Food Chains

A food chain show the steps of who eats whom in a an ecosystem to obtain their nutrition. Simply stated, it shows how animals eat other animals or plants. For example, a fish eats plankton then becomes food for larger fish like mackerel or tuna. The mackerel and tuna are then eaten by larger fish and animals, such as the shark and dolphin. Who eats the shark? Look on menus at seafood restaurants. You just might see shark listed. A food chain always starts with plant life and ends with an animal. Each plant or animal is called a link in a food chain. Most food chains only have about four or five links.

Let your child decorate his room or the kitchen with colorful food chain art. Food chain art projects give visual-spatial learners a better understanding of how food chains work.

Have your child draw animals and plants inside one another to represent the progression through the food chain. The largest element of the painting should be a picture of the highest animal in the food chain. For example, a lion may be painted as the largest animal. Just inside the lion could be a zebra. Inside the zebra could be a drawing of grass, and inside the grass could be the sun.

Create a paper food chain mobile. Make a sun by gluing orange paper triangles around a paper plate that was painted or colored yellow. Use a hole punch to make one hole at the top and two or three holes at the bottom. Put the phrase, "All energy comes from the sun" in the middle of the paper plate. Color and cut out strips of paper with the names and drawings of producers and consumers. Glue the strips together in the right order making a "chain". Attach to the sun shape with string or yarn.

Another food chain mobile can be made by attaching animals in order of succession. The animal that is highest on the food chain should hang at the top of the mobile. Attach the next animal in the food chain, using string and tape. Continue adding the pieces of the food chain in order, with each piece of the chain hanging from the one before it.