of 19 · Discover5%
1

Watch & discover

Part 1 of 19

Watch first

Food chains: who eats who

Follow energy as it passes from plants to animals along a food chain.

Do it for real

The practicals below use what the film shows, with a full method you can follow at home.

Which drink is hardest on your teeth?Build a real food chain from your garden or parkModel the journey of your food

In a nutshell

Construct and interpret a variety of food chains, identifying producers, predators and prey

2

What you already know

Part 2 of 19

Before we start

What you already know

You know that plants need light and that animals eat plants or other animals.

3

Key words

Part 3 of 19

Key words

Words you'll need today

producer
A plant that makes its own food using light.
consumer
An animal that eats something else.
predator
An animal that hunts and eats other animals.
prey
An animal that gets eaten.
4

Learning cycle

Part 4 of 19

Learning cycle 1 of 2

Part 1 — Reading a food chain

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

5

Explore the idea

Part 5 of 19

Learn

Every chain starts with a plant

Grass, oak leaves, seaweed, phytoplankton — the first link is always a producer, because plants can make their own food from light. Everything else in the chain depends on that plant, even a hawk that never eats a leaf in its life.

6

Explore the idea

Part 6 of 19

Learn

Which way do the arrows go?

Write grass → rabbit → fox. The arrow means 'is eaten by', so it points the way the energy travels: from the grass into the rabbit, from the rabbit into the fox. People often draw the arrow backwards because they think of the fox doing the eating. Say the words 'is eaten by' out loud as you draw and you will not get it wrong.

7

Quick check

Part 7 of 19

Quick check

In grass → rabbit → fox, the arrow means…

8

Quick check

Part 8 of 19

Quick check

What is the first link in almost every food chain?

9

Reset break

Part 9 of 19

Pause

That's sitting 1 of 2 done

Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.

Stop here for now
10

Learning cycle

Part 10 of 19

Learning cycle 2 of 2

Part 2 — Building your own

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

11

Explore the idea

Part 11 of 19

Learn

Predator and prey are jobs, not animals

In oak leaf → caterpillar → blue tit → sparrowhawk, the blue tit is prey for the sparrowhawk but a predator of the caterpillar. So an animal can be both, depending on which link you look at. The animal at the end, eaten by nothing else in the chain, is the top predator.

12

Explore the idea

Part 12 of 19

Learn

What if one link disappears?

If a disease killed most rabbits, foxes would have less to eat and their numbers would drop, while the grass they no longer nibbled would grow taller. Food chains are joined together into food webs, so a change in one place is felt in several others.

13

Quick check

Part 13 of 19

Quick check

In leaf → caterpillar → blue tit, the caterpillar is…

14

Quick check

Part 14 of 19

Quick check

If rabbits nearly disappeared, foxes would probably…

15

Common mix-ups

Part 15 of 19

Common mix-ups

Things people often get wrong

  • Drawing arrows pointing at the food instead of at the eater.
  • Starting a chain with an animal instead of a plant.
  • Thinking a predator can never be prey.
16

Challenge round

Part 16 of 19

Game · Sort it

Which of these are true?

Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.

True

Not true

17

Challenge round

Part 17 of 19

Game · Fill the gaps

Finish the sentences

Choose the word that belongs in each gap.

Food ____ are joined together into food webs, so a change in one place is felt in several others.

18

Mastery quiz

Part 18 of 19

No quiz for this one

This lesson has no marked quiz attached yet.

19

Lesson round-up

Part 19 of 19

Lesson round-up

Ready when you are

Quiz score

Not sat

Games

Not played

Points this lesson

0

Best run

0 in a row

Luna: 0 out of 4 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?

Ask Luna

Do the work

Your written work for this lesson

This is the part you'd do in your book at school. Pick the pieces below, write here or on paper, and photograph anything you draw or work out.

Case study

Why the school greenhouse failed

A science club grew tomato plants in the school greenhouse. In June the plants grew well: leaves were dark green and the fruit set quickly. In July the club went away for two weeks and left the greenhouse door shut. When they came back, the leaves were curled and pale and most of the fruit had dropped.

The club had a data logger inside. It showed the temperature reached 46 °C on several afternoons and the soil moisture fell close to zero. The club knew photosynthesis needs light, water and carbon dioxide, and that enzymes in a plant work best in a narrow range of temperature. Above that range the enzymes stop working properly.

The club repeated the summer with the door propped open and a water bottle drip on each pot. Temperature peaked at 31 °C and the plants survived.

Written for Good Learning Co.

Reading questions

  1. Name the variable the club changed the second time, and one variable they kept the same.
  2. Explain, using the words photosynthesis and enzymes, why the plants were damaged in July.
  3. Write a conclusion for the club's report, saying how far the evidence supports it.

  • Method and results

    Writing

    Write the aim, what you changed, what you measured and what you kept the same, then record your results in a table.

    1 page + results table

  • Conclusion

    Writing

    Explain what your results show and why, using the scientific words from the lesson. Say how you know you can trust them.

    6–8 sentences

  • Labelled diagram

    Diagram

    Draw the apparatus or the process in pencil, label it fully, and photograph it.

    1 labelled diagram

  • Reading and notes

    Reading

    Read the lesson text again and write the key ideas in your own words.

    Half a page of notes

Saved as you type.

Part 1 of 19 · Watch & discover

Next

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