Texas TEKS 4.12.B

Science4th GradeOrganisms and environments

The Standard

describe the cycling of matter and flow of energy through food webs, including the roles of the Sun, producers, consumers, and decomposers

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Science

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students trace energy from sunlight to plants and then to animals. They explain how decomposers return matter from waste and dead organisms to the environment, where producers use it again.
What Mastery Looks Like: Students can build or read a food web and correctly label producers, consumers, and decomposers. They use arrows to show energy movement and explain that matter cycles while energy moves one way.
Common Misconceptions: Students may point arrows toward what gets eaten instead of where energy goes. They may think plants get food from soil, decomposers only break down animals, or energy cycles back to the Sun.
How to Assess It: Give students these terms: Sun, grass, rabbit, hawk, and mushroom. Ask them to draw and label a food web, then explain what cycles and what flows one way.

Lesson moves

Give groups organism cards and two colors of yarn to map energy movement and matter recycling through a meadow food web.
Ask students to write: Why can the same matter return to plants, while energy must keep entering from the Sun?
Play Food Web Relay, with teams arranging Sun, producer, consumer, and decomposer cards and adding arrows in the correct direction.
Examine a compost sample and identify how decomposers help return matter from food scraps to soil that supports new plant growth.

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