More About:

Fill in the Food Web

Overview:

Students learn about food webs by researching how one animal forms a link in different food chains and displaying this information visually.

 

Curriculum Focus:

 

Materials:

 

Activity:

Print out the Food Web sheet. Make enough photocopies for each student to use.

Review the More About... story. Define and discuss food chains and food webs. Review the examples shown of each. When discussing the food web example, in which the mallard forms a link in many chains, ask students to imagine the food web branching out beyond the first link. Ask if they can think of another food chain that might contain a raccoon or a mosquito, for example. As students discuss their ideas, you might want to recreate this example on the board, using words and lines, and add to it as students make suggestions.

Hand out copies of the Food Web sheet. Explain to students that they must choose one animal for the center of the web design (as the mallard forms the center in the story). They must research what that animal eats and fill in the links around it. Note: You may wish to assign web animals to younger students. Good animals to start with include a mouse, a fish or a spider.

Remind students that the top half of the circle should include animals that would eat their animal. The bottom half of the circle should include animals their animal would eat. Students can draw in their animals, paste in pictures they cut out, or do something else that is visually interesting. Encourage students to use printed materials, CD-ROM's and the Internet if possible for their research. Display students' finished work and discuss it as a class.

Extension idea:

Ask students to create food chains that include humans. Challenge them to create a food web similar to the one used in the main activity. Students will notice they cannot fill in the top half of the circle. Discuss why this is so, and talk about top predators"the final link in food chains"animals that have no natural enemies. You may also wish to discuss the fact that, although humans are top predators, there have been cases of "man-eating animals that have killed people and eaten them.