Useful resources for teaching ecosystems and food chains in the outdoors .

Downloads

Outdoor learning pack for primary school teachers – (Woodland Trust-Scotland– top tips for getting outdoors!!)

Watch activity sheets/spotter sheets- ( ideas and clear id sheets for creatures)

Woodland Trust – nature detectives – ( ideas for each season and id dials)

SAPS (Science and Plants for schools) – Book 6 – Plants in their natural environment – ( pack of useful ideas and activities )

– resource 34119- education pack- food chains (lesson ideas and food chain games)

(lots of ideas and lesson plans !)

Food Chain Frenzy- (lesson plan and food chain activity UKS2)

Books

Learning with Nature- Marina Robb, Victoria Mew, Anna Richardson – great book! – “A how-to guide to inspiring children through outdoor games and activities

Natural leaders: Environmental Games and Activities- by The National Trust for Scotland and Scottish Natural Heritage

Or…..book a visitto one of Surrey Wildlife Trusts Education Centres or an outreach visit to your school.

Go to - outdoor learning and look at our school provision section where all the programmes we offer are detailed and can be specifically tailored to the learning needs of your children.

How to play nibblers and nobblers- Food chain game

Equipment

Posts ( 1 per team – 5 teams of 6 for a class of 30)

Coloured tubes ( blue- water, gold- sunlight, green- stem and leaves, red- flower)

Bibs / costumes- for nibblers (4-6) and nobblers (2-4)

How to play

Nibblers and Nobblers

Divide the class into 4 or 5 teams depending on how many children you have.

Each team stands behind a post – the team is a little seed, the post is the space they have found themselves to grow.

In the centre is a pile of coloured tubes. The ‘seeds’ have to run to the middle in a relay style, and fetch water (blue tube), then sunshine (golden tube), to help them germinate.

Next they sprout leaves (green tube), and finally, they produce a flower (red tube). [Reassure them that there will be many rounds, no matter if they don’t get to run this time!]

Have a practice round – they should all find it easy to build a plant on their post.

Now, is it really so easy in nature for a plant to grow and thrive? No! Why not? They might get eaten.

Choose 2 childrento be NIBBLERS (perhaps by asking for names of nibblers who live on our reserve e.g. caterpillar, deer…) and give them blue bibs/costume to wear. Instruct them to run around the plants and ‘nibble’ them by removing the top tube and putting it back in the middle pile as they try to grow.

The plants have to run back to the centre and replace the nibbled colour. Emphasize that these plants have no defences, they can’t stop the nibblers from targeting them!

Play the round – you should find it is slower, but that one or two plants are still able to grow. When one plant is complete blow the whistle to stop the round.

So, plants, was it harder with nibblers? A bit. Nibblers, did you have lots to eat? Yes! -So much so that you’ve had babies – choose 2 or 3 more children to be nibblers, play another round, and watch the nibblers overpower the efforts of the plants to grow. Chaos should ensue as plants try and try and nibblers nibble and nibble  Blow the whistle to stop the round.

So, is this more like what happens in nature? No, because lots of plants are able to grow big and green and make flowers. How? Because there are creatures out there who eat nibblers:

NOBBLERS! Choose 2 children to be nobblers, give them red bibs/costumes, and instruct them to chase the nibblers and tap them on the shoulders to ‘catch/eat’ them, at which point the caught nibbler must go and stand in the poo pile. ( discuss who the nobblers could be- sparrowhawk, fox, bird depending on the food chain)

Play the round – hopefully the nibblers are caught relatively quickly, and soon lots of plants are growing successfully. So, this is more like what happens in nature. Nibblers eat plants and nobblers eat nibblers (A FOOD CHAIN)… what happens now though, when the nobblers have eaten all the nibblers? They won’t suddenly start eating plants, they probably won’t start eating each other, they might starve to death, or they might just move to another habitat nearby where lots of nibblers live. In time, all these juicy plants in our original game habitat will attract nibblers back to the area, and then nobblers might come back too, keeping a balance in nature between plants, nibblers and nobblers (PRODUCERS, HERBIVORES, CARNIVORES- consumers ).