This 3-page 5th grade science worksheet gives students eight unlinked boxes (phytoplankton, zooplankton, krill, small fish, squid, penguin, seal and orca) and seven feeding facts. Students draw every arrow themselves, pointing from the organism that is eaten to the one that eats it. Page 2 asks three questions about the finished web. The last page shows the completed web with written answers. It ties to NGSS 5-LS2-1 on how matter and energy move through an ecosystem.
5-LS2-1
“Develop a model to describe the movement of matter among plants, animals, decomposers, and the environment.”
Drawing the arrows on page 1 builds a model of who eats whom. Question 2 reads that model and question 3 uses it to predict a change.
A shaded box lists seven feeding facts, such as krill eat phytoplankton and orcas eat seals and squid. Below it, eight labeled boxes sit in levels with phytoplankton at the bottom and the orca at the top. Students draw all the arrows between them, and a reminder says an arrow points from the organism eaten to the one that eats it.
Three written questions use the student's own web. Which living thing is the producer, how many arrows point directly to the seal, and what would happen to the other animals if krill numbers fell. Each has ruled lines for the answer.
A finished web with every arrow in place, then the written answers. Phytoplankton is the producer, three arrows point to the seal (from small fish, squid and penguins), and a sample explanation follows the krill drop up through penguins, small fish, seals and orcas.
Before anyone draws
Have students read the feeding facts and point to each organism on the diagram first. Penguins, seals and orcas each eat two or three things, so first drafts often miss an arrow.
Check the arrowheads
Walk the room after the first few arrows. Some students point the head at the organism being eaten, and it is quicker to catch that early than to mark it later.
Krill as a partner talk
Let pairs talk through question 3 before they write. Students who follow the chain from krill to penguins to seals to orcas write much fuller answers than those who stop at penguins.
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