• Quick retrieval from earlier learning (Simple food chains). Students answer on mini whiteboards.
• Show answers together and note who needs support in the main task.

1. Which living thing fills the gap in this food chain? ___ → zebra → lion (grass / tadpole / caterpillar / slug) → grassPrompt: A food chain starts with a plant.
2. Where does the energy in a food chain first come from? (the rain / the top predator / the Sun / the soil) → the SunPrompt: What do plants need to make food?
3. Which living thing fills the gap in this food chain? oak leaves → ___ → blue tit → sparrowhawk (fox / acacia leaves / caterpillar / phytoplankton) → caterpillarPrompt: It must eat the thing before it in the chain.

• Show a food web and ask what would happen if one animal disappeared.
• Share the objective: Producers, consumers, predators and prey. Read the success criteria together.

• Work through the example out loud, saying why you do each step, not just what you do.
• Example: phytoplankton → krill → penguin → leopard seal What is the krill in this food chain?
• Step 1: It is number 2 in the chain.
• Step 2: So the answer is: primary consumer
• Answer: primary consumer
• Pause after each step and ask a student to say what comes next.

• Do these together. Students try each step on whiteboards before you reveal it.
• Use the hints as prompts rather than giving the answer.

1. acacia leaves → giraffe → lion What is the giraffe in this food chain? (primary consumer / producer / secondary consumer / tertiary consumer) → primary consumerPrompt: Start at the plant and count the arrows.
2. algae → tadpole → fish → heron Which animal is the prey of the heron? (fish / algae / tadpole / heron) → fishPrompt: A predator hunts and eats other animals; its prey is the animal it eats.

• Students work on the student sheet. Circulate and check the first two answers of every student early.
• Students who finish: write a question of their own for a partner, with the answer.

The 8 questions are on the student sheet below, with answers in the key.

• Two questions on their own. Sort answers into got it / nearly / not yet to plan the next lesson.

1. Food chains: which statement is true? (Producers eat consumers. / A food chain can start with a lion. / Herbivores are predators. / Plants are producers because they make their own food.) → Plants are producers because they make their own food.Prompt: Producers make food; consumers eat.
2. grass → rabbit → fox Which animal is the predator of the rabbit? (fox / grass / rabbit) → foxPrompt: A predator hunts and eats other animals; its prey is the animal it eats.

Free online practice with hints and printable worksheets for this skill: eurekami.com/science/grade-3.