Food Chains and Biomes Lesson | Grades 4–6

Help students see how organisms are connected in a food chain with a lesson that moves from discussion to hands-on application. Students explore producers, consumers, decomposers, and energy flow, then use organism cards to create a hanging food chain mobile.
The activity features five biomes: tundra, deciduous forest, desert, marine, and grassland. Students sort cards by biome and organism role before assembling their chains. A reflection sheet asks them to explain their model and predict what could happen if a consumer disappeared.

What is included
• PowerPoint presentation introducing food chains and trophic levels
• Lesson instructions with a Canva presentation link as a video backup
• Activity overview and five-link mobile assembly guide
• Food chain organism cards for five biomes
• Four-level rubric for the mobile activity
• Ecosystems and biomes vocabulary worksheet
• Biome food chain reflection sheet
• Five-question exit ticket

Students will practice
• Identifying producers, consumers, and decomposers
• Tracing energy from the Sun through a food chain
• Matching organisms to their biomes
• Explaining the role of decomposers
• Predicting how a change in one population could affect other organisms
Use the presentation for instruction, the mobile for partner or group work, and the written pages to check individual understanding.

At a glance

• Grade range: Grades 4–6
• NGSS: 5-LS2-1 and 5-PS3-1
• Files: Six PDFs (2, 1, 9, 1, 2, and 2 pages; 17 PDF pages total)