Grade one trees and Food Chains

 Grade ones received trees in honour of Arbour Day.  There are instructions on the back of the tree.  It is super important to keep the seedling cool and to plant it AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!  If you cannot plant it tonight, ensure your keep the root bundle damp and to store it in a cool place over night.

Today we explored energy cycles using models of a food pyramid and food chains using the beautiful story Pond Circle by Betsy Franco.  It follows a pattern like the old lady that swallowed the fly shows a food chain:  algae-mayfly nymph- diving beetle-bullfrog- garter snake- skunk- owl (eggs)- raccoon-coyote.


This pyramid model, shows the distribution of organisms with the producers being the most numerous.  Reflecting back to our Great Lessons, we talked about how the SUN is the source of all energy on our planet.  The producers use the sun to create food energy.  We also discussed how decomposers break down dead animals and plant material so that their nutrients can be cycled through the food pyramid again.

Some of these words are challenging for grade one/ two students.  Breaking words up into their parts can be helpful.  

Decompose (take apart) Decomposer is an organism that breaks apart material into its base components.    De: negative of:  Compose (like composer who puts music together)

We also talked about how producers produce (or make) food.  We then connected this to the produce section at the grocery store.  Finding connections for root words can be helpful.

The children then created their own four part food chains: producer-primary consumer-secondary consumer-tertiary consumer.

Next we will explore the concept of food webs and how the life in an ecosystem is interconnected.