Awkward Animal Kingdom

1. Awkward Animal Kingdom Simon Stinkysocks’ Today’s Episode: I’ve got a bad case of the Carnivores

2. Objectives • Content: S-TWBAT identify and describe the roles of animals and plants in a food chain or food web. • Language: S-TWBAT compose food chains or food webs and refer to the parts using the proper vocabulary.

3. Vocabulary Words! • Food chain- how energy goes from one living thing to another. • Food web- the overlapping of food chains in a community. • Producer- a living thing that makes its own food. • Consumer- a living thing that cannot make its own food. • Herbivore- an animal that eats only plants. (“herb” meaning plant) • Carnivore- an animal that eats other animals. (“carn” meaning meat) • Predator- a hunter • Prey- the hunted • Scavenger- an animal that feeds on the remains of dead animals. • Omnivore- an animal that eats both plants and animals. (“omni” meaning both or all)

4. First up… • Every food chain begins with the SUN. • The sun creates all the energy that is needed to start any food chain.

5. Next… • The sun’s energy is received by a producer. • A producer makes its own food. • On land producers include grasses, trees and any organisms that can turn sunlight into food. • In the ocean, the producers are usually algae.

6. Where’s the energy go next? • Producers are usually eaten by first level consumers called herbivores. • A consumer doesn’t make its own food. • Herbivores only eat plants.

7. Hey, ma?! What’s for dinner? • After producers make the food and herbivores (first level consumers) digest it, then predators (second level consumers) are introduced into food chains. • A predator eats others animals for food. The animals they eat are called prey. • All meat eaters are called carnivores.

8. Apex Predators • Apex predators are top level predators. • They are not preyed upon and die usually only due to human beings, old age, or because they were in a fight with another predator or prey. • They are usually not eaten.

9. Other members… • Scavengers do the important job of helping to get rid of those stinky bodies that predators and disease create.

10. What turns body back to “dust?” • Decomposers break down dead things into materials that can be used by the producers to make food (Think soil.) • They are the final part of the food chain and then the process begins again.

11. A food chain is…

12. Awkward Animal Kingdom • Thank you for watching….