A plant, a rabbit and three arrows carry this 3-page 5th grade sheet on how living things depend on each other. Page 1 asks students to label the plant-to-rabbit and rabbit-to-plant arrows with oxygen or carbon dioxide, with sunlight and food (sugar stored in leaves) already printed. Page 2 has four written questions that end with what would happen to animals if plants could not photosynthesize. It fits NGSS 5-LS2-1 and 5-PS3-1, and page 3 holds the answers.
5-LS2-1
“Develop a model to describe the movement of matter among plants, animals, decomposers, and the environment.”
The diagram shows oxygen and carbon dioxide moving between a plant and a rabbit, and questions 1 and 2 ask for the gases.
5-PS3-1
“Use models to describe that energy in animals' food (used for body repair, growth, motion, and to maintain body warmth) was once energy from the sun.”
Question 3 asks where the energy in a rabbit's food first comes from, and the sunlight arrow on page 1 points to the plant.
A cycle diagram with a potted plant, a rabbit and the sun. Two arrows have number boxes for students to label from a two-word bank (oxygen, carbon dioxide). A third arrow is already printed as food.
Four written questions. Students name the gas plants release and the gas animals breathe out, say where the energy in a rabbit's food first comes from, and explain what would happen to animals if plants could not photosynthesize.
One-line answers for the two labels and the four questions.
Act out the cycle
Two students stand as the plant and the rabbit and pass one card marked oxygen one way and one marked carbon dioxide the other. Then everyone fills in page 1.
Talk through question 4
Let pairs discuss question 4 before they write. The answer key names both food and oxygen, and students often give only one.
Lead into food chains
Follow it with a food chain lesson. Question 3 already says the rabbit's energy started with the sun, which sets up the first link.
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