Living organisms depend on other living organisms in their environment, or habitat, for survival.

You are a living organism. What do you need to survive?

Activity 1: Find the Wildlife

Click the picture to find the wildlife.

Discuss what the animals eat and how they meet their needs.

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Activity 2: Match the Habitat

Click the picture below to see if you can match the living organisms to their habitats.

What evidence do you see that one organism depends on another for survival?
Do you know which animal might make its home in a cave? Under a log in a forest?

How do you meet your needs? Where do you get energy?

You get energy from the food you eat. Animals get energy from what they eat, just like you. Some animals eat plants, some eat other animals, and some eat both plants and animals.

Living organisms, like plants and animals, depend on other living organisms in their environment, or habitat, for survival. We call this interdependence. 

A food chain is one way to show interdependence. A food chain shows the energy transfer from one organism to another.  It begins with what gets eaten and continues showing the flow of energy with arrows pointing to what eats it.

See if you can build a food chain. Be sure to record each food chain in your notebook. Click the picture to identify the living organisms in a woodland environment and then build a food chain. (Open this interactive in Internet Explorer, or use one of the tips located on the Gateway Help Desk for java-based interactives.)

Now it’s your turn.

Select an environment (i.e., pond, woodland, ocean, park, garden, etc.) to create your own food chain.

Use the Internet and books from your classroom or the library to learn about the environment you selected.

Choose one organism in your food chain and answer this question:

How do you know the organism you selected gets energy from another living organism in the food chain?

Create a notebook entry, a poster, or a digital presentation and be prepared to share it with the class.

Be sure to include

•     what living organisms make their home in the environment,
•     how the living organisms meet their needs (what they eat, where they live), and
•     what is your evidence of interdependence within the environment.

See if you can put all seven food chains in order.
Click the picture to begin and then put your first name in the box at the top of the page.

This resource is a collection of interactive activities, videos, and other digital media assembled in a conceptually scaffolded 5E lesson format. It provides alternative or additional Tier I learning options for students learning about energy transfer through food chains—Grade 1 TEKS (9)(C). The assignments require student participation with self-checked and teacher-checked formative assessment opportunities. For example, after students record observations and data in their notebooks, they may be prompted to be prepared to share their answers with the class.

Review the resource before assigning it to, or working through it with, your students to check for prerequisite knowledge; differentiation needs; and student follow-up requirements, as necessary.

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Engage
Students can record their responses in a notebook, or the teacher can record student responses on chart paper or in a class notebook. Students should know that living organisms need air, food, water, and shelter to survive.

Explore
Read the pages to students. You may choose to have a student read the pages and select the answers.

Students will complete two activities. Record, or have a student record, the facts during each activity.

In the first activity, Find the Wildlife, students will identify the animal in each picture and learn facts about each animal. Make sure to point out what each animal eats and how it uses plants for shelter or food.

In the second activity, Match the Habitat, students will identify which of the three animals lives in the habitat pictured.

Students should understand that living organisms live in an environment, or habitat. They should begin making connections between where a living organism lives or grows and how it meets it needs.

Explain
Read the text to the students.

Follow the link to the Habitats Activity.

On the first screen, students will be asked to identify the plants and animals in the woodland scene using the camera. Students should move the camera over and select the following organisms: thrush, caterpillar, tawny owl, water spider, algae, mayfly nymph, oak tree, and frog.

Learn about each organism by selecting the hand lens next to it. Students should pay special attention to where the organism lives or grows, what it eats, and what eats it.

Select Sorter 1 to create a woodland food chain. Drag and drop the organisms to their place on the food chain. The woodland food chain begins with the Sun.
Draw the woodland food chain on the board:

                                   Sun ⇒ tree ⇒ caterpillar ⇒ thrush ⇒ owl

Discuss how the energy flows from the Sun to the tree, from the tree to the caterpillar, from the caterpillar to the thrush, and from the thrush to the owl.

Select Sorter 2 to create a pond food chain. Drag and drop the organisms to their place on the food chain. The pond food chain begins with the Sun.
Draw the pond food chain on the board:

                               Sun ⇒ algae ⇒ mayfly nymph ⇒ spider ⇒ frog

Discuss how the energy flows from the Sun to the algae, from the algae to the mayfly nymph, from the mayfly nymph to the spider, from the spider to the frog.

You may want to skip the quiz. An assessment is provided in Evaluate that is aligned to the TEKS.

Students should understand the following:

• All living things need energy to live.
• Most plants get energy from sunlight.
• Some animals eat plants, some eat other animals, and some eat both plants and animals.
• A food chain shows the interdependence of living organisms.
• A food chain shows the energy transfer from one organism to another.  It begins with what gets eaten and continues with the arrows pointing to what eats it, showing the flow of energy.

Elaborate
Students will select an environment, research to find evidence of energy transfer through food chains/ interdependence within that environment, and create a presentation including one food chain.

You may choose to have students work in small groups. You will need to have research materials and/or access to the Internet for students to complete this part of the lesson.

You will find links to videos and information that may be helpful to students in the View Related Items section at the bottom of the screen.

Evaluate
Students will complete seven different food chains. To begin, students need to type their names in the box at the top of the page. If you wish, students can print their results.