Developmental Lesson Plan

Teacher Candidate: Paige Miller Date: 9/30/18

Group Size: 21 Allotted Time: 30 minutes – 2 days Grade Level: First-grade

Subject or Topic: Lesson 3 – The Food Chain

Common Core/PA Standard(s):

4.1 Ecology
4.1.1C Describe a simple food chain within a terrestrial habitat.

Learning Targets/Objectives:
The first-grade students will be able to understand, identify, and create a simple food chain
diagram of organisms within a terrestrial habitat of their choice with their table group
members.

Assessment Approaches: Evidence:

1. Thumbs up/down 1. Number of thumbs
2. Food Web Mural Project 2. Completed group mural
3. Presentation 3. Participation checklist
4. Science notebook check 4. Completion checklist

Assessment Scale:
2). 4-Proficent 3-2 Basic 1 Below Basic

Subject Matter/Content:
Prerequisites: The students will need to understand that all organisms need food to survive and
that different organisms consume different types of food.

Key Vocabulary:
Food Chain: A series of living beings in which each serves as food for the next.
Sun: The star in the middle of the solar system, the earth and other planets revolve around it
and receive heat and light from it.
Energy: The power or the ability to make something work or be active.
Plants: A living thing that has leaves, makes its own food, and has roots that usually grow in
the Earth.
Animals: A living creature that is not a plant or a human.
Producers: An organism who makes its own food through photosynthesis.
Consumers: a predator that eats to survive.
Photosynthesis: The process by which a green plant uses sunlight to change water and carbon
dioxide into food for itself.
Herbivores: An animal that only feeds on plants.
Carnivores: An animal that only eats meat.
Omnivores: An animal that lives on a diet of both plants and animals.
Habitat: The natural environment of an animal or plant.

Content/Facts: How do different organisms get energy?

How the food chain works and why it is an important cycle?

Introduction/Activating/Launch Strategies: (5 minutes)

Day 1
Begin by asking the students if anyone knows where we get our energy from that we use to run
around at recess and do work in our classes. Then state that today we will be discussing what a
food chain is and the flow of energy that is past on throughout it.
 Thumbs up
Gather the students on the carpet in front of the smartboard.
Play food chain “rap” video - https://www.flocabulary.com/unit/food-chains/
 Stop the food chain video at 40 seconds and ask the students if they know the
difference between predator vs. prey and a producer vs. a consumer.
 Replay the food chain rap and encourage students to sing along if they can and feel
comfortable doing so.
 Ask the students to share with a partner one thing that they already knew from the
video and one thing that they learned.

Day 2
Begin by reviewing the food chain lesson from the previous day.
 Who can tell me something that they remember from yesterday’s lesson on the food
chain?
 Can everyone get out your science notebooks to review the definitions we explored
about the food chain yesterday.
o What is a food chain?
o What can producers do that other animals cannot?
o What does it mean to be a consumer?
o Can anyone tell me the difference between an herbivore, carnivore, and
omnivore? What makes them different?

Development/Teaching Approaches: (20 minutes each day)

Day 1
 Ask the students to return to their seats and get out their science notebooks.
 The teacher will hand out a food chain definition foldable that the students are fold in
half and cut out on the dotted lines.
 The teacher will then discuss each of the terms while the student copies the definition
into their foldable.
o Definition’s include: food chain, producer, consumer, herbivore, carnivore, and
omnivore.
  Once the foldable is completed the students will choose to either tape or glue it into the
next blank page of their science notebook.
 Present a brief informational BrainPOP video
o https://jr.brainpop.com/science/animals/foodchain/
 Ask the students to stand up and stand in a circle.
 Hand out cut outs of the sun, plants, herbivorous, omnivorous, and carnivorous animals
found in the PA forests.
 Ask the students to tape their image to the front of their shirt.
 Have a group discussion/ activity.
o Tell them to look around the circle and think who could give energy to me and
who I could give energy to? (Who is eating who?)
o Get out a ball of yarn and explain that the yarn represents the movement of
energy from one plant or animal to another.
o Ask the students who is the first factor of the food chain and give the sun the
ball of yarn to start.
o Then ask who do you think gets their main source of energy from the sun,
which images needs sunlight to survive?
o Have the student with the sun image hold on to a portion of the string while
tossing the ball to the next factor in the chain.
o Once the first chain is completed, the ball of yarn should be returned to the sun
and repeated until every student gets a chance to be part of the chain.

Day 2
 Explain the food chain project in depth
o With their table groups they will choose which habitat they want to use.
 Desert, Tropical rain forest, Temperate forest, grasslands, and polar ice.
o The students can use their iPads if needed to look up information.
 https://www.ducksters.com/science/ecosystems/food_chain_and_web.p
hp
 http://www.geography4kids.com/files/land_foodchain.html
 https://www.dkfindout.com/us/animals-and-nature/food-chains/
 http://kids.nceas.ucsb.edu/biomes/index.html
 https://www.ducksters.com/science/ecosystems/world_biomes.php

o Then, with the materials provided they will create a diagram of the sun, plants,
and animals within their food chain that connects each animal to the next and
can be hung from the ceiling.
 Paint, markers, paper, scissor, hole punch, string, hangers, glue, straws.
 Students will have access to a printer if they need.
o Each team member will do a first rough sketch of their food chain diagram and
place it in their science notebooks.
o Once each group is finished they will clean up their tables, saving all materials
that are untouched and throwing away all scraps.
o The students will then sit down at their table and wait to present.
Closure/Summarizing Strategies:

Day 1 (5 minutes)
 Ask the students to get out their science notebooks to draw and label the food chain
that they discussed in class today.
 “Tomorrow we will be doing a project, brainstorm which habitat you might want to
research and use to create a simple food chain with your table group.”

Day 2 (10 minutes)

 The students will be asked to present their food chains to the class, with their groups,
explaining why they chose their habitat, what animals are involved, and describe the
flow of energy from one organism to the next.

Accommodations/Differentiation:
Student has a serve difficulty with fine motor skills and we would accommodate this student
by providing them with thicker markers, paint markers, thicker paint brushes, big glue sticks,
and thicker string materials. Also, the student will be given a template where the outline of
each animal has a thicker line to help with cutting.

Materials/Resources:
 Smart Board
 Food chain video - https://www.flocabulary.com/unit/food-chains/
 BrainPOP - https://jr.brainpop.com/science/animals/foodchain/
 Sun image: https://www.123rf.com/stock-
photo/sun.html?sti=m0ronw1y3hcstzcped|&mediapopup=14126728
 Grass image: https://www.123rf.com/stock-
photo/grass_garden.html?imgtype=0&oriSearch=grass&ch=grass&sti=mkc88asqpimzr
0pc3w|&mediapopup=40581772
 Mouse image: https://www.123rf.com/stock-
photo/mouse.html?oriSearch=grass+garden&sti=mh5d1x6b496n5cceub|&mediapopup
=22099817

 Grasshopper image: https://www.123rf.com/stock-

photo/grasshopper.html?oriSearch=sun&sti=lynjmc4yn8jm5bmi38|&mediapopup=170
31028
 Owl image: https://www.123rf.com/stock-
photo/owl.html?oriSearch=mouse&sti=mg0rfmn8549o92budb|&mediapopup=488702
39
 Online beginners dictionary - https://www.wordsmyth.net/
 Art materials (Paint, markers, paper, scissor, hole punch, string, hangers, glue, straws)
 Student assigned iPads.
 Food chain foldable.
 Science notebooks.
Reflective Response:
Report of Student Learning Target/Objectives Proficiency Levels

Remediation Plan (if applicable)

Personal Reflection Questions

Additional reflection/thoughts
Food Chain

Producer

Consumer

Herbivore

Carnivore

Omnivore