Molly The Owl And Food Chain Lesson

My family has been watching Molly the Barn Owl live since she laid her eggs. It has been fascinating to watch the eggs hatch, see her mate bring her food, watch her eat, and even cough up owl pellets. It's amazing how much we have learned. We can now distinguish her call which tells her babies it's time to eat from her call to her mate. A homeschool has even been developed in Yahoo groups since so many homeschoolers were watching her during the day.

So I've decided to put together some curriculum to go along with all we've been learning about owls. Today the girls and I are going to start a lesson on food chains. Since I have a 2nd grader and a 4th grader I'm going to try to aim this lesson at both of them.

First we are going to define producers, consumers, and decomposers in the food chain. I made up some flashcards here . Feel free to use mine or make your own. Next thing we are going to do is go through pictures of magazines and have the girls make a chart of each of these "characters" in the chain. My preschooler will love helping with the finding of pictures in the magazine and she can make her own collage.

Next we are going to discuss food chains and have the girls draw or use their pictures to put together a food chain. This website has wonderful information about food chains as well as some fun games the kids can play. I found another website that has word searches, crosswords, and card games dealing with the food chain for the older child.

I'll post pictures tomorrow of all our activities. I ordered owl pellets yesterday to dissect so tune in for that fun lesson soon!

*Correction on the worksheets I made. The definition for consumer and producers need to be switched. When we were editing and moving things around the definitions got switched I am so sorry!