• Quick retrieval from earlier learning (Read a food web: who eats whom?). Students answer on mini whiteboards.
• Show answers together and note who needs support in the main task.

1. Here is a pond food web. (An arrow points from the food to the animal that eats it.) algae → mayfly larva algae → tadpole pondweed → pond snail algae → pond snail mayfly larva → dragonfly larva tadpole → dragonfly larva mayfly larva → stickleback (small fish) dragonfly larva → stickleback (small fish) stickleback (small fish) → heron tadpole → heron Which of these does the stickleback (small fish) eat? (algae / pondweed / dragonfly larva / tadpole) → dragonfly larvaPrompt: Find the arrows that point TO this animal.
2. Here is a woodland food web. (An arrow points from the food to the animal that eats it.) oak tree → caterpillar grass → rabbit oak tree → mouse grass → mouse caterpillar → blue tit rabbit → fox mouse → fox mouse → owl blue tit → owl How many different animals in this web eat the grass? → 2Prompt: Count the arrows that start at this living thing.
3. Here is a woodland food web. (An arrow points from the food to the animal that eats it.) oak tree → caterpillar grass → rabbit oak tree → mouse grass → mouse caterpillar → blue tit rabbit → fox mouse → fox mouse → owl blue tit → owl A disease kills most of the rabbit. Which animal loses one of its foods? (mouse / caterpillar / fox / blue tit) → foxPrompt: Which animals have an arrow coming from it?

• Show a food web and ask what would happen if one animal disappeared.
• Share the objective: Predict what happens when a food web changes. Read the success criteria together.

• Work through the example out loud, saying why you do each step, not just what you do.
• Example: Sea otters eat sea urchins, and sea urchins eat kelp. Hunters remove most otters. What happens to the kelp forest?
• Step 1: With fewer predators, urchin numbers rise and they overgraze the kelp.
• Step 2: So the answer is: Urchins increase and eat much of the kelp.
• Answer: Urchins increase and eat much of the kelp.
• 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. Why is a food web with many links more stable than a single food chain? (Webs need no producers. / Chains are always longer. / Webs have fewer animals. / If one food runs short, animals can eat something else.) → If one food runs short, animals can eat something else.Prompt: Compare a fox that eats rabbits only with one that eats rabbits and mice.
2. True or false? Animals that eat many foods cope better when one food runs out. (True / False) → TruePrompt: Follow the arrows to see who depends on whom.

• 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. True or false? If producers die, every animal in the web is affected. (True / False) → TruePrompt: Follow the arrows to see who depends on whom.
2. What is a likely knock-on effect: warmer seas bleach coral reefs? (insect-eating birds have less food / rabbit numbers rise and more grass is eaten / reef fish lose food and shelter / birds that eat small fish have less food) → reef fish lose food and shelterPrompt: Who eats what was lost or added?

Free online practice with hints and printable worksheets for this skill: eurekami.com/science/grade-5.