Forest Food Chains at Westonbirt Arboretum, KS2

Suitable for Years 3 and 4, March to November

Key concepts

Habitats, food chain, producer, consumer, predator, prey, feeding relationships.

Learning outcomes

• explain that a habitat is the home of a specific community of plants and animals.
• understand the terms producer, consumer, herbivore, carnivore, omnivore and their relevance in food chains.
• explain that all food chains start with plants that make their own food using sunlight.
• use evidence found in the woodland to represent each stage of a food chain.

Activities

Build a food chain - an introductory activity to introduce and reinforce vocabulary.

Habitat game - looking at the needs for life, surviving predators and competition for food.

Global food chains - at different tree species from around the world, use our photo packs to create food chains that feature the tree.

What's for dinner? - search for evidence of different sources of food and consider the next part of the food chain.

Food chain challenge - collect as much evidence as possible to represent producers, primary and secondary consumers.  Create a viable food chain from the evidence.