A pond food web fills page 1 of this 4th grade worksheet. Boxes for algae, water plants, mosquito larva, tadpole, water beetle, small fish, frog, heron and snake are joined by arrows that point from the food to the eater. Page 2 has six questions to answer from the web, from naming the two producers to saying what happens to the small fish if the mosquito larvae disappear. The key lists three accepted food chains for question 3.
“Read a food web and follow the arrows from food to eater.”
Questions 2 and 4 ask what eats the frog and what the small fish eats.
“Write a food chain of four living things taken from a web.”
Question 3 on page 2.
“Predict how losing one living thing changes the others in a food web.”
Question 6 asks about the small fish if the mosquito larvae disappear.
A diagram of nine living things in four rows, with the producers at the bottom and the heron and snake at the top. A tip box says that an arrow from algae to tadpole means the tadpole eats the algae.
Six questions with two to three lines each: name the two producers, which two animals eat the frog, write a four-link chain, what the small fish eats, which animals are the top predators, and what happens if the mosquito larvae disappear.
Answers to all six. Question 3 lists three accepted four-link chains, and question 5 accepts the heron or the snake.
Trace with color
Have students trace one path through the web with a colored pencil before they write question 3. It shows that a web is several chains sharing links.
Teach the arrow rule
Read the tip box aloud, then ask what the arrow from frog to snake means. Most students get it once they say the sentence out loud.
Question 6 talk
Let pairs answer question 6 and then read the key, which says the small fish could still eat more tadpoles. Many students expect the fish to simply die out.
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