Here are some ideas to make teaching about Ecosystems and Food Chains fun and engaging.
1. Hand out cards with names of organisms on them and maybe pictures. 2. Students try to identify if they are a
producer, consumer, secondary consumer or decomposer.
3. Students take their card and tape it to their shirt with the animal and name showing.
4. One student or the teacher is the Sun. The Sun has a ball of yarn. Hanging on to the end of the string the sun hands the ball of yarn to
one of the producers.
5. The producer will hold on to their section of the string and hand it to a primary consumer that might consume the producer. This goes on and an elaborate web is made.
6. When you get to the end of the chain and have reached a tertiary consumer you can give the string to a decomposer and then back to a producer. The consumer at the top of a food chain eventually dies and is consumed by decomposers.
7. What happens if you lose a member of the ecosystem? Have one of the students let go of their string. How does that affect the rest of the ecosystem?
Remember that the yarn is showing the flow of energy so it starts with the sun and goes towards the thing that consumes it.
Discuss the food web that you have created. Could it have gone a different way? What happened when we removed a key component of the ecosystem?
Next I have students read some informational text about ecosystems, abiotic and biotic factors, habitat related to whatever standards I am trying to hit. I like to do this in a CLOSE Reading Format followed by Interactive notebook Flaps.
Next I have students do some hands on sorting activities with task cards and sorting cards.
Other Related Resources include:
3. Students take their card and tape it to their shirt with the animal and name showing.
4. One student or the teacher is the Sun. The Sun has a ball of yarn. Hanging on to the end of the string the sun hands the ball of yarn to
one of the producers.
5. The producer will hold on to their section of the string and hand it to a primary consumer that might consume the producer. This goes on and an elaborate web is made.
6. When you get to the end of the chain and have reached a tertiary consumer you can give the string to a decomposer and then back to a producer. The consumer at the top of a food chain eventually dies and is consumed by decomposers.
7. What happens if you lose a member of the ecosystem? Have one of the students let go of their string. How does that affect the rest of the ecosystem?
Remember that the yarn is showing the flow of energy so it starts with the sun and goes towards the thing that consumes it.
Discuss the food web that you have created. Could it have gone a different way? What happened when we removed a key component of the ecosystem?
Next I have students read some informational text about ecosystems, abiotic and biotic factors, habitat related to whatever standards I am trying to hit. I like to do this in a CLOSE Reading Format followed by Interactive notebook Flaps.
Next I have students do some hands on sorting activities with task cards and sorting cards.
I may have them construct their own mini ecosystem.
(includes ecosystem sorting cards)
NGSS Ecosystem for Middle School 20% Savings
(includes ecosystem sorting cards)
(includes ecosystem sorting cards)
(Includes ecosystem sorting cards with organisms native to Utah)
Thank you for reading my ideas on Ecosystem, Habitat, and Food Chains.
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