Download NN-13B: Urban Food Chain Puppets

NN-13B: Urban Food Chain Puppets
Overview: Construct food chains using the Urban Banner and Finger
Puppets to see how plants and animals interact with each other.
An activity from the
Environmental Volunteers
Program Area:
Nature in Your Neighborhood
Grade Levels:
K-2
EV Learning Objectives:
1. All living things need sun,
earth, air and water to
survive.
2. Plants make their own food
using energy from the sun;
animals eat plants and/or
other animals; decomposers
break down things that have
died so the plants can use
them.
3. A food chain shows how
each living thing gets its
food; a food web is made up
of many food chains; we are
all linked together in one
way or another
EV Sustainability
Principals:
E. Understanding the beauty
of our planet, the elegance of
natural systems, and the
interconnectedness of all its
parts.
MATERIALS LIST
Oak Tree Banner
Bags of Finger Puppets:
1. Decomposers: worm, mushroom, slug/snail
2. Producers: acorn, oak leaf, grass, flowers
3. Omnivores: raccoon, duck, human
4. Herbivores: squirrel, deer, butterfly, bee, dragonfly
5. Carnivores: owl, hawk, snake, spider, frog
6. Elements: earth, air, sun, water
Word Cards: Producer, Consumer, Herbivore, Carnivore,
Omnivore, Decomposer
CALIFORNIA EDUCATIONAL STANDARDS
All standards are for science unless otherwise noted. 1
First Grade
• 2b. Students know both plants and animals need water, animals
need food, and plants need light.
• 2c. Students know animals eat plants or other animals for food
and may also use plants or even other animals for shelter and
nesting.
EEI Learning Objectives
• 2a-4. Explain that if there are significant changes to natural
systems (environments) plant and animals may not be able to
survive in those areas.
• 2c-1 Identify the different type of food that animals eat and
categorize the sources of those foods as plants or animals.
Second Grade
• 2e. Students know light, gravity, touch, or environmental stress
can affect the germination, growth, and development of plants.
EEI Learning Objectives
• 2e-3. Predict what happens to a plant when a specific change in
the environment occurs (e.g., there is suddenly no water).
• 3c-1. Describe the importance of soil to plants and natural
systems.
1
Note about EEI Learning Objectives: this learning station supports these objectives of the Education
and the Environment Initiative’s Environmental Principles and Concepts. As the learning objectives do
not have their own numbering convention, the one used here show the number of the standard before the
dash and the number after the dash is the bullet point from the list of objectives for that standard.
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•
•
3c-3. Identify the role of decomposition in returning organic materials to soil.
3e-1. Recognize rocks, water, plants and soil as components of natural systems.
ACTIVITY
BEFORE CLASS SET UP
Have a group of finger puppets ready to hand out to the students that are pre-sorted into a food
chain. Some examples might be:
Sun ⇒ Oak Leaf ⇒ squirrel ⇒ snake ⇒ owl ⇒ Mushroom
Earth ⇒ grass ⇒ duck ⇒ hawk ⇒ snail
INTRODUCTION
(Time required:2 minutes)
What do all living things need to survive? (Sun, Earth, Air and Water). Today we are going to
create some “food chains” using finger puppets to help us understand how plants and animals
depend on each other and how all living things need the sun, earth, air and water to survive.
ACTIVITY 1: Lonely Oak Tree
(Time required:10-15 minutes)
Pass out the finger puppets (one to each child) and tell them their puppet’s name.
Tell the children that when you say the name of their puppet, they should hold the puppet up in
the air on their finger.
Test them out by calling out a few names.
Ask them to say the story with you (it is repetitive, so they can chant with you).
STORY:
This is the Oak Tree that stands in the meadow all alone.
This is the Acorn that falls from the Oak Tree that stands in the meadow all alone.
This is the Field Mouse that eats the acorns that fall from the oak tree that stands in the meadow
all alone.
This is the Owl that eats the mouse that eats the acorns that fall from the oak tree that stands in
the meadow all alone.
Ask the children if there are any other puppets (animals / plants / elements) that might be part of
the meadow too.
Help them to arrange some of the other puppets into a food chain (e.g. Sun/water/earth/air- oak
tree – leaf- squirrel – snake – owl – mushroom). You can do the same story links as above, or if
they can, have them do it alone. You might need to get them started (e.g. This is the sun that
gives energy to the oak tree. This is the oak tree that grows in the meadow that gets energy from
the sun. This is the leaf that falls from the oak tree that grows in the meadow, etc.).
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Explain that plants are called producers because they make, or produce, their own food. Animals
are called consumers because they eat, or consume, other living things to get their food. Special
living things like the mushroom and the worm are called decomposers because they help break
dead things down and return them to the earth.
After the children have created several food chains, ask them what they would call something
that links things together the way they have linked them. Explain food chain.
Ask the group if they know why in nature, if one link of a food chain becomes extinct or
becomes scarce, all of the other links are affected. Present the concept that we are all linked in
one way or another.
TWO-MINUTE WARNING
(Time required: 2 minutes)
Have students review the main vocabulary words
CLEAN UP
Sort puppets back into their corresponding bags.
ALTERNATE SCRIPTS
As an introduction, use the Urban Food Web Finger Puppets version of the script (NN-13A or
NN-13C)
HELPFUL HINTS
GLOSSARY
Food Chain: A food chain shows how each living thing gets its food.
Food Web: A food web is made up of many food chains.
Producer: Plants that take energy from the sun and use it to make their own food.
Consumer: Animals that eat plants and/or other animals.
Decomposer: An organism that breaks down things that have died so the plants can use them.
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SCIENCE BACKGROUND
The following information is provided to help familiarize the EV with seven basic concepts in
Ecology. It is intended to assist them in developing a basic understanding of ecological
principles and provide a foundation upon which to teach the Oak Tree Banner Lesson.
1. ALL LIVING THINGS DEPEND (directly or indirectly) ON EARTH, AIR, SUN AND
WATER FOR SURVIVAL.
2. LIVING THINGS ARE ADAPTED TO THEIR ENVIRONMENT; THEY CHANGE
AND MAKE CHANGE (change occurs over time).
3. LIVING THINGS DEPEND (directly or indirectly) ON OTHER LIVING THINGS FOR
SURVIVAL (interdependent).
4. ALL LIVING THINGS HAVE A NICHE WITHIN AN ECOSYSTEM.
a. Organisms have specific roles within an ecosystem; this creates a niche (special
role and space) within their habitat.
b. The variety of organisms in their niches and habitats within an ecosystem
comprise a community.
5. LIVING THINGS ARE PRODUCERS OR
CONSUMERS.
a. Producers (autotrophs or “self-feeders”) - Manufacture their own food and
provide the basic energy within a food web. These are primarily green plants that
use chlorophyll and other pigments to manufacture food via photosynthesis (using
energy from the sun, they combine carbon dioxide and water to produce sugars
and oxygen). Producers are consumed by first order (primary) consumers.
Note: There are some producers that
manufacture food by chemosynthesis
(e.g. specialized bacteria in geothermal vents,
hot springs, etc.).
b. Consumers (heterotrophs or “other feeders”) - Require an external food source.
There are 2 main categories:
1. Those that feed on living organisms:
a. Herbivores (primary consumers) - eat mostly plant material.
b. Carnivores – mainly eat other animals (secondary consumers eat
herbivores, tertiary consumers eat other carnivores).
c. Omnivores - eat both plants &
animals.
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2. Those that feed on dead plant and animal matter, or organic debris (detritus):
a. Scavengers – directly consume dead organisms, wastes, detritus
(vultures, etc.).
b. Decomposers – decay and absorb detritus and organic matter (fungi,
bacteria, etc.).
Note: Food and energy relationships among plants
and animals can be demonstrated by models such as
food chains and food webs:
Food Chain Model is linear (producer, primary
consumer, secondary consumer, tertiary consumer,
decomposer).
Food Web Model is non-linear multiple links with
several organisms being dependent on one another.
6. MATERIALS ARE RECYCLED; ENERGY IS TRANSFERRED IN DIFFERENT
FORMS.
7. HUMANS ARE DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE HEALTH OF THE PLANET.
EV SUGGESTS- TIPS, TRICKS, AND NEWS
REFERENCES
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