Intro to Food Webs

Introduction: It is important to teach students about what a food web in and its importance to our planet. This is a great lesson to teach to 3rd and 4th graders in a science lesson.

What is a food web?

A food web is a group food chains within an ecosystem. Living things can eat more than one type of plant or animal. So a food wed is an overlapping and intertwining of food chains. 

What is the difference versus a predator and prey. 

A predator is an animal that hunts another animal for food. 

A prey is the animal that is being hunted for another animal to eat for food. 

Now, Let’s play a game!

What are the important features of a food web?

A producer is a living thing that makes/produces its own food.

A consumer is a living thing that gets energy by eating other living things.

A decomposer is a living thing that gets energy by breaking down dead animals and plants. 

Discussion Questions:

1. Why are food webs important to an ecosystem?
2. What happens if a part of the food chain is missing?
3. What is the difference between a food web and a food chain?
4. What is the difference between producers, consumers, and decomposers?
5. What examples of producers, consumers, and decomposers?
6. Who hunts other animals for food? The prey or the predator?

Activity: Create your own food web poster. Students will be creative and illustrate their own food web. There should be at least 5 parts to their food web (1 producer, 3 consumers, 1 decomposer). The poster should be colorful and creative. Students should include drawings or each part of their food chain. Students can choose their own desired habitat to base the food chain off of.