Everything Is Connected: Food Webs and Ecosystems

About This Resource

A complete Grade 4 science lesson pack on food webs and ecosystems: living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem, producers, consumers and decomposers, how food chains link into food webs, energy flow from the Sun, reading a pond and forest food web, and what happens when a population changes. Includes a lesson plan, worksheet, quiz, homework, A5 flashcards, a rubric, detailed slides with speaker notes, Word files and answer keys.

Overview

Students learn that an ecosystem is all the living things in an area and the nonliving things they need, such as water, soil, air and sunlight. They review producers and consumers, meet decomposers (mushrooms, worms and bacteria that break down the remains of living things), and see how many food chains overlap to make a food web. Students read a forest food web, trace energy from the Sun, predict what happens when one population grows or shrinks and explain why every part of an ecosystem matters.

Resource Details

Subject: Science
Topic: Food Webs and Ecosystems
Category: Living Things
File Type: PDF
File Size: 376.4 KB
Published: 01 Nov 2026
Downloads: 0

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Grade 4 (ages 9–10) 55 minutes Life science reading diagrams classifying predicting explaining cause and effect

Learning Objectives

Describe an ecosystem as living and nonliving parts that interact.
Identify producers, consumers and decomposers and their roles.
Use a food web to predict what happens when one population changes.

How to Use This Resource

Show a forest photo and ask students to list living and nonliving things, then teach with the slides.
Use the flashcards to build a class food web on the board with string or arrows, then complete the worksheet.
Use the quiz to check learning and send the homework home; answers are in the answer keys.

Classroom Activity Ideas

Web of yarn: students hold cards for forest organisms; pass yarn between each eater and what it eats, then tug one card to show how a change affects everyone.
Decomposer jar: put leaves, soil and a little water in a sealed jar and observe over two weeks.
Ecosystem in a shoebox: groups build a model habitat and label producers, consumers and decomposers.

Differentiation

Support: work with a small web of five organisms and picture cards. Challenge: explain why there are usually more plants than animals at the top of a food web.

Assessment

The worksheet and quiz check roles and food web reasoning (answer keys included). Use the rubric for the yarn web discussion and explanations.

Teacher Tips

Draw arrows from the food to the eater, showing where the energy goes. Ask "Where does the energy go next?" to help students read the arrows correctly.

What's Included

11-page printable PDF lesson pack: teacher lesson plan with timings, materials and differentiation
Key vocabulary list (8 words with meanings and examples)
Student worksheet (6 activities)
Quiz / assessment (3 parts)
Homework practice page
Printable flashcards: 8 A5 picture cards (separate PDF)
Assessment rubric (4 levels)
Lesson slides (editable PowerPoint)
Editable Word version of all student pages
Complete answer key (also as a separate PDF)