Food Chains - Lesson Plan

Lesson Plan

1. Start with Hangman game on word “food chains and food webs”
2. Share objectives for lesson.

3. Begin the lesson with the question: “What did you eat for dinner last night?" Break responses down
into individual ingredients (separate lasagna into pasta, beef, tomatoes, and cheese) and write them on
the board.

4. Once you have a broad sampling, begin categorizing the ingredients into producers, and consumers.
Use questions such as:

o Which of these foods come from plants?

o Which of these foods don't come from plants? (If mushrooms are on the board, remember that
technically mushrooms are fungi not plants!)

At this point, introduce the idea of producers as plants, or more scientifically, as organisms that make
their own food through photosynthesis. Introduce the idea of consumers as animals, or more
scientifically, as organisms that eat producers or other consumers.

5. Break down the consumer category further into herbivore, carnivore, omnivore, and dentritivore (or
decomposer). Use questions such as:
o Of the consumers, which are animals that eat plants?

o Which are animals that eat other animals?

o Which eat both?

o Are there any decomposers? (Mushrooms, crab, shrimp, and lobster are likely to be the only
decomposers.)

Introduce the vocabulary words herbivore, carnivore, omnivore, and dentritivore at this point and give
the formal definitions.

6. Ask students to describe what a food chain is and give them a task to draw food chains (task 1).
Possibility to use cards for task 1 instead of worksheet if enough time to prepare cards.

Students will come up to the board to draw their food chain. Students can be asked the type for each
organism (carnivore, herbivore…) as they give answers.

7. Introduce second task. Students explain what the difference is between a food chain and a food web.
8. On board, they participate to questions on wrong food web and the trophic levels.

9. Extension sheet is there for pupils to do and draw the arrows in the food web.

10. Check objectives for the lesson.

11. Quiz at the end to check understanding of pupils on food webs.