Grade 4 · Habitats and Communities · Habitats, Food Chains, and Webs

Connect a Pond Food Web

A habitat provides the necessities of life. A community includes interacting species, and a food web shows that their feeding relationships form a network.

Visual model

See how the ideas connect

Look · connect · explain

Distinguish habitats and communities

Classify roles in food chains

Explain limits and interdependence

Habitats, Food Chains, and Webs

Start at the centre. Follow each line and explain how that idea belongs to Habitats, Food Chains, and Webs.

For students

Notice, predict, explain

Choose one part of the model. Predict how it connects to another part, then use the lesson evidence to explain your thinking.

For teachers

Pause for science talk

Show the model before the explanation. Ask “What do you notice?” and “What might change?” Then revisit student ideas after the worked example.

The big idea

A change to one population can affect many others

Producers capture energy, consumers obtain energy by eating other organisms, and decomposers recycle matter. Multiple food chains overlap in a food web.

Work it through

Trace connections in a pond

Step 1 Algae use sunlight and act as producers in the pond.
Step 2 Insect larvae may eat algae, small fish may eat larvae, and a heron may eat fish.
Step 3 A frog can eat insects and also become food for a heron, connecting another chain to the web.
Step 4 If insect numbers fall sharply, several consumers may have less food while algae may face less feeding pressure.

For parents and educators

Ontario curriculum alignment

Grade 4 Science and Technology · Strand B: Habitats and Communities

View supported expectations

B1.2 · Species Depletion and Extinction

Analyse the impact of the depletion or extinction of a species on its habitat and community and describe possible preventative actions.
B2.1 · Habitats

Describe habitats as areas that provide organisms with the necessities of life and identify ways a local habitat provides these necessities.
B2.2 · Communities

Describe a community as interacting species sharing a habitat and identify factors affecting their survival.
B2.3 · Food Chains

Describe relationships of organisms in a food chain and classify organisms as producers, consumers, or decomposers.
B2.4 · Food Webs

Demonstrate an understanding of a food web as the interconnection of multiple food chains in a natural community.
B2.7 · Habitat Limits

Explain why all habitats have limits to the number of plants and animals they can support.