1) Ask students what food do they like. I usually ask the JTE as an example, then call on a few students.
2) Ask students to think about their favorite food and its ingredients and origins for about 30 seconds, and show them one of my examples to give them an idea of what they should be thinking about.
3)Have students write down their food, the ingredients, and their origins. Make sure they understand 'ingredients' in broad terms- I had students act like this was a recipe, and try to write down everything. Origins can also be a little hard to explain because 'origin' and 'original' sound a lot alike. But once they get the idea they are okay, but I do let students use a chromebook to look things up. Some students will list a fruit, which is fine, but if you are stickler you should specify a prepared dish and not a singular food. I got some students mentioning kinako, kinoko, strawberries, etc. All in all it was about 4 minutes of writing once they understood what to do.
4)Once they have finished writing their examples, demonstrate the model dialogue with the JTE. Janken for who starts, they can read the example and you can make an original one. Have students run through this dialogue in pairs twice each.
5) Transition to 'what do animals eat?' Show the slide, ask what lions eat. You'll get various answers, most of which will be more correct than the textbook. Lions will eat rabbit, but not enough for it to make sense. The textbook also says that rabbits eat grasses and nuts. Rabbits do eat grasses, but nuts are too high in protein and fats for their digestion to be a regular part of their diet. It is safe, but only rarely. So I'm very confused as to why this was included, but that is why I left it out. I showed another example, whale sharks, and then told students to write about any animal they want, and what they eat. I got a number of bears, racooons, and others. Filling out all three might take too long, but I don't think it will be a problem. Ask for examples afterwards from the students.
6) Next, show the food chain picture. Show that this is a diagram of what different animals eat, and list the different animals they should put in the blanks on the worksheet. Explain that rabbits eat grasses. What eats rabbits? Then have them write down their answers on the worksheet. Then check answers.
7) Have students practice "eat/ are eaten by" using the last part. They just have to choose which to write down in Task 2 part 2. Then check answers with the class.
8) Do the reading challenge at the bottom of page 33. Read and repeat, then have students choose the correct work and check their answers. Practice the reading as many parts as necessary. This is optional, you may not get to it.
Anticipated problems: Some teachers may insist that you keep the incorrect science if they are sticklers. Once I showed my JTEs that it was incorrect they were OK with me changing things. You will need to demonstrate what you mean by 'ingredients', before you get recipes for tomato sauce- the book lists them as categories more than ingredients. You may need to make that distinction.
I like letting students be creative with their answers. Fruit, individual types of vegetables- those are fine, but not quite true to the spirit of the lesson, and you may want to make sure that they understand that you mean dish instead of food.
Let students write whatever animals they like, though some might get a little too enthusiastic about bears eating humans.
Hope this worksheet and slideshow are helpful to you!
Hi nice activity.
Just a small correction grass is already plural and singular. (Change grasses to grass)
No, because that is 1) from the textbook, and 2) correct usage. Grasses is a correct plural specifying the type of plant. They eat MANY TYPES of this plant.
Very cool idea. I like trying cross-curricular activities. Of course the usage of "grasses" is fine.
If I were to nit pick it would be about how rabbits eat more than just grasses. For example their offspring and their fecal matter. That is if I were going to nitpick.
Thank you for sharing this. I look forward to teaching it.
Have telling your students all that, you are of course free to teach what you like. Students really like to know the gritty details, as nature is both red in tooth and claw.
Thank you so much for sharing this.