Food chain activities

Food chains are a good way of showing children that living things in habitats – animals and plants – need each other to survive. Furthermore, they provide a good foundation for children to begin to develop more complex ideas about ecosystems.

At each level of the food chain there is less energy than at the previous level, due to the fact that some energy has been released as heat. This makes the food chain pyramid shaped. It is often said that plants come at the bottom of every food chain but in effect it is the Sun, as it is the giver of life and provider of energy for everything that lives on Earth.

The following activities will help children to establish how food chains show what is eaten by what in different locations. The children will focus on food chains that they are familiar with, using drama and role play to reconstruct a particular chain.

Key vocabulary