Ciencias 4to grado: diciembre 2014

Food Chains ,Food Webs,Energy Pyramid in Ecosystems-Video for Kids

Youtube video by makemegenius.

Food Chain/ food Web

In this food chain the flower is a producer, the caterpillar is the primary consumer, the frog is the secondary consumer , the snake and the owl are de top consumer.

In this food web the green plant is a producer; the mouse, the rabbit, and the goat are the primary consumer. The snake, the owl, the wild cat, the jackal, and the lion are secondary consumer, The kite and the lion are top consumer.

Food Chain Basic.avi

Youtube video by LearningHelp.

Food Chains

Every living thing needs energy in order to live. Everytime animals do something (run, jump) they use energy to do so. Animals get energy from the food they eat, and all living things get energy from food. Plants use sunlight, water and nutrients to get energy (in a process called photosynthesis). Energy is necessary for living beings to grow.

A food chain shows ho aclivg thg gets food, and how mutriets and energy are passed from creature to creature. Food chains begin with a plant-life, and end with animal- life. Some animals eat plants, some animals eat other animals.

Simple Food Chain

A simple food chain could start with grass, which is eaten by rabbits. Then the rabbits are eaten by foxes.

Bigger Food Chains

Here's another food chain, with a few more animals. It starts with acorns, which are eaten by mice. The mice are eaten by snakes, and then finally the snakes are eaten by hawks. At each link in the chain, energy is being transferred from one animal to another.

There can be even more links to any food chain. Here another animal is added.

It goes grass to grasshopper to mouse to snake to hawk.

There is actually even more to this chain. After a hawk dies, fungi (like mushrooms) and other decomposers break down the dead hawk, and turn the remains of the hawk into nutrients, which are released into the soil. The nutrients (plus sun and water) then cause the grass to grow.
It's a full circle of life and energy!!

So food chains make a full circle, and energy is passed from plant to animal to animal to decomposer and back to plant! There can be many links in food chains but not TOO many. If there are too many links, then the animal at the end would not get enough energy.

Decay/ Decompose

Youtube video by PBS Kids.

Fungi, plants, bacteria, and insects help dead organism decompose or decay.

Decomposers

Bacteria and fungi are decomposers. They eat decaying matter - dead plants and animals and in the process they break them down and decompose them When that happens, they release nutrients and mineral salts back into the soil - which then will be used by plants!

Carnivores, Herbivores and Omnivores

Youtube video by kflo111.

Consumers

Animals are called consumers. This is because they cannot make their own food, so they need to consume (eat) plants and/or animals.

There are 3 groups of consumers.

Producers

Plants are called producers. This is because they produce their own food! They do this by using light energy from the Sun, carbon dioxide from the air and water from the soil to produce food - in the form of glucouse/sugar.
The process is called photosynthesis.