Students build five food chains on this 4th grade worksheet. Each chain has a word bank in mixed order and empty boxes joined by arrows, from the five-link chain of grass, grasshopper, frog, snake and hawk to three-link chains ending in an owl, a heron, a fox and a blue whale. Part 2 asks for the producer and the top consumer of each chain and why the arrows point the way they do. An answer page lists every chain.
“Put the living things in a food chain in order, using arrows to show where energy goes.”
Part 1 gives five chains to build from mixed-up word banks.
“Identify the producer and the top consumer in a food chain.”
Question 1 in Part 2 asks for both in each of the five chains.
“Explain that arrows in a food chain point from the food to the eater.”
Question 2 in Part 2.
A five-box chain with the word bank frog, grass, hawk, snake and grasshopper, then a three-box chain to build from owl, seeds and mouse.
Three more three-box chains: heron, algae and small fish; fox, acorns and squirrel; and blue whale, plankton and krill.
A table with one row per chain, where students write the producer and the top consumer. A last question asks which way the arrows point and why.
All five chains in order, the completed table, and a model answer saying the arrows point from the living thing that is eaten to the one that eats it.
Board warm-up
Write the five words of chain 1 on the board in a jumble and let students call out the order. Five links is long enough to show that a chain only works one way.
Arrow check
Question 2 catches a common slip, drawing arrows from the eater to the food. Read a few answers aloud and let the class decide which direction matches energy moving.
Chain 5 surprise
Chain 5 ends with a blue whale, which surprises many students. Ask why the biggest animal sits one step from plankton and use it to talk about short chains.
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