Florida SC.4.L.17.3

Science4th GradeInterdependence

The Standard

Trace the flow of energy from the Sun as it is transferred along the food chain through the producers to the consumers.

Florida Next Generation Sunshine State Standards for Science

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students identify the Sun as the starting energy source in most food chains. They use arrows to show energy moving to a producer and then to one or more consumers.
What Mastery Looks Like: Students can arrange familiar organisms into a correct food chain and explain each transfer. Their arrows point from the energy source toward the organism receiving the energy.
Common Misconceptions: Students may point arrows toward what gets eaten instead of toward the energy receiver. They may also treat plants as consumers or leave the Sun out of the chain.
How to Assess It: Give students cards labeled Sun, grass, grasshopper, frog, and hawk. Ask them to order the cards, draw arrows, and explain what each arrow means.

Lesson moves

Give groups picture cards and yarn to build a Sun-to-plant-to-animal food chain, then label each energy transfer.
Ask students to write how energy from sunlight could eventually reach a hawk that never eats plants.
Play a relay where teams arrange organism cards and add correctly directed arrows before checking another team's chain.
Examine a local pond food chain using algae, insects, fish, and herons, then trace where the heron's energy began.

Free download

A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to SC.4.L.17.3, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.

PDF, US Letter, prints cleanly in black and white.

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