Family and Homeschool Activities: Food Chain

These family and homeschool activities are designed to complement the Food Chain topic on BrainPOP Jr.

Food Chain Chain

Together with your child, learn about a threatened or endangered plant or animal in your neighborhood or state. You can visit the library or research on the Internet to find endangered organisms in your area. Furthermore, almost every zoo has an area dedicated to local plants and animals. Study the organism’s role in your local environment. How does the organism get food? What relies on the organism for food? Why is it threatened or endangered, and when did the threat begin? Learn about the organism’s role with the food chain and food web. How can the children find ways to get involved in protecting the species?

Meal Chain

Have your child write down what he or she had for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Then help your child to work backwards to create a food chain of his or her meal. If your child had a glass of milk, then he or she should trace the milk back to a cow, and trace the cow back to grass, and trace the grass back to the Sun. Have your child draw their meal and create different food chains. Challenge your child to see if he or she can connect their food chains together. For example, the Sun needed to grow the grass can also be used to grow the orange tree for their juice and the grains for their bread. The grains might also be used to feed the turkey for their turkey sandwich.