Lesson Plan for College of Education

NAME: Sarah Hope Carlson DATE OF LESSON: 03/21/2017

Food Chains
http://afaithfulattempt.blogspot.com/2014/12/food-chain-collage.html?spref=pi
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Food-Chains-and-Food-Webs-192709

State Standard: 3.L.5A.2 Develop and use a food chain model to classify organisms as
producers, consumers, and decomposers and to describe how organisms obtain energy.

Learning Objective(s): Students will learn what food chains are and the various roles of living
things in them (i.e. producers, primary consumers, secondary consumers, decomposers) and to
complete food chains.

Essential Question(s): What is a food chain? What is a producer, consumer (primary and
secondary), decomposer?

Assessment: Students will create a food chain collage and label which animals are the producers
and consumers.

Activities/Procedures:
Opening Hook and Essential Question
Good morning, class! Before we get started, I have a very important question for you. By
a raise of hands, how many of you ate breakfast this morning? Alright, interesting. Do any of you
know why it’s important to eat breakfast? What does food give you?
Listen to a few responses until you get the answer of “energy.”
Excellent! That is exactly what we’re going to be talking about today.
Activities
Open eMaze.
We’re going to be finding out what a food chain is and how it works.
Flip to second slide.
A food chain is how energy moves from one living thing to another based on what they
eat, and since it’s a chain, it has lots of different parts.
Flip slide.
The first step in a food chain is always the sun because all energy comes from the sun.
Flip slide.
Step 2 is the producers. Producers take energy from the sun and use it to make their own
food. What kind of living things do you know about that get energy and food from the sun?
(evaluate)
Look for the answer “plants.”
Perfect, and we call them “producers” because they produce their own food.
Flip slide.
The next step is the consumers. Consumers are living things that can’t make their own
food, so they have to eat other living things to get energy. That’s why we call them “consumers”
because they consume other living things for food. There are two types of consumers:
Flip slide.
 Primary consumers and secondary consumers. Primary consumers only eat plants (or
producers) to get energy,
Flip slide.
But secondary consumers eat other animals (or consumers) to get energy. Raising your
hands, what is one animal you can distinguish goes into the category of a primary consumer?
(analyze)
Call on one student to share. Elaborate on response.
And who can give me an example of a secondary consumer? (analyze)
Call on one student. Elaborate. Flip slide.
After the consumers, the fourth part of a food chain is the decomposers. These take apart
dead plants and dead animals. They’re kind of like the garbage disposal of the food chain. They
take out the “trash,” and they’re usually bacteria and fungi.
Flip slide.
Alright. Let’s play a game and see if you guys have been paying attention.-7 minutes
Open food chain game.
Can I have one volunteer, please?
Choose student and call them up to the board.
[insert student’s name] is going to be our scribe. In this game, we’re going to get a list of
living things, and we need to put them in the right order to complete the food chain. Are you
ready? Can you solve the food chain? (apply)
Depending on how much time there is, decide whether to do all 7 food chains or just the
first 4 or 5. Also, consider letting different students come up for each chain and letting them
phone a friend if they get stuck.-12 minutes
Nice job! Have a seat, please. Now, that you’ve gotten some practice in, you’re going to
make a food chain collage.
Flip slide.
The first thing you’re going to do is get your food chain. You’ll have either the tundra
which has a plant, a frog, a fish, a seal, and a polar bear, or the sea with the sun, algae, a small fish,
and a bigger one, or you might have the jungle with a plant, a rabbit, a snake, a bear, and a tiger.
You’re going to get a little baggie with all of the shapes cut out already, and what I want you to
do is color them with your crayon kits and glue them in the right order according to the food chain.
Then, on the back, I want you to judge which of the animals is a producer and which is a consumer
and write it down (evaluate).
Walk around supervising work and helping where needed.-18 minutes
Closure
Awesome. Please, write your names on your papers and stack them at the center of your
tables. Before I turn it back to Miss Graves, can anyone tell me what a producer is?
Look for answers similar to the definition given earlier.
What about a primary consumer?
Look for answers similar to the definition given earlier.
A secondary consumer?
Look for answers similar to the definition given earlier.
What is a decomposer?
Perfect. Thank you so much, class! Miss Graves? -3 minutes
Total time: 40 minutes

Accommodation:
 Special Education
Autism: I think these activities lend themselves well to the autistic student. There
is no need for extensive writing or reading which is what he struggles with, and he sits at
the cooperating teacher’s desk so that she can help him if he should need more assistance.
Materials:

1) eMaze on Food Chains:

2) Food Chain game:
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/content/animals/kidscorner/games/foodchaingame.ht
m
3) Pre-cut out shapes for food chain collages.

Development of Critical Thinking and Problem Solving:

1) Can you solve the food chain? (apply)
2) What kind of living things do you know about that get energy and food from the sun?
(evaluate)
3) Raising your hands, what is one animal you can distinguish goes into the category of a
primary consumer? (analyze)
4) And who can give me an example of a secondary consumer? (analyze)
5) Then, on the back, I want you to judge which of the animals is a producer and which is a
consumer and write it down (evaluate).
.