Last Friday's complete food chain answer:
Sun → Sea Lettuce → Limpet → Starfish → Lobster → Seal → Shark
You may have stopped here thinking that the shark is the apex predator in the ocean, which is correct! However, some of you may have thought about the fact that even though we don't live in the ocean, shark can be eaten by humans! In this case you may have added human as the apex predator, which would also be correct!
Good morning all and welcome to Friday!
Today's learning is about finding out, talking, discussing and understanding. Some key terms we are exploring are; interdependence, endangered and extinct.
Now that we all know how food chains work, it is time to think again about this...
🤔Have a chat about the following questions:
Why is it important for us to learn to respect the environment?
What might happen to the animals if we don't respect it?
How could a food chain be affected?
Today we are learning about the term 'interdependence'. This seems like a long word but its meaning can be put very simply; all parts of the food chain need each other to survive. They rely on each other. Here are some examples to talk about:
Sun → Sea Lettuce → Limpet → Starfish → Lobster → Seal → Shark
According to our fact file, limpets eat sea lettuce. This is a simplified example, but consider what would happen if sea lettuce could no longer grow because of pollution? Would the rest of the food chain be able to survive?
We looked at pollution last half term, but if you missed it or want to recap you can revisit our blog from Thursday 21st May where there are links to 3 short films to explore. Aside from plastics and pollution, there are other things that threaten our animal's habitat such as intense farming, climate change and the use of pesticides.
When an animal is under threat of disappearing from our world, it is called endangered, if it disappears completely, it is called extinct. Watch these short information pieces:
Extinct - some images of extinct animals and plants.
Endangered Species - some examples and some reasoning to explain why animals become endangered.
If you want more you can further explore specific endangered animals on the WWF site here - Animals in Danger. The photographs are amazing on this page and children can click on the endangered animal of their choice to see further photographs, maps of where the animal is from and find out the reason that it is an endangered species. Help will be needed with reading but even just looking at the pictures will be informative in terms of learning about the animals that are on the brink of extinction.
Finally a task to do. Using the information from the short clips and the WWF website, illustrate these two sentences with pictures.
I am extinct.
I am endangered.
Here's one I made earlier:
The important part of this lesson is understanding. If your child is enthusiastic and a confident writer, they may want to write some factual sentences also, but they do not have to. Understanding the key words and concepts of the lesson is more important so encourage lots of talking and explanation of what they are drawing. A simple verbal explanation is fine as long as meaningful, ie; 'there are not many polar bears left so we need to look after our world or they will all die.' Some children may be able to articulate in much more detail the reasons why some animals are endangered and talk about the possible consequences of a broken food chain. Other children might be able to explain some things humans could do to try to make a difference and some children will be in between all of these!
I do hope that you enjoy the learning journey today and as always, remember that you can contact us to share work or for any further questions or advice via our email - ks1@downhallprimary.com.
Best wishes for a fab weekend,
KS1 Team
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