Description

The Sun game serves as a springboard for the Guide to introduce Child/ren to the Wetland 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 provides the energy to generate the growth of the primary producer, algae (vegetation)
• the primary consumer, the crabs (omnivore) feed off algae
• a secondary consumer, the catfish (omnivore), eats the crabs
• tertiary consumers, the heron (omnivore), eat the catfish
• a quaternary consumer, the alligator (carnivore), eats the heron.  He is a predator.
• when the alligator dies, the decomposers (bacteria), break down the body into nutrients, which return to the soil as nutrients, for the plants to grow again.

Features of the Wetland 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 are transferred from one element to the other
• this activity forms part of the Montessori curriculum

Contents of the Wetland 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.  This allows 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 Wetland 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., grass and which animals 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 Marine Food Chain
• Animal Kingdom Phyla Activity
• The Chordata Frieze

Further Reading and Resources