Food Chain Unit

It's been a while since I did any type of homepreschooling update. One of the most involved units we did over the past few months though was one focused on the food chain. Inspired by the book in the picture below that I found in the "Life Cycles" kit at the library, we explored just how dependent all living things are on each other.

At another visit to the library, I typed in a quick "food chain" search and came up with tons of options. Many of the books we used were more narrative in style, but we also explored nonfiction too. 

One of my favorites was Dory Story - an adventure narrative about a little boy who disobeys his mother and sneaks away in his small boat where he experiences the food chain first hand. One animal after another joins the scene in the ocean under him. Each one is bigger and more dangerous until finally his boat is tipped over and he's thrust into the water - only to find out it was all a dream.

Most of the books I found, in one way or another, revolved around some type of water habit. Trout Are Made of Trees was probably the one that gave us the closest picture of a habitat we'd find in our area, describing how the leaves that fall into streams are used as food and start the whole cycle. Swamp Chomp took us to the wetlands to explore a food chain there while Horseshoe Crabs and Shore Birds: The Story of a Food Web gave us a peak at the Delaware Bay. The kids favorite was definitely A Hole at the Bottom of the Sea, which included a CD with upbeat music and a catchy song. I couldn't even tell you how many times we played those tunes over and over. They didn't just sit around either; this was dancing music! Even months later, Hadley is still asking me about it.

Go, Caleb, go

Maracas! Perfect!

Here comes the princess!

Reid, you are getting a little too crazy with this!

One of the most informative texts we used was What Are Food Chains and Webs? While it was a bit meatier, especially for Hadley, I really liked the direction this book took us as we learned to look at things not just in a linear pattern but as everything being interconnected, forming webs. We learned new terms like herbivore, carnivore, omnivores, decomposers, and scavengers as well as that there are multiple levels of consumers: primary and secondary. In addition, this was probably the only place where we found information about the transfer of energy from the sun to plants to herbivores to carnivores; the highest amounts of energy being found in plants at the bottom of the energy pyramid and the top being carnivores. This was important so that the kids understood the role the sun plays, but it also made me stop and think about OUR diets. If the most energy comes from consuming plants, shouldn't we be eating a lot more of those to maximize our daily productivity and alertness? Makes sense!

We took this book a day at a time, reading it in several sittings to digest the material.

Beyond just reading, I thought it would be good to give the kids some activities to support what we'd talked about. Pinterest, of course, was my go to. (Why reinvent the wheel, right?) As expected I found some great ideas and many that were easy to do even with kids as young as mine.

The first was using Styrofoam cups with pictures as a stacking tool to show each animal consuming the other. This provided a great visual of predators chomping their prey.

I already had the cups in my pantry, so all I had to do was find a few pics on Google Images, print, cut them out, and tape them on. 

Here is the original site where I found this idea: http://eisforexplore.blogspot.com/2012/10/food-chain-stacking-cups.html

Caleb really enjoyed this activity and played it multiple times.

While Hadley couldn't do many of other activities we used, the cup stacking was right up her alley - a game. Caleb could do the activity independently, so it was a good reinforcer for him. For Hadley though, it was right about at her "zone of proximal development;" she was trying to use what she knew yet still struggled with some confusion, so Mommy helped guide her as needed.

As part of my Pinterest search, I also ran into an incredible resource that I plan to use a lot in the future - www.stemmom.org. This lady had created a wonderful food chain activity for her son, who was doing a unit on worms. She included not only pictures of her child using the picture cards she created to sort and create food webs but also full instruction for how to use them and the printables so that all I had to do was print, cut, and follow along. Though I tweaked a few things to better suit our unit, it was a perfect find! (P.S. Her son is named Caleb too!)

After reviewing the vocabulary on the cards, Caleb and I began our sort placing plants in the "Producer" column, herbivores under the "Plant Eater" one, etc. This turned out to be really cool as I got to watch Caleb's thought process and was so impressed that he knew many things about what animals ate that I didn't know. A few that he placed in the omnivore category, I had no idea ate both plants and animals, but sure enough a google search proved him right and put Mommy in the "you've still got a lot to learn" category. When we came to an animal that both of us weren't sure about, once again we used computer to find out, providing a lesson in how to research for information.

Look at the excitement in his face as he did this. It was so engaging for him.

After sorting every animal in their correct role column, we then began to build food chains. Stem Mom recommended using a plastic table cloth to let the kids draw, so I picked one up at the Dollar Tree just for the occasion. Once we had the headings in place and the arrows drawn, it was easy to swap the animals in and out to try out different types of chains.

The next step was to create a food web. Caleb needed a lot more direction at this point, but working together, we came up with quite a masterpiece.

Finally, we went back to add the labels. 

Caleb also really enjoys learning via the computer, so I was happy to discover a few online sites with games to use as well.

The first introduced some basic vocab and info that we'd already studied previously, providing review. Then it allowed him to create a "Northern" or "Forest" food chain. If the chain was put together correctly, the page would even display a cartoon of the animals acting out the process.

Another allowed for trying his hand at a meadow, arctic, and pond food web. In each set, there is an emphasis on making sure the kids know the sun is an invaluable part of the whole process.

The most complex game involved making a food web with a group of pictures and some arrows. Caleb needed a little extra help with this one, particularly with using the mouse and getting everything to line up just right.

I feel like this whole unit just kind of fell into my lap - from the idea to the resources I didn't have to put much thought or work into it. That said, I am glad it did! Not only was it easy and did the kids (especially Caleb) learn a lot, but it was so engaging for them. 

Since we finished up, we've even revisted these topics occasionally when there was a tie in with something were doing like gardening. And, tonight I even quizzed Caleb orally about some of the vocabulary, pleased to hear how solidly he could answer my questions even months after we did this. 

I hope this post is helpful to others who are looking for something fun and educational to try.