ACTIVITY: POPCORN FOOD CHAIN

Objective: To understand how the energy flows from the sun through the plants to the animals in a field.

Materials:

Yellow hat

Bowl of popcorn

Green headbands

Signs from previous activity

To set up for this activity, select children to act as:

1 sun – with yellow hat and bowl of popcorn

12 plants – with green headbands

6 plant eaters – with appropriate signs from previous activity

2 meat eaters – with appropriate signs from previous activity

Have them sit or kneel (easier to manage if they’re not standing) in rows, in the above order, with the

plants, plant eaters, and meat eaters facing the sun. Leader explains that all living things need energy

and the sun has a limitless supply. The plants get their energy from the sun, the plant eaters get their

energy from the plants, and the meat eaters get their energy from the plant eaters. To begin the energy

flow, each plant takes one handful of popcorn from the sun and eats some of it. (This represents using

up some energy to grow and stay alive.) Next, each plant eater takes the popcorn from 2 plants, and

eats some, but not all, of the popcorn energy. Finally, each meat eater takes the unconsumed popcorn

from 3 plant eaters. Discuss with the children who got the energy directly from the sun, whether the

plants passed on all their energy to the plant eaters, and why the meat eaters needed energy from more

than one plant eater.

Note: Role-play, or ask what would happen, if all the plants were sprayed with herbicides or if some of

the plant eaters died in a cold winter.