• Quick retrieval from earlier learning (Producers, consumers, predators and prey). Students answer on mini whiteboards.
• Show answers together and note who needs support in the main task.

1. seeds → mouse → owl What is the owl in this food chain? (secondary consumer / producer / primary consumer / tertiary consumer) → secondary consumerPrompt: Start at the plant and count the arrows.
2. phytoplankton → krill → penguin → leopard seal Which animal is the prey of the penguin? (leopard seal / penguin / phytoplankton / krill) → krillPrompt: A predator hunts and eats other animals; its prey is the animal it eats.
3. Food chains: which statement is true? (A food chain can start with a lion. / Producers eat consumers. / Herbivores are predators. / A consumer gets its energy by eating other living things.) → A consumer gets its energy by eating other living things.Prompt: Producers make food; consumers eat.

• Show a food web and ask what would happen if one animal disappeared.
• Share the objective: Food webs and interdependence. Read the success criteria together.

• Work through the example out loud, saying why you do each step, not just what you do.
• Example: Pond food web: algae are eaten by tadpoles and water fleas. Tadpoles and water fleas are eaten by small fish. Small fish are eaten by herons. If the small fish died, what would happen to the herons?
• Step 1: Herons lose their food source, so their numbers fall.
• Step 2: So the answer is: They would decrease or move away
• Answer: They would decrease or move away
• 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. Pond food web: algae are eaten by tadpoles and water fleas. Tadpoles and water fleas are eaten by small fish. Small fish are eaten by herons. If the small fish died, what would happen to the herons? (Nothing / They would decrease or move away / They would increase / They would eat algae) → They would decrease or move awayPrompt: What do herons eat in this web?
2. Rabbits and sheep both eat grass in the same field. This is an example of… (competition / predation / photosynthesis / decomposition) → competitionPrompt: They both want the same limited resource.

• 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 webs: which statement is NOT true? (Predator and prey populations often rise and fall in cycles. / Plants compete for light, water and minerals. / Removing a predator always helps every other species. / Animals often compete for food, water and space.) → Removing a predator always helps every other species.Prompt: Think about what happens when one population changes.
2. Woodland food web: grass is eaten by rabbits and mice. Seeds are eaten by mice. Rabbits are eaten by foxes. Mice are eaten by foxes and owls. If disease killed most rabbits, what might happen to the mice? (They become rabbits / Their numbers fall, because foxes eat more mice / They increase, because foxes stop eating / They stop eating seeds) → Their numbers fall, because foxes eat more micePrompt: Foxes still need to eat.

Free online practice with hints and printable worksheets for this skill: eurekami.com/science/grade-6.