Key Stage 2 Science. Food Chains
Suitable for Levels 3-5.
It is possible to have questions on food chains in your SATS in May 2009. I have to check whether the SATS are cancelled for the year 2009. Today it is 23rd October 2008, your SATS is not too far away.
PS: In July 2007 and also in 2008 SATS results, I had all my gifted and talented students passed with level five. This is job satisfaction, I have helped my students with self confidence for a better future in their secondary education. One can check the results with the Primary school where I am the science governor.
This work was specially prepared for the gifted and talented students by Dr Hector Perera.
Please go to www.chemistry-takeaway.co.uk then click on about, then in the about page, you will find this work for the key Stage 2 science. The site was for the secondary schools but I have included work for Key Stage 2 as well.
The food chain.
Q: Who are producers ?
A: Producers are able to make their own food from simple substances like carbon dioxide and water. That means the plants need water and a gas called carbon dioxide to make or produce food. So the plants are producers. The green plants produce their own food.
Q: Give some examples of food that are produced by plants.
A: Everything that is produced by plants is food, leaves like cabbages, spinach and fruits like apples, oranges, bananas, plums and mangoes, roots like carrots and beetroot, nuts like peanuts, brazil nuts, walnuts and cashew are produced as plant food.
Activity: Make a list of vegetables, fruits and nuts.
Note: The supermarkets have all these things on display with their names. You may draw a few, colour them or produce as a wall chart. Some leaflets have pictures that might be helpful to make to make a nice wall chart. The well presented ones might get a reward!!!
Q: Who are consumers? Remember the word consume means eating.
A: All animals are consumers for example humans, cats, birds, rabbits, foxes, earthworms, crocodiles, snakes, lizards, spiders, fishes and mice. They cannot make their own food. In science the humans are also known or classed as animals.
So all these animals have to eat or consume plants and animals as food.
In a river if there were fish, (like salmon and cod) and fish-eating animals, such as otters are present, the number of fishes in the river can decrease. How? If the number of otters increase then the number of fishes can gradually decrease.
But both otters and fishes are consumers, not producers.
In a river salmon eat insects and it need to survive on water insects, but what if there were no insects left in river at all, then there would be no food for the fish to survive. That means the fish will die out. If the fish die out then the otters can’t survive.
This is a part of the food chain.
The plants depend on sunlight and water for its survival.
And the insects depend on plants.
And the salmon depends on the insects.
And the otters depend on the salmon.
I have listed out six food chains. It is possible one of these might come up in you SATS, who knows? The best thing is to study them carefully. I have given the answers, all you got to do is to read and understand, it’s so simple!
Barn owl ------ à Dormouse ------- à Barley
Small fish ------- à Green fly ------- à Roses
Mistle Thrush [Bird] -------- à Dormouse ------ à Slug --- à Lettuce
Hawk ------ à Mistle thrush [Bird] ------- à Dormouse ---- à Barley
Chaffinch [A bird] ------- à Slug ------ à Lettuce
Look at the food chain.
Lettuce ------ à Slug ------ à Mistle Thrush ----- à Hawk
Q: What would happen to Hawks and Mistle Thrush, if the weather was too hot and very little lettuce is produced?
A: In the food chain, each one depends on each other. That is slugs eat lettuce then the bird, Mistle Thrush would eat the slugs. Then Hawks would prey on Mistle Thrush. If there were no lettuce then the slugs would find nothing to eat then they die out, then Mistle Thrush would have nothing to eat then these birds would die out then Hawks would die out because Hawks depend on Mistle Thrush.
Q: If the weather were good and the farmers would produce a bumper crop of lettuce. What would happen to Hawks, if there were a bumper crop of lettuce?
A: Then in the food chain, all the animals would have plenty to eat. There would be lots of Hawks, Mistle Thrush and slugs in the food chain.
Look at the food chain.
Cabbage ------ à snail ------ à Blackbird ------- à Kestrel
1]: Name the produce. -------------------------------------
2]: Name two consumers. --------------------- ---------------------
3]: Name two predators. ------------------------ ---------------------
4]: Kestrel is a [ predator, producer, consumer] {Choose the correct word}
5]: Snail is a [ Producer, consumer, producer] {Choose the correct word}