Grade Level First

Subject Science-Survival of Living Things

Title/Source of lesson:
Weaving The Web
Adapted from: http://forces.si.edu/ltop/pdfs/2-5-WeavingTheWeb.pdf
Description of learners:

The first grade class is composed of 23 students, 13 boys and 10 girls. There is a
wide variety of learners in the classroom. There are 9 English Language
Learners, with a variety of different first languages being spokenSpanish,
Arabic, and Chinese. There are two students who are gifted and two children with
speech IEPs in the classroom. The school is located in a suburb.
Grade Band Theme:
Strand: Life Science
Topic: Basic needs of living things
Condensed Content Statement(s): Living things survive only in environments
that meet their needs.
Science Inquiry and Application:
Observe and ask questions about the natural environment;
Plan and conduct simple investigations;
Employ simple equipment and tools to gather data and extend the senses;
Communicate about observations, investigations and explanations;
Review and ask questions about the observations and explanations of others.

Instructional Objectives:
Students will be able to:
-Construct a food chain and explain how energy flows through the chain
-Explain how all living things depend on energy to live
-Use pictures and arrows to create a food chain or web
The students will be able to demonstrate their understanding of living things surviving
in environments that meet their needs through whole group discussion and modeling as
well as completing a worksheet with 75% accuracy.
Differentiation(s):
Students will participate in whole group activity and individual work. The worksheet
will allow for students to create a food chain or web depending on how confident they
feel in their knowledge and will be able to make the chain or web as simple or complex

as they choose. During whole group instruction, modeling and repetition will be very
prominent for those who need repeated exposure. There will also be plenty of
opportunities for the students to participate in the discussion. Still, those who may not
feel confident in sharing their ideas verbally will have the opportunity to show their
knowledge through the worksheet, which will also be modeled before students go to
create their own. While students will be encouraged to work individually on the
worksheet as they come up with ideas, they will have the opportunity to share their
ideas within their table groups, through showing their worksheet or telling about it.
Materials/Resources Needed:
Ball of yarn, Activity sheets 1-8 (precut)/pictures, tape to attached pictures to clothes, 25
snack bags with a several plants, herbivores, omnivores, and carnivores present and 25
worksheets.
Key (Academic) Vocabulary:
Food chain- sequence in which energy travels
Example: SunGrassRabbitHawk
Food web- a series of food chains that come together to make a web
Example: SunGrassRabbitHawk
SunGrassGrasshopperBlue JayOwl
SunCloverCaterpillarSnakeHawk
Energy-all living things need energy to live and grow; the sun is the source of all energy
Carnivore- animal that only eats animals
Omnivore- animal that eats plants and animals
Herbivore- animal that only eats plants
Instructional Strategies/Learning Tasks:
Earlier in the week, introduction to carnivores, omnivores, and herbivores will have been
introduced. Students should know the definition of each and should know examples of each.
T: Today were going to look at how animals interact with each other and where energy
comes from. Earlier this week we were talking about carnivores, herbivores, and
omnivores, right? (S: Yes.)
T: Who can remind the class and me what a carnivore is? Call on student. (S: Carnivore is
an animal that only eats other animals.) And can someone give me an example of a
carnivore? Call on different student. (S: owl, fox, lion, wolf, vulture, snakes, sharks, etc.)
T: Who can tell the class and me what a herbivore is? Call on student. (S: A herbivore is an
animal that eats only plants.) And can someone else give me an example of a herbivore?

Call on different student. (S: cows, rabbit, sheep, giraffe, deer, panda, elephant,
grasshopper, moose, horse, etc.)
T: And who can tell the class and me what an omnivore is? Call on student. (S: An
omnivore is an animal that eats plants and animals.) And can someone else give me an
example of an omnivore? Call on different student. (S: bear, human, raccoon, crow, chicken,
rat, etc.)
T: Ask the follow questions and record the students predictions on the board:
Where does energy come from?
Do animals carry energy?
How to herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores interact?
What do food chains include?
T: So, if we look at our examples we have up here (Example: Wolf, deer, bear) which one
would eat a plant? Draw a picture of a leaf and label it. Then put an arrow pointing down
under it. Call on student. There are two answers here, adjust accordingly. (S: deer.) Why
would the deer eat the plant? (S: Because deers eat plants.) Write deer under the arrow and
draw another arrow pointing down under is.
T: So, which animal would eat the deer? Call on student. Again, there are two answers. (S:
Bear.) Why would the bear eat the deer? (S: Because bears eat plants or animals.) Write
bear under the arrow and draw another arrow pointing down under it.
T: And which animal would eat the bear? Call on student. (S: Wolf.) Why would a wolf eat
the bear? (S: Because it only eats other animals.) Put the wolf under the arrow.
T: We just made something; does anyone know what its called? It looks like a chain.
Allow students to share answers. (S: Food chain.) What we made is called a food chain. It
follows the animals as they eat food and get energy from that food. Do you think this
food chain can be different? If we have the same animals, a wolf, deer, and bear, so you
think we can make a different food chain than the one we have here? Discuss it with a
partner really quick. Give me a thumbs up if you think we can make a different food
chain with these three animals, give me a thumbs down if you dont think we can. Tally
what the students think.
T: We also talked about energy earlier this week. We talked about how animals get their
energy from food. Where do all of these living things get their energy from? (S: plants,
animals, dirt, soil, sun.) Write all of their ideas down.
T: As we do this next activity, I want you to ask yourself these questions so we can
discuss them at the end. Now I have these different cards that everyone is going to get.

Show stack of cards. Each card as an animal or plant on it which you are going to be. This
first card is a ____ (Share what the animal at the top is). Is this animal a carnivore,
omnivore, or herbivore? Call on student. Student who answers will get the card. Now, Im
going to hand out cards and you should think to yourself if the animal is a carnivore,
omnivore, or herbivore or plant. Share what the card is (it should have a picture and a name
underneath) and give one card to each student.
T: Now I have this ball of yarn. Who is a plant? Call on a student who is a plant and have
them start with the yarn. Because you are a plant, who do you think is going to eat you?
(S: herbivore/example of herbivore in the circle.) Find someone in the circle who is an
herbivore and toss them the ball, keeping the end of the string with you. Help student,
show them how to hold onto the end of the string and toss the ball to the next person.
T: Now an herbivore has the ball. Who would eat you herbivore? (S:
omnivore/carnivore/example of either.) Toss the ball of yarn to someone who can help.
Does everyone agree? If there is a mistake, have students help each other figure out how to
correct the thinking and discuss what went wrong.
T: When the yarn makes it to the carnivore or last person in the chain, ask the students what they
just created. (S: a food chain.) Were going to make many different food chains. Cut
string. Where should the food chain begin? (S: A plant.) Give the ball to the student. Lets
make another chain. Continue this until all chains possible can be met. Some students may be
left out, but it should be no more than three. If there are more than three, ask if that are able to
make a food chain (S: no.) Ask what they would need in order to make another food chain.
T: Everyone, keep holding your yarn. Have we made food chains? (S: Yes, lots of them!)
What do you think a variety of food chains together make? Allow students to share
answers. If I look at what we made from above, it looks kind of like a spider web. Do
you have any ideas what this is called? Allow students to share ideas. (S: Food web!) A
food web is made up of a bunch of food chains together. All of the food chains are
connected together based off of the choices we made. When we started the food chain,
there were plenty of plants, herbivores, omnivores, and carnivores to choose from. But,
as we kept making food chains, there were fewer choices.
T: What do you all think would happen if we didnt have carnivores? Allow students to
share ideas. Lets see what would happen. Carefully, carnivores can you sit down, still
holding the string. What happened when all the carnivores sat down? Did it affect the
omnivores and herbivores? (S: They didnt affect anyone else in the food chain.)
T: Thinking about that, what do you think would happen if we got rid of all the plants?
Allow students to share answers. (S: Everything would die.) Lets see what would happen.
Plants, can you sit down? Anyone that has a string connection with the plants, can you

sit down? Whoever has a string connection to them, can you sit down? Do this until
everyone is sitting. If there are students standing because they are not part of the chain, allow
them to stand.
T: What would happen? (S: Everyone would die.) But what about these people
standing? How come they get to live? (S: They have nothing to eat, the herbivores have
nothing to eat and if they get eaten, then the omnivores will have nothing to eat, and if
they get eaten, the carnivores will have nothing to eat and theyll die from starvation.)
T: Okay, lets gather the string and sit on the carpet again. Have plants get the string and
bring it to the teacher. What do we know about animals? If animals get their energy from
food, where does the energy start? (S: Plants.)
T: But, if plants start with the energy, where do they get their energy? Energy has to
come from somewhere, right? Talk with a partner about where you think this energy
comes from. Allow students to talk with each other about their ideas. Then call them back and
have them share ideas. Where do we think plants get their energy? (S: soil, dirt, water.)
Those are all really good guesses but all energy comes from one source. Its the sun.
Plants get their energy from the sun.
T: Knowing that energy comes from the sun, and plants get their energy from the sun,
where do herbivores and omnivores get their energy? (S: Herbivores get their energy
from plants. Omnivores get their energy from plants and animals.) And where do
carnivores get their energy? (S: From animals.) And where does all of this energy start?
(S: The sun!)
T: Lets look back at the food chain we made before we made our food web. Our food
chain shows ____ (say what the food chain shows, which can be different from student to
student.) Now that we made the food web, do we think we can make the food chain
differently using the wolf, bear, and deer? (S: Yes!) How could we make the food chain
different? What needs to stay the same in our food chain? (S: Sun/plant.) Make the food
chain again, using the wolf, bear, and deer, right next to the first one, but make it different to show
students that food chains have many different possibilities.
Examples:
Plantdeerbearwolf
Plantdeerwolf
Plantdeerbear
Plantbearwolf
T: Lets review the questions we asked earlier and see if we changed our thinking. Ask
the questions again and have the students answer them, correcting any misconceptions that may
still be present.

Where does energy come from? (S: the sun!)

Do animals carry energy? (S: yes.)
How to herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores interact? (S: they transfer energy from one
another. They are all part of a food chain.)
What do food chains include? (S: energy, sun, plants, animals, herbivores, omnivores,
carnivores.)
T: Now, each of you is going to get a bag with different plants and animals. I want you to
use your knowledge to make a food chain or food web using as many of the animals as
you can or want to use. Its up to you what you want to do. You will clue your food
chain or food web on the back of this worksheet. After you do that, I want you to answer
the questions on the worksheet. Dismiss tables and get table captains to come get the
worksheets and bags.
Assessment plan
Pre-assessment: Pre-assessment was done through a questionnaire before the Basic Needs of
Living Things unit began. Misconceptions about Basic Needs of Living Things will be addressed
throughout the entire unit. Specific misconceptions on food chain are addressed at the beginning
of the lesson. Students provided their predictions which were then returned to and addressed at
the end of the lesson.
Post-assessment: Post-assessment will be formative. Informal assessment is made throughout
the lesson through observation of what children say and discuss with their peers. Formal
assessment is made through the worksheet, based on their food chain or food web, and how they
answered questions based off of their food chain/web. They will have to get 75% or more correct
to show growth in learning. Summative assessment will take place at the end of the unit.