An Everglades Food Chain

An Everglades Food Chain Worksheet: Energy flow in a food chain (Grade 4 Florida Science)

Students trace energy along an Everglades food chain: the Sun, sawgrass, a grasshopper, a frog, and a heron. They find where the energy starts, name the producer and a consumer, and follow the arrows. Then they fix a food chain with a missing producer and decide who gets the energy when an alligator eats a heron. The page teaches the idea first, so no prior lesson is needed, and every answer can be found on the page.

What's Inside

• A short teach box on the Sun, producers, consumers, and food chain arrows
• Part A: a five-step Everglades food chain; four circle questions
• Part B: fix a food chain with a missing producer, then follow the energy to an alligator
• A raccoon guide with a question to get students thinking
• An answer key with answers marked in red, plus a short teacher note with what to watch for and a quick real-world activity

How Teachers Use It

Read the short teach box together, then let students work through Part A and Part B on their own or with a partner. It takes 8 to 10 minutes and prints clearly in black and white. The focus skill is tracing the flow of energy from the Sun through producers to consumers in a food chain. Florida benchmark: SC.4.L.17.3: Trace the flow of energy from the Sun as it is transferred along the food chain through the producers to the consumers.

Why It Works

One big picture chain and one rule (arrows show where the energy goes) make the idea easy to see and check. Questions are short circle answers with clear choices, and the reasoning is on the teacher key.