student lesson plan - "Food Chain"

This is a lesson plan presented in the Feb. 2012 Oxford Seminar class

Class:  Elementary    8-10 children     8 years of age                                                                  Date: Time:  45 minutes

Objectives:  - At the end of the class students will understand the basic concepts of a food chain. -  Students will understand the terms predator and prey

Materials: Pictures of different animals, tape white board/ white board marker, scissors, crayons, pictures to colour in, different colour paper,

Set-up: Sitting in a horse shoe shape on the ground in front of me

Engage:  Sing a food chain song with the students.  This song can be modified to a local food chain so that the children can better relate to the lesson. (10-15 mins.) - song link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QT2mPEVmjv0 - Ask the students if they can name some of their favourite animals (various sizes). Ask them to imitate the animal sounds (5-7 minutes.)

Study: Set up 4-5 parts of the food chain on the board and ask students questions as to which animal(s) eats which animal(s). ( 5 minutes) -        Create a small food chain as a class on the board. -        Teach the children that the big animals are called predators and small animals are called prey ( 5-7 mins) -        Game - In teams, 2 students race to touch either the predator or prey depending on what the teacher calls out. 5 mins

Activate:   -        Have students colour the predators in red and the prey in blue (5 – 10 min) -        Play the game predator and prey. 10 -15 min (see below for game instructions)

Evaluation:  See what the students got for food and see if this made sense. Question them about their selections. (Why did they get that type of food for that animal etc?) (5 minutes.)

Follow up:  The next day we will expand on our knowledge of the food chain, however our warm up activity will require students to remember what they did last class. (i.e.  What a predator is and what a prey is.  Also, they should remember how to create a basic food chain).

Understood before the lesson:

I have been teaching this same group of children for the last month.  They are at the elementary level, and are able to answer questions that I ask.  Today is the first day in our food chain section.  The purpose is to give the students examples of the entire food chain before we go more in depth with specifics.

Predator and Prey Game:  Different colours of papers represent different element of the food chain.  Students pick a paper from a hat.  Each paper will represent a different animal.  The students then circulate the room looking for food that they can eat.  At the end we talk about the food they chose to eat.  This will demonstrate whether they understand how the food chain works.