A food chain shows who eats what. It always starts with a plant, which makes its own food from sunlight. Animals that eat plants are eaten by other animals, passing energy along the chain.
What your child will learn
- Build simple food chains starting with a plant
- Know what predators, prey and producers are
- Explain what a habitat provides for animals
- Predict what happens when part of a food chain disappears
Reading the arrows
In a food chain like grass → rabbit → fox, the arrows point to the animal doing the eating: the rabbit eats the grass, and the fox eats the rabbit. The grass is the producer, the rabbit is prey and the fox is a predator.
Example questions
Here are a few questions like the ones in the first quest. Can you solve them?
1. Leaf → caterpillar → ?
- Flower
- Leaf
- Bird
- Grass
Show answer
Answer: Bird. A bird eats the caterpillar.
2. What does a cow eat?
🐄- Grass
- Fish
- Chicken
- Insects
Show answer
Answer: Grass. Cows eat grass all day long.
3. Which animal might eat a caterpillar?
🐛- A cow
- A bird
- A rabbit
- A horse
Show answer
Answer: A bird. Birds eat caterpillars. Cows, rabbits and horses eat plants.
Tips for grown-ups
- Make food chains with toy animals and arrows cut from paper.
- On a nature walk, ask “What might eat this? What does it eat?”