Humans and animals take in energy through food, but only humans can choose where to eat on the food chain. B. Lesson Plan Explain to pupils that, in order to be alive, all plants and animals need to take in energy. Energy is needed to grow, run around, work, think and even sleep. Animals take in energy by eating food. To understanding how living things gain their energy and how they are interrelated, we can look at food chains.
All food chains begin with the energy sent to Earth from our nearest star, the Sun.
The eater of the plant is next in the chain, followed by the eaters of the eaters. Ask the children if they can think of some examples of food chains and then draw attention to the activity sheet. Here, they have to put the chains in the right order, writing their answers in the spaces. The arrows show what goes into what, e.g. corn into mouse into snake into owl. Once they have grasped the principles of food chains, they can create their own and see how long they can make them.