Teacher Education Lesson Plan Template

Teacher: Linda Rowan

Date: 1/28/2016

Title of Lesson: Making a Food Chain

Cooperating Teacher: Sharrie Merritte

Core Components

Subject, Content Area, or Topic

Science: Food Chains
Student Population
17 Students
5 IEPs
Learning Objectives
Students will understand that energy flows through an ecosystem in a food web.
Students will understand that all organisms have an important role or niche in their
community.
Students will create their own food chains.
Virginia Essential Knowledge and Skills (SOL)
Science 4.5: The student will investigate and understand how plants and animals, including
humans, in an ecosystem interact with one another and with the nonliving components
in the ecosystem. Key concepts include
b) organization of populations, communities, and ecosystems and how they interrelate;
c) flow of energy through food webs;
d) habitats and niches;
Materials/Resources
Food Chain Science Reading Material
Food Chain Graphic Organizer for brain storming
1 Sheet of Construction Paper per Student
Food Chain Review Questions
High Yield Instructional Strategies Used (Marzano, 2001)
Check if Used

Strategy
Return
Identifying Similarities & Differences
45%
Summarizing & Note Taking
34%
Reinforcing Efforts & Providing Recognition
29%
Homework & Practice
28%
Nonlinguistic Representations
27%
Cooperative Learning
23%
Setting Goals & Providing Feedback
23%
Generating & Testing Hypothesis
23%
Questions, Cues, & Advanced Organizers
22%
DOES YOUR INSTRUCTIONAL INPUT & MODELING YIELD THE POSITIVE RETURNS YOU
WANT FOR YOUR STUDENTS?
Check if Used Strategy
Return
Teach Others/Immediate Use of Learning
95%
Practice by Doing
75%
Discussion
50%
Demonstration
30%
Audio Visual
20%
Reading
10%

Lecture

05%

Time
Process Components
(min.)
5
*Anticipatory Set
Minutes
Have the students discuss what they have learned so far about food
chains/webs.
Discuss the unit vocabulary words: producer, consumer, decomposer, energy,
predator, prey.
*State the Objectives (grade-level terms)
I understand how plants and animals in an ecosystem interact with one another
in food webs.
I can create a food web.
*Instructional Input or Procedure
5
Review some of the questions about food webs that students answered in their
Minutes
science notebooks during previous lesson.
Explain that the student will use what they have learned about producers,
consumers, and decomposers to make their own food chain.
Have two students hand out the graphic organizer and the construction paper to
all of the students.
Students will be constructing their own food chains.
*Modeling
Show students the graphic organizer and explain that the students will use it to
5
brainstorm their own food chain.
Minutes
Model how to label each section of the graphic organizer as a producer,
consumer, or decomposer.
Show students how to fold the paper into 8 pieces and have them cut the pieces
out.
Demonstrate how to draw an organism on the slip and label it as a producer,
consumer, or decomposer.
*Check for Understanding
3
Have students offer examples of several producers, consumers, and
Minutes
decomposers that they might use in their food chain.
*Guided Practice
Have the students fill out their graphic organizers with as many consumers,
5
producers and decomposers as they can.
Minutes
After checking the organizers to ensure understanding, demonstrate that food
chains can be longer.
Have students create a food chain with as many levels as they can.
*Independent Practice
Once students have successfully created a food chain on their graphic
10
organizer, allow them to begin filling out their slips of paper.
Minutes
Have students glue their slips into one long chain.
Once all chains are ready, have the students close the chain into a circle.
Ask students to discuss with their quad why they think the chain should be
closed.
Make sure students understand that energy flows around and around through a
food chain or food web.
Assessment
10
If there is time, have the students show their food chains to the other students by
Minutes
completing several round of stand-up, hands-up, pair-up.

Listen in on the students examples.

*Closure
Exit ticket: on one of the remaining slips of paper, have students share the most
interesting thing they have learned about food webs and one question they still
have about food webs.
Differentiation Strategies (enrichment, accommodations, remediation, or by learning style).
Visual learners have reading materials to help them create their food chain.
Audio learners will benefit from class and quad discussions as well as teacher instruction.
Kinesthetic learners will benefit from using their hands to create a food web.
Several students identified as learning best through drawing will benefit from the graphic
organizer and the chance to draw pictures for their own food chain.
Advanced students have the chance to create longer food chains while students who are
still struggling with the vocabulary and understanding food chains can create a more simple
version.
Classroom Management Issues (optional)
Make sure students understand behavioral expectation at the start of the lesson.
Monitor students to ensure that they are staying on task.
Use ClassDojo to help reinforce behaviors.
Lesson Critique. To be completed following the lesson. Did your students meet the
objective(s)? What part of the lesson would you change? Why?
3
Minutes

The students enjoyed getting to create their own food chains. Some students would have
benefited from a teacher led small group to better understand the topic before being allowed to
work independently. Next time, have an extension activity ready for advanced students who
finish quickly to help keep them engaged and learning throughout the entire science block.