• 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. lettuce → slug → hedgehog → badger What is the badger in this food chain? (tertiary consumer / primary consumer / producer / secondary consumer) → tertiary consumerPrompt: Start at the plant and count the arrows.
2. grass → zebra → lion Which animal is the predator of the zebra? (grass / lion / zebra) → lionPrompt: A predator hunts and eats other animals; its prey is the animal it eats.
3. Food chains: which statement is true? (An animal can be both a predator and prey. / Herbivores are predators. / Producers eat consumers. / A food chain can start with a lion.) → An animal can be both a predator and prey.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 all the small fish died, what would probably happen to the tadpoles at first? (They would stay exactly the same / They would decrease / They would increase / They would turn into fish) → They would increasePrompt: What eats tadpoles?
2. What does "interdependence" mean in an ecosystem? (Living things depend on each other, so a change to one affects others / Every animal lives alone / Plants do not need animals at all / Only predators matter) → Living things depend on each other, so a change to one affects othersPrompt: Think of bees and flowers.

• 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? (Removing a predator always helps every other species. / Predator and prey populations often rise and fall in cycles. / Removing one species can affect many others in a food web. / Plants compete for light, water and minerals.) → Removing a predator always helps every other species.Prompt: Think about what happens when one population changes.
2. Bees are declining. Why could this affect fruit farmers? (Fruit trees need honey to grow / Fewer flowers would be pollinated, so less fruit forms / Bees eat fruit / Bees make the rain) → Fewer flowers would be pollinated, so less fruit formsPrompt: What do bees carry between flowers?

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