Food Chain Flip Book

Summary

Students will use a pad of "post-it" notes to make a model of a food chain.

Materials

Each student will need:

• about 30 pages from a "post-it" notepad
• colored pencils
• resource book or Internet to discover what eats what

Instructional Procedures

1. Explain to students that cartoons create movement by showing the frames with the drawings rapidly. The drawings vary a small amount from the one before them. It creates the illusion of movement to our eye.
2. Page 1 in the flipbook will be the producer, the next page should introduce a consumer (suggest they keep the drawings simple) that "eats" the producer over a space of several pages.
3. The secondary consumer should arrive about page 10 and eat the primary consumer. A decomposer should arrive on about page 25.
4. Pushing a pin through the pages can help students make their drawings in the same place on each page, reducing the jumpy effect.
5. As student finish, or the next day to give all students time to finish, have them trade books. They can rate the book based on the scoring guide under Assessment.

Assessment Plan

Scoring Guide:
1- the producer and consumers or decomposer are missing, the book doesn't flip because the drawings are not related.
2-the producer, 2 consumer and decomposer are not all present. The book does not flip well because enough drawings were not made
3 - a producer, 2 consumers and decomposition are shown but may not be found in nature. The book flips and motion appears but is jerky or uneven.
4 - a producer, 2 consumers and decomposition are shown. The book flips and motion appears. The plants and animals are ones that eat each other in nature.

Bibliography

Lesson Design by Jordan School District Teachers and Staff.