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Wetlands:
Intro to
Class #: 1 Course Grade 5 Science
Food
Chains
PROGRAM OF STUDY OUTCOMES
5–10 Describe the living and nonliving components of a wetland ecosystem and the interactions
within and among them.
o Specific learner expectation 5 - Understand and appreciate that all animals and plants, not
just the large ones, have an important role in a wetland community.
o Specific learner expectation 6 – Identify the roles of different organisms in the food web of
a pond:
producers—green plants that make their own food, using sunlight
consumers—animals that eat living plants and/or animals
decomposers—organisms, such as molds, fungi, insects and worms, that reuse and
recycle materials that were formerly living.
o Specific learner expectation 7 – Draw diagrams of food chains and food webs and interpret
such diagrams.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
At the end of the lesson students will be able to:
1. Provide a wetland specific example of a producer, consumer, and decomposer.
2. Create their own food chains listing and identify producers, consumers and decomposers in it.
MATERIALS AND EQUIPMENT
Chromebooks (School provided ones if necessary)
Smartboard
Whiteboard/markers
Prepared Slideshows: teacher lesson and activity
The Wonders of Wetlands: Teacher's Guide, Student Cards (authorized resource)
PREPARATION AND LOGISTICAL CONSIDERATIONS
Use “The Wonders of Wetlands: Teacher's Guide, Student Cards” to touch up on understanding
of wetlands and to guide the delivery of food chains.
Reserve school Chromebooks if needed and have ready in the class.
Be prepared for differentiation for students who excel at the assignment.
Make the slideshow (have it ready on screen too) before class starts
Share student slideshow with each student before class starts too.
Allow group work but make sure students submit individual assignments.
Students should understand what wetlands are prior to this class, SLE 1-4 should be done prior
to this class.
PROCEDURE
Introduction Time
Get students settled into their desks and take attendance while they are coming in
Introduce the topic:
5 min
o Wetlands unit: focusing on consumers, producers, and decomposers, and
the food chain.
Body Time
Topic: Refresh 1) Refresh memory about plants and animals. 5 min
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plants vs animal Ask students about what they learned in grade
differences 4 on plants.
How do they get their food? How do they grow?
How do animals get their food?
What are differences in animals and plants? (get
multiple answers)
What are differences specific to getting food?
(get multiple answers)
Have students raise hands and answer, wait
longer than usual as the students must think
back a year or two.
2) Sum up focusing on plants PRODUCING their food from
sunlight and animals CONSUMING their food from
other sources.
Topic: Define and 1) Turn on smartboard for slideshow.
present food 2) Present first part of slideshow (appendix A).
chain. Producers – Energy from the sun to make or
PRODUCE their own food – plants give two
examples specific to the wetlands
Consumers – Eat plants or animals to get energy
so they COMSUME – animals, provide two
examples from the wetlands one that eats
plants and one that eats animals, specifically
point out what they eat, and relate it to each
other and the producer examples to create the
food chain. 10 min
Decomposers – eat plants or animals that are
dead and return those nutrients to the earth,
give two examples.
3) Use the examples to present the second part of the
slide show and piece together food chain
Sunlight shines on earth Producers use
sunlight to grow animal 1 (CONSUMER) eats
producer animal 2 eats animal 1
Decomposer eats dead animals 2
4) Ask if anyone has questions regarding food chains,
producers, consumers, or decomposers.
Topic: Food chain 1) Continue with slideshow and get students to list 15 min
together examples of wetland producers, write on whiteboard.
Ask students for an example and why it is
correct?
As a class pick one and quickly draw on smart
board.
Repeat for consumers and decomposer
2) Create a class-built example of a wetland food chain on
the smart board, re-elaborating on the flow of energy
(sunproducerconsumerconsumerdecomposer
).
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3) After this get the students to bring out their chrome
books/laptops and sign-in. (5 min)
Topic: Do their 1) Once they are signed in show the students how to open
own chain a google slides document that has been shared with
them, via email, class website, or drive (whichever is
easiest for the class to access). (5min) [appendix B]
2) Instruct the students to make their own food chain on
the power point that can be from anywhere, desert,
tundra, prairies, forest, etc.
Make 1 PRODUCER, 2 CONSUMERS, and 1
DECOMPOSER
Instruct the students that they can talk with
each other and share ideas, but their food
chains must be different from one another.
3) If Hans does already not know how to use google 20 min
translate, show him, and allow him to translate the
instructions on the slide.
4) Go around the room making sure students are on task
and helping.
5) When students finish their food chain, instruct them to
continue doing the next part of the slideshow so they
are not bored.
This part gets them to built longer and more
complex food chains, as well as introduces a
food web.
6) Give time warnings as to when they will have to start
cleaning up.
Conclusion Time
With 5 minutes remaining in the class tell the students to finish up what
slide they are working on and put their Chromebook away.
While the students are putting away their stuff, inform them they only need 5 min
to have the first food chain of the slideshow done, and can have a little extra
time too finish it in the free work period tomorrow.
Assessment
When introducing the topics, a quick observational formative assessment should be done
by seeing the general understanding of prior knowledge in the refresher questions, as well
as the class made list of examples of producers, consumers, and decomposers.
o If need be, reiterate the definition of a category that needs improvement.
The final summative assessment will be done on the food chain in their slide show
Food Chain Introduction
Has include all 4 components in the food chain /2
accurately (Producer, 2x Consumer,
Decomposer).
Producer fits definition /1
Consumers fit definition /2
Decomposer fits definition /1
Total mark /6
Additional Notes:
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If technology fails, get students to draw their food chain on a piece of paper, leave written and
visual examples up on the board for students to refer to.
Appendix A
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Appendix B
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Summary
This grade 5 science lesson plan is designed to be engaging and fun for the students, while
simultaneously providing a learning activity for the food chains and producer, consumer, and
decomposer SLE’s in the science program of studies. This plan teaches the students what they need
to know and fills all 6 foci of lesson planning.
1. Sequencing/Scaffolding
The structure of this lesson plan is designed to flow in the I do, we do, you do
structure to help students understand the concept best. The examples on the teacher
presented slide show gives students a definition and visual for the introduced
concepts and is the I do portion. After this the teacher gets the students to come up
with and select examples as a class, while the teacher writes them down, this is the
we do portion and helps to guide the students into coming up with their own food
chain. Lastly the power points the students fill out is the you do, as they each do their
own food chain using whatever examples they want and demonstrate their complete
understanding of the topic.
2. Questioning Strategies
The lesson promotes several different questioning strategies to hopefully give the
students a better understanding of the unit. To start off the class, some simple
refresher questions are given to help the students think and be reminded of their
previous learning on plants and animals. With these questions the teacher provides
additional wait time as the students must think back a little further than they are
used to. After a few of those refresher questions, the teacher asks a higher cognitive
question that requires the students to do some critical thinking on what is about to be
introduced. After the teacher has introduced the topic and the class starts to do the
class example, here they answer some questions where the students must provide an
example and then explain why it fulfills the definition. The additional questions at the
end of the assignment slideshow, if they get that far, are also high cognitive questions
that help prepare the students and get them thinking of what will be introduced next
lesson.
3. Differentiation
The lesson is designed to be differentiated without isolating and alienating any
students and providing meaningful work for students who are ahead. The scaffolded
structure helps to include students who are a little behind at the start, and gives
everyone an example, some practice, then their own work. It is also present in many
different mediums to help the students understand, the teacher gives them an oral
definition of each category, and the slideshows give them a written definition, while
the pictures provide visual aids. This allows for all students to have the instructions
and concepts delivered to them in a way they can understand best. For Hans
specifically the three different ways of presenting the info and scaffolding should help
him grasp some of the knowledge, but the use of the Chromebook is what really
allows him to understand. He can very easily use google translate to get the
instructions in German, both written and orally, as he can easily copy and paste from
the PowerPoint to google translate. The ability to talk with classmates while doing the
project should also help him to be able to share and get ideas from other peers. For
Julia and any other quick to finish classmates, the lesson is differentiated to allow her
to continue working deeper into more advanced food chains and food webs which
will be taught later. Being allowed to talk to fellow students also help to make the
lesson more fun for her and gives her the opportunity to share her ideas with other
classmates.
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4. Transitions and classroom culture
Although there are not many transitions in this lesson, the lesson is designed to give
the students adequate time to get seated, get out there laptops/Chromebook, and
then put it away. Each one of these transitions was designed to give the students five
minutes to get out whatever they need and be ready for the lesson. The transition
coming into the class is designed to eliminate they need for role call, as the students
are marked for attendance as they walk in and sit down. When the students pull out
their Chromebook and get logged in, the plan is designed to give them 5 minutes,
which in theory is plenty of time, but the lesson can easily be adjusted if more time is
needed. The conclusion of the lesson is also designed to give them enough time to log
out and put their stuff away, so they are not doing this after the bell.
The classroom culture is designed to be friendly and inclusive which is reflected in
the group examples, where the class lists examples and collectively picks one, and by
allowing the students to discuss and share while working. The group example list
helps the students to share their own examples and feel important in the class, and
then helps them collectively decide on one example. By allowing them to talk and
share while doing their work, the students not only get ideas and an increased
understanding, but they have more fun and feel like a part of the class community.
This does run the risk of students getting off topic, but the teacher can easily direct
them back if they are walking around and helping effectively. This lesson plan is
designed to make the students feel welcome, independent, and to have fun learning
the food chain.
5. Alignment between outcomes, objectives, instruction, and assessment
This lesson aligns the outcome, objectives, instruction, and assessment effectively
throughout. Specific learner expectation 6 aligns with the both learner objectives for
the lesson as they require an understanding and identification of producers,
consumer, and decomposer. This is also reflected throughout the instruction as the
focus is on identifying each type of organism into those categories, in teacher led
examples, class example, and the performance task. The assessment then marks the
students on whether those were included in their food chain.
For specific learner expectation 7, the second objective is the goal for the students to
know at the end of class, and the instruction throughout focuses on understanding
the visual design of a food chain. The performance task then gets the students to fulfill
the goal of drawing/creating a visual food chain, which is then assessed.
References
Alberta Education (1996). Science K – Grade 6 (Grade 5) [Program of Studies].
Ealy, J. (1995). The Wonders of Wetlands: Teacher's Guide, Student Cards. Educational Vivarium of
Alberta
