Lesson Plan of Food Chain General Science Grade IV

Lesson Plan of Food Chain

General Science Grade IV

Students’ Learning Outcomes

·         Define producers, consumers and decomposers and explain their importance in food chain.

·         Make a simple food chain to show relationship among producers, consumers and decomposers.

Information for Teachers

·         Plants are called producers because they are able to produce food (glucose) from carbon dioxide and water in the presence of sun light.

·         Animals can’t make their own food so they must eat plants or other animals. That’s why they called consumers.

·         Consumers can be divided into three groups;

v  Animals that eat only plants are called herbivores or consumer-I e.g. rabbit, sheep, goat, cow etc.

v  Animals that eat other animals (herbivores) are called carnivores or consumer-II e.g. lion, leopard etc.

v  Animals that eat other animals (carnivores) are called consumers-III e.g. snake, hawk etc.

·         Animals feed on dead body of plants and animals and after decomposition convert them into simpler compound, are called decomposers e.g. bacteria and fungi.

·         A food chain is the sequence of “who eats whom” in an environment e.g.

·         Arrows represents the energy flow in a food chain.

·         If one part of a food chain alerts, the whole food chain is affected. For example, if a disease suddenly wiped out butterfly caterpillars, it would affect owls, eagles and many other animals.

Grass----------butterfly Caterpillar ----------Owl------------Eagle

Material / Resources

Pictures of animals and plants, charts of food chain, papers, textbook

Worm up Activity

·         Ask questions relevant to the topic:

v  From where do we get our food?

v  Why do we need food?

v  What do plants and animals get their food?

v  From where do animals get their food?

v  From where do plants get their food?

v  How we, animals and plants are related to each other?

·         To make food chain, draw relation among plants, animals and man e.g.

     Plants --------------- Cow -----------------Man

Development

Activity 1

·         Demonstrate some examples of simple food chains.

·         Introduce the concept of plants as producers i.e. organisms that make their own food through photosynthesis.

·         Introduce the concept of animals as consumers i.e. organisms that eat producers or other consumers.

·         Explain the role of decomposers in all food chains.

·         Ask students to make a food chain by making a sequence of the following organisms. The students will also mention the producer and the consumers.

Activity 2

·         Introduce a complex food chain i.e. with more than one consumer. Categorize the consumers as consumer- I, II, III and so on.

Activity 3

·         Reinforce the learning of food chain through the following role-play:

v  Write the word producer, herbivore, carnivore-I, carnivore-II and carnivore-III on a separate paper.

v  Give one paper to each student.

v  Whatever the paper says, that becomes the student’s role in the food chain.

v  Paste the paper to their backs.

v  Herbivore tries to catch the producer. When a producer gets tagged the two students link arms.

v  Carnivore-I tries to catch the herbivore and when he / she is successful, they link arms.

v  Carnivore-II tries to catch the carnivore –I and when he / she is successful, they link arms.

v  Similarly, carnivore-III tries to catch the carnivore-II and when he is successful, they link arms.

·         Ask students to draw the developed food chain on paper.

Sum up / Conclusion

·         Each living thing, whether it is a plant or animal, depends on nutrients and energy to survive.

·         Food chain tells us how the food is passed from organism to organism.

·         All food chains start with plants that make their own food. These are called producers.

·         Next come organisms that eat plants. These organisms are called consumer-I and we know that they are herbivores.

·         Then come the animals that eat herbivores. These are called consumer-II and we know that they are carnivores.

·         In all food chains; when any organism dies, it is eaten and broken down by decomposers. Some bacteria and fungi are decomposers.

Assessment

Activity 1

·         Ask students to make corrections in the following food chain

Activity 2

·         Make a table on the board and ask students to copy the table on their note books.

Consumer-II	Organism that feeds on plants
Consumer-I	Order in which food passes from one living thing to another
Producer	Break down the dead body of animals and plants
Food chain	Living organism that is capable of manufacturing its food
Decomposer	Organism that eats animals

Activity 3

·         Ask students to make a correct sequence of plants and animals in the following activities (or the similar ones). If pictures are not available, write the names of these organisms on the board.

Follow up

·         Ask students to complete the food chains by filling in the blank boxes with the correct consumers or producers given in the underneath food chains.

Food chain 1:

Grasshopper, Grass, Hawk, Snake, Rat

Food chain 2:

Birds, Cat, Snail, Grass algae

Food chain 3:

Grass, Fox, Rabbit, Bear

Types of organisms	Food chain 1	Food chain 2	Food chain 3
Producer
Consumer –I
Consumer-II
Consumer-III

·      

   Ask the students to separate different food chains in the following diagram.