Where Do Animals Get Energy?

Where Do Animals Get Energy? Worksheet: How animals get energy from food (Grade 4 Florida Science)

Students learn that plants make their own food using sunlight, while animals, including people, must eat plants or other animals. They sort an orange tree, an alligator, a heron, and sawgrass as food makers or food eaters, then follow the energy as a heron eats a fish and as they eat an orange themselves. 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 why animals must eat and how energy passes in food
• Part A: four picture cards; circle makes food or eats food
• Part B: two is-eaten-by picture pairs; circle where the energy goes
• 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 explaining that animals cannot make their own food and that energy in food passes to the animal that eats it. Florida benchmark: SC.4.L.17.2: Explain that animals, including humans, cannot make their own food and that when animals eat plants or other animals, the energy stored in the food source is passed to them.

Why It Works

Big pictures and one simple rule (plants make food, animals eat food) let every student follow the energy. Questions are short circle answers with clear choices, and the reasoning is on the teacher key.