PROCEDURE:
1. Have the students form a circle.
2. Discuss with them the meaning of the term, "food web". Describe
the many kinds of different plants and animals that make up a food web.
Refer to the plants and animals on the name tags.
3. Distribute the name tags so that only one name tag goes to a child.
4. Tell the students that the food web games will start with the child who
has the hawk name tag. Give the end of the ball of yarn to the hawk child.
5. Ask if anyone has the name tag of a food that the hawk might eat (ex.
squirrel, rabbit, mouse, rat, or bird).
6. When a child suggests an appropriate
answer, connect him to the hawk child with the yarn. Cut the yarn and return
the ball to the hawk.
7. Ask if anyone else represents an animal that the hawk might eat. Repeat
procedure #6. Do this until all the hawk's prey have been identified.
8. Now choose one of the hawk's prey. Ask if anyone is wearing a tag with
a name of a food that the animal might eat (ex. nuts, vegetables, fruit,
grass, grains, insects).
9. Continue connecting children until they have all been strung together
in a symbol of the web of life.
10. To recognize the interconnectedness of all the animals and plants in
an ecosystem, present the following problem: Who would be affected if there
were no rain for five months? Assist students in determining the answers
by asking what they think would happen if it didn't rain for a very long
time. Who or what would be affected the most?
11. Demonstrate what happens when one plant becomes extinct. Pretend that
one animal becomes extinct. Have the child wearing the name tag of the selected
animal drop his string. All plants and animals who were connected with the
yarn to that animal must also drop their strings. Have the person representing
the extinct animal move away from the remaining food web.
12. Discuss with the children what they think will happen to the populations
of animals and plants in the food web that were once devoured by the animal
which has now become extinct.