5.3.3: Develop and use a model to describe the movement of matter among…

Food Webs: Who Eats Whom? Grade 5

Where a plant's food comes from, what happens when the wolves disappear, who cleans up, and how much life hides under a log. Four lessons on how energy and matter move through living things.

• What would happen if the wolves disappeared? 45–60 min

  Students become species in a northern forest or a prairie and connect themselves with yarn into a living food web. When one species is removed, everyone who feels the yarn tug finds out how far the change spreads, and students explain why no species lives on its own.

• Who cleans up? 45 min to set up, 5 min check-ins twice a week, then 30 min after 2 weeks (bread) and 20 min after 4 to 6 weeks (leaves)

  Students seal bread and fruit in taped zip bags to watch mould grow without ever opening them, and bury mesh bags of dry leaves in soil to weigh what's left weeks later. They explain how decomposers break down dead things and return matter to the soil for plants to use again.

Printable practice for 5.3.3

• Food Webs: Who Eats Whom? workbook included with the unit

  3 practice pages, 3 readings, 2 English-support pages, 1 word wall, 1 unit review, 1 unit test, with answer keys.

• Our Living Planet workbook included with the unit

  1 word wall, 1 English-support page, 1 practice page, 1 reading, 1 unit review, 1 unit test, with answer keys.

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