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Food chains

EnglishYear 2ScienceFree

Build pictured food links, find plant foods and explain how food energy passes.

What it is about

Identify plant-based energy links in simple producer–consumer chains.

Year 2 · 6–7 years · 30 challenges

Before you begin

  • Year 1 organisms, plant parts, body senses and material descriptions.

What the class will do

  1. Build a sequence · 12 challenges

    Build the food links

    Order from the food source to its eater. Sunlight cards name an energy source, not food being eaten.

  2. Explore a scene · 8 challenges

    Find the chain’s parts

    Use each supplied feeding record and select only the labelled objects fitting the question’s rule.

  3. Choose and explain · 10 challenges

    Explain the food evidence

    Discuss the stated feeding links before choosing. One chain does not show every possible food.

Using it in class

Every feeding link is stated in its challenge. Food links run from food to eater; they are not chasing routes or complete diets. Everyone predicts before a representative acts. No animals need feeding for play. Full bank 30–45 minutes; choose a short round or block.

Give everyone time to think and discuss before one pupil acts at the board. The class explains and confirms together; hints and explanations stay until you move on.

Use an up-to-date browser on a computer connected to a whiteboard or shared display. Touch, mouse and keyboard; optional audio and reduced motion. No pupil accounts or personal devices.

Choose from 5 challenges up to the full activity. Discussion determines the duration: you set the pace.

A look inside the activities

Build a sequence

A mouse ate plant seeds. A cat ate the mouse. Build the food chain from FOOD to EATER.

  • Cat
  • Plant seeds
  • Mouse
Explanation and discussion

Plant seeds feed the mouse; the mouse is food for the cat in this record. Food and its energy pass along those links. This is not a claim about the only food either animal eats.

Why would starting with the cat reverse these feeding links?

Explore a scene

This mouse record names plant SEEDS and FRUIT as foods. Find the offered plant foods.

Rock: mineralMouse: eaterPear fruitPlant seeds
Explanation and discussion

Seeds and pear fruit are plant-based food offers. The mouse is their eater in this record; the rock is not a food link.

Why can one animal have more than one plant food?

Choose and explain

A mouse ate plant seeds. A cat ate the mouse. Which animal was the cat’s FOOD in this record?

  • Mouse
  • Goat
  • Bee
Explanation and discussion

The record says the cat ate the mouse. It does not give a cat-to-goat or cat-to-bee feeding link.

Which plant food supplied the earlier link?