Lesson plan

Animal dung and the food web

Summary
Starting with animal dung/horse manure discuss the animals and plants that are connected to these animals, then build a food web.
Science content
Biology: Food Webs, Ecosystems, Biomes (3, 4)
Materials
  • board to draw food web on
Procedure

Today we’ll look at food webs: how [horses] are connected to other animals.

Horse dung study
Add the animals that eat [horses] dung (e.g wood bugs, worms) to a food web diagram.

What happens when these animals eat the half rotten plants?
Observe a worm closely to see the dirt in the gut.
These animals turn rotting plants into dirt. Worm poop is dirt.

What grows in dirt? Plants! Add arrow to food web.
The decomposers are a critical part of the food web.
They eat living things and break them apart to put the nutrients back into the soil.

Food web game to show the interconnectedness of [horses] and other living things.

Notes

This is a half hour lesson

Grades taught
Gr 1
Gr 2