Consumers Get Energy By Eating — Reading Comprehension

Premium Resource

Grades

About This Reader

This educational resource, aligned with NGSS 5-LS2-1, helps students understand how consumers obtain energy by eating. The passage, 'Consumers Get Energy By Eating,' explains the roles of producers, consumers, and decomposers in an ecosystem and how matter moves through these living things. It uses simple language and defines key scientific terms, making complex ideas accessible for Grade 5 learners. The accompanying activities include reading comprehension questions at various DOK levels, a vocabulary-building glossary, and short answer questions to deepen understanding. All components are audio integrated to support diverse learning styles and enhance engagement with science concepts like food chains and energy transfer.

CONTENT PREVIEW

Food chain showing sun, carrot, rabbit, fox, bear, and human with energy arrows. — Energy flows from sun to producer to consumers in a wide ecosystem food chain.

All living organisms share one fundamental requirement: they need energy to survive, grow, and carry out life processes. While some organisms can produce their own food through photosynthesis, many others—including all animals—must obtain energy by eating other living things. These energy-dependent organisms are called consumers. Unlike plants that manufacture their own food using sunlight, consumers rely entirely on consuming other organisms to meet their energy needs, making them essential players in the transfer of energy through ecosystems.

Think about a rabbit munching on a carrot. The rabbit is a consumer, and the carrot is its food. The carrot, like all plants, is a producer. Producers are special because they can make their own food using sunlight through a process called photosynthesis. So, when the rabbit eats the carrot, it gets the energy that the carrot originally captured from the sun.

Now, what if a fox catches and eats that rabbit? The fox is also a consumer. It gets its energy from the rabbit, which got its energy from the carrot, which got its energy from the sun! This path of energy moving from one living thing to another is called a food chain. Most ecosystems have many interconnected food chains, forming a complex food web. Every organism plays a role in this system, ensuring that energy flows throughout the environment.

There are different types of consumers. Some, like the rabbit, eat only plants. These are called herbivores. Others, like the fox, eat only other animals; they are carnivores. And then there are omnivores, like humans and bears, who eat both plants and animals. No matter what they eat, all consumers are essential for the movement of matter and energy in an ecosystem. They connect producers to other consumers, keeping the flow of life going.

Interesting Fact: The energy an organism gets from food is measured in calories, which are units of energy that power all life processes.

What do consumers need to live and grow?

EnergyWaterShelterAir

What can producers make using sunlight?

Own foodWaterShelterAir

If a bird eats a worm, and the worm ate leaves, where did the bird's energy originally come from?

The sunThe wormThe leavesThe air

Why are decomposers important in an ecosystem?

Break down dead matterMake their own foodEat only plantsOnly eat animals

A squirrel eating acorns is an example of what type of consumer?

HerbivoreCarnivoreOmnivoreProducer

Which of the following is an example of an omnivore?