Grade 3 · Science · Unit 2 of 6
Ecosystems & Food Chains
Energy from the sun to you
What your child practises
How energy from the sun moves through food chains (producers, consumers and decomposers), how living things in an ecosystem depend on each other, and how First Peoples' knowledge of local ecosystems is passed down.
NWT Curriculum learning standard: Energy is needed for life; living things interact in ecosystems; local First Peoples knowledge of ecosystems
Sample questions
A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.
Question 1
Put the food chain in order. Start with the one that makes its own food.
- 🍃leaves
- 🦅hawk
- 🐦songbird
- 🐛caterpillar
leaves → caterpillar → songbird → hawk
Hint: Energy starts with the sun. Plants use sunlight to make food. Then each animal eats the one before it.
Question 2
A bear eats berries and salmon. What kind of eater is it?
🐻- carnivore
- omnivore
- herbivore
omnivore
Hint: Berries are plants and salmon are animals. An animal that eats both is an omnivore.
Question 3
Which food chain is in the right order?
🦗- grass → grasshopper → frog
- grasshopper → frog → grass
- frog → grass → grasshopper
grass → grasshopper → frog
Hint: Start with the plant. Then the grasshopper eats the grass, and the frog eats the grasshopper.
Question 4
What does it eat? Tap an item, then tap its basket.
Sort into: 🌿 plants (herbivore) · 🍖 animals (carnivore) · 🍽️ both (omnivore)
- 🐔chicken
- 🦉owl
- 🐛caterpillar
- 🦝raccoon
- 🐇rabbit
- 🐺wolf
🌿 plants (herbivore): caterpillar, rabbit · 🍖 animals (carnivore): owl, wolf · 🍽️ both (omnivore): chicken, raccoon
Hint: Herbivores eat plants. Carnivores eat other animals. Omnivores eat both plants and animals.
Question 5
What is an ecosystem?
🏞️- one kind of animal
- a type of rock
- living and non-living things working together in one place
living and non-living things working together in one place
Hint: An ecosystem includes the plants, animals, water, soil, air and sunlight in a place, and how they affect each other.
Question 6
Which living thing is a decomposer?
- 🍄mushroom
- 🦌deer
- 🌻sunflower
🍄 mushroom
Hint: Decomposers, like mushrooms and worms, break down dead plants and animals.