If you have an ocean lover, you will not want to miss these ocean food web worksheets. They show you what animals eat from algae up to dolphins. And for more learning fun, check out these Ocean Worksheets you don’t want to miss!
Food chains simplify things too much and just show a successive chain of animals that eat each other. Food webs are more realistic because one animal eats more than one type of food but there are a simple version and a more complex one for older kids to match the level they’re working at.
The food web not only shows what animal eats what but shows how energy is transferred from one animal to another.
Producers can make their own food from photosynthesis, things like algae and plankton. They are called autotrophic.
Consumers eat other animals to get their energy because they cannot make their own food and are known as heterotrophic.
In the food web, the arrow points from the animal who is being eaten to the animal who is eating.
So if we had algae and a shrimp, the arrow would flow from the algae towards the shrimp.
The food web has different trophic levels. I like the image found here on to show the trophic level pyramid.
The producers are found in a great abundance particularly in the ocean there are a lot of algae and plant for consumers to eat.
Producers are consumed by herbivorous consumers, and then they are consumed on 1st level carnivorous consumers. Then there are 2nd and 3rd level carnivorous consumers and then at the top of the pyramid, you have the top predators like shark and dolphins.
Try these fun ocean activities for kids to extend their learning.
Recommended Ocean Books for Kids
When you’re learning about the ocean be sure to have a handy ocean encyclopedia to have great visuals on hand to show your kids.
Then I love finding good fiction stories about the ocean because those always bring the ocean alive and show your kids what it’s like to be in the ocean.
Ocean: A Visual Encyclopedia
Who Eats What?: Food Chains and Food Webs (Let’S-Read-And-Find-Out Science, Stage 2)Ocean Food Chains (Food Chains and Webs)The Big Book of the BlueShark Lady: The True Story of How Eugenie Clark Became the Ocean’s Most Fearless ScientistThe Magic School Bus on the Ocean Floor
Recommended Ocean Documentaries
Books are great but you can’t do any justice to the ocean without seeing it in person. For those of us who can’t visit an ocean we have to live vicariously through documentaries, these are a must see for any child.
Planet Earth II/ Blue Planet II (UHD) [Blu-ray]Blue Planet II (BD) [Blu-ray]Our Earth Our OceansThe Wild Pacific
Download the worksheets here:
See the other activities in my 10 days of Biology Worksheets for Elementary Students series.
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