Description
The Sun game serves as a springboard for the Guide to introduce Child/ren to the Marine Food Chain Activity. Every ecosystem, sustains its own food chain, depending upon where it is situated and which living animals or plants inhabit the area. Furthermore, there are several hierarchical levels of living organisms that share the same function in the food chain, i.e., the stronger, bigger animal eats the smaller one. When the largest consumer in the chain dies, they decompose back into the soil, as nutrients for plants. The cycle begins again.
Every ecosystem is made up of three components: producers, consumers and decomposers.
- however, the food chain could not function without an initial source of energy, the Sun
- sunlight filters through the ocean to provide energy for tiny one-celled organisms called diatoms to develop. Diatoms are a type of plankton, the primary producer
- the primary consumer, the krill (shrimplike creatures), feed off the plankton
- a secondary consumer, small fish, such as sardines feed off krill
- tertiary consumers, the seals, eat the small fish
- a quaternary consumer, the orca (whales and sharks), eat the small fish
- when the orca dies, the decomposers (bacteria), break down the body into nutrients, which return to the soil as nutrients, for the diatoms to grow again.
Features of the Marine Food Chain Activity
- the direct objective of this material: to introduce the Child to the concept of a food chain
- indirect objective: after understanding the food chain, the Child will realise how one organism is dependent upon another species for survival
- the food chain is a linear sequence of organisms where nutrients and energy is transferred from one organism to the other
- this activity forms part of the Montessori curriculum
Contents of the Marine Food Chain Activity
- 6 cards, illustrating, in brilliant colour, the sun as the initiator of energy, the producer and 4 consumers of the food chain
- each image has a label, naming each component
- 6 arrows, for the Child to lay out the cards in either a linear or circular pattern to indicate the direction of the food chain
- the control of error is the oblong control mat.
- to enable the guide to present the work to the Child in the form of a ‘frieze’, the mat is folded in a ‘concertina’ method, allowing the guide to display one or two images at a time
- we sell the contents in a transparent plastic envelope
Size
- mat – 71 x 17 cm / (28″ x 6.75″)I
- card – 9 x 10.5 cm / (3.5″ x 4″)
- envelope – 18 x 13 x 0.5 cm / (7″ x 4″ x 0.2″)
Activities for the Marine Food Chain
- introduce the subject to the Child/ren, by presenting each image individually, in sequential order
- discuss the subject of the image, i.e., algae and which fish eat it. Allow the Child/ren to discuss their experiences and what they know, then add the label to the image
- introduce the definitions, predator, carnivore, herbivore, and omnivore with the Child/ren
- repeat with all cards, so that the images create a circle or line
- when complete, repeat the exercise, discussing this as the ‘circle of life’
- the frieze is used as a control for when the Child decides to work independently with the materials.
Related Products
- The Sun Game
- The Terrestrial Food Chain
- The Wetlands Food Chain
- Animal Kingdom Phyla Activity
- The Chordata Frieze
Further Reading and Resources
Sue2000 (verified owner) –
I am so impressed by the product quality, I bought all of the food chain activities.