My cat Sooty

My cat Sooty

Pencil and paperOnline interactive
Overview
Using this Resource
Connecting to the Curriculum
Marking Student Responses
Further Resources
This task is about food chains.

My cat Sooty likes to eat small birds like sparrows. This is a pity because these birds eat the caterpillars, snails, and slugs that feed on our lettuces. 

One day Sooty was watching a kingfisher looking at the goldfish feeding on the weed in the garden pond. Sooty likes eating goldfish too, but the kingfisher was faster than she was. She missed out on the goldfish, but nearly got the kingfisher! It would have been a good tasty meal. Sooty likes to eat grass too. It cures her indigestion!

Question Change answer

Use the information in the story to draw a food chain that includes the cat.
Task administration: 
This task can be completed using pencil and paper or drawing online.
Level:
4
Curriculum info: 
Science, Communicating in science, Living World
Keywords: 
ecology, food chains, diagrams, drawing
Description of task: 
Task: Read a story about a cat and use the information to draw a food chain. Assessment focus: Using information to construct a food chain.
Curriculum Links: 
Science capabilities
The capabilities focus is brought about by the conversations you have and the questions you ask.
 
Capability: Interpret representations
This resource provides opportunities to discuss scientific conventions for representing feeding relationships (a food web).
 
 

 
Science capabilities: 
Interpret representations
Making Better Sense: 
Food Chains
Answers/responses: 

 

Y8 (05/2000)

A wide range of food chains are possible, but they all need to begin with a producer and contain the cat, e.g.,
grass cat
lettuce slug sparrow cat
pond weed (gold)fish kingfisher cat
NOTE: Food chain organisms could be drawn, but must have arrows present and showing correct direction.

very difficult