NARRATOR: What is a food chain?
All living things, including humans, animals and plants, need energy to live. But where do they get their energy from?
The answer is easy - all living things get their energy from food.
Plants make their own food with the help of sunlight, air and water. Animals and humans don鈥檛 produce their own food, so they need to eat plants or other animals to get energy and survive.
They are all part of a food chain.
A food chain shows how plants and animals depend on each other as their source of food. For instance, a caterpillar eats plants, mice eat caterpillars, and owls eat mice. There! A perfectly simple food chain.
And we can see food chains happening underwater too. Algae is eaten by small fish, small fish are eaten by bigger fish, and bigger fish are eaten by sea lions who are then eaten by sharks!
There are lots of different food chains taking place around us but food chains usually start with a plant and finish with a big, hungry animal.
CHILD: Like me!
Video summary
An animation that illustrates and explores food chains.
A simple food chain - plant, caterpillar, mouse, owl - is presented as a set of interlocking jigsaw puzzle pieces. An underwater food chain is shown, too. The clip concludes by showing us our own place in a food chain.
Teacher Notes
- Each pupil could choose their favourite animal and then find out about what it eats.
- The pupils could then draw a simple food chain that involves their animal on a strip of card.
- You could help your pupils to cut their card strips into simple jigsaw puzzle pieces, like the ones shown in the clip.
- The pupils could challenge their friends to complete one another鈥檚 food chain jigsaws.
This clip is relevant for teaching Science at KS1 in England and Wales, Foundation and KS1 in Northern Ireland, and early level and first level in Scotland.
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