Assessment
Have students keep a Consumer Log, a record of everything
they eat (consume) for one day. After the log is finished,
have the student write after each food item whether they
would be considered a carnivore or herbivore for eating
each item. If they looked at all the food they ate, would
they be considered a carnivore, a herbivore or an omnivore.
Students
will choose two items of food they ate that were listed
on their food log, and use these to create two food chains
that can either be written or drawn. Tell students that
each food chain should contain only three or four organisms.
Each food chain will start with the sun and end with the
student. The student will label each organism as a producer
or consumer. Organisms that are labeled as consumers,
will also be labeled as either a herbivore, carnivore
or omnivore.
For example:
One of Little Johnny's food items was a hamburger. His
food chain could look like this:
| sun
|
[ |
grass
producer
|
[ |
cow
consumer/ herbivore |
[ |
Little
Johnny
consumer/omnivore |
Scoring
Rubric (Out of 10 Points):
- 1
point for each realistic food chain they make. (Total
of 2 points)
- 1
point for each food chain in which producers and consumers
are correctly identified (Total of 4 points)
- 1
point for each food chain in which herbivores, carnivores
and omnivores are correctly identified (Total of
4 points)
- Total:
10 points
Top
Cross-Curricular
Extensions
Social
Studies Extension
Have students compare a physical map of the world with a
political map of the world. Have them determine where most
cities are located, and whether they are on the coast, in
forested areas, in deserts, in mountains or in polar regions.
Ask them why they think the cities are located where they
are? Ask them if they think the fact that humans are consumers
might have something to do with the location of most cities.
Lead them to the idea that because people are consumers,
they need to be near food sources such as the ocean or farmable
land in order to survive.
Math
Extension
Food energy is measured in calories. Have students
record how many calories they consume from plants and
how many calories they consume from animals for one day.
Using a bar graph, have them graph how many plant calories
they consumed and animal calories they consumed. Compile
all of the students data for a bar graph that shows how
many calories the class consumed collectively from plants
and animals. Determine ratios of plant calories consumed
to animal calories consumed and write as percentages.
English
Extension
Have students read Eric Carle's book The Very Hungry
Caterpillar. Ask them if they think all of the items
in the book are really things that a caterpillar would
consume. Have them research what caterpillars eat, and
then write and illustrate their own story like The
Very Hungry Caterpillar that shows items a caterpillar
in the wild would really consume if it were hungry.
