Year 2 Introduction to food chains worksheet

“How animals get food” is free to print, with no account. It is the first sheet in the Year 2 science unit “Introduction to food chains”, for children aged 6 to 7, and takes about 20 minutes.

Print it on A4. The child's pages come first; the answers, and what each wrong answer tells you, are on the grown-up page that follows. Weeks 19 to 22 of the year, 4 sheets in the unit.

Free sample · answers on the last page

How animals get food

Name: ____________ · Date: ____________
Year 2 · Science · about 20 minutes
Answers are on the grown-up page

Today I can tell how different animals get their food and what they eat.

A Look back3 min

1.
Which of these could live in the pond on this map? Circle one.
fishrobinhedgehog
2.
Which group has the most animals in this garden count? Circle one.
fishbirdsmammals
3.
How many pets are in the tally altogether?

B Watch me, then you4 min

Read the food chain. Each arrow points from the food to the animal that eats it.

Watch me

The arrow goes from grass to rabbit, so the rabbit eats the grass.

The arrow goes from rabbit to fox, so the fox eats the rabbit.

The fox gets its food by hunting.

Now you

1.
Circle the animal that eats the caterpillar.
blackbirdleavescaterpillar

C Your turn7 min

Sort each animal by how it gets its food. Write each name in the right column.

A mountain goat standing on a rocky hill with grass and small plants around it

1.
Write each animal in the right column.
cheetahmountain goatpet hamster
Hunts Grazes Is fed by people
2.
Sort these into the same three columns. Think about where a pet cat gets most of its food.
lionzebrapet cat
Hunts Grazes Is fed by people
3.
A herbivore eats only plants. A carnivore eats only animals. An omnivore eats both. A bear eats berries and fish. Circle the word for this kind of eater.
herbivorecarnivoreomnivore
4.
An owl swoops down at night and catches a mouse. Circle how it gets its food.
huntsgrazesis fed by people

Say it out loud: Which way did each animal get its food? What did you notice about the animals that eat only plants?

D Spot the mistake3 min

A cow eating grass in a field beside a dark forest where a wolf stands

Kit says: “All animals eat the same food. A cow and a wolf eat the same things.”

1.
Write why Kit is wrong.

E Think deeper4 min

A robin on a lawn near a bird feeder hung from a branch

1.
A robin pulls worms from the lawn and also eats seeds from a feeder. Is it a herbivore, carnivore or omnivore? Explain how you know.

How did it feel?

I can do it Nearly Not yet

For the grown-up

How animals get food · 2 minutes to read

Answers, and what a wrong one tells you

A

1. fish If they circle robin, ask where a robin nests and feeds. Robins use trees and gardens, not ponds. Point to the pond.

2. birds If they circle fish, they chose the group with 4, not the tallest bar. Ask them to find the tallest bar with their finger.

3. 6 If they write 5, they added only the cats and dogs and missed the hamster. Ask them to count every row.

B

1. blackbird If they circle leaves, the chain has been read backwards. Leaves are eaten, they do not eat. Ask where the arrow from the caterpillar points.

C

1. Hunts: cheetah · Grazes: mountain goat · Is fed by people: pet hamster

2. Hunts: lion · Grazes: zebra · Is fed by people: pet cat

3. omnivore

4. hunts

D

1. Look for: A cow eats plants and a wolf eats meat, so they do not eat the same food. If they agree with Kit, ask what a cow eats and what a wolf eats. Then ask whether the two foods are the same.

E

1. Look for: Omnivore, because it eats worms, which are animals, and seeds, which are plants.

Words to use

Say“How does this animal get its food? Does it hunt, graze, or get fed by people?”

Instead of“Just tell them the answer.”

After the sheet

Go on a food walk round the garden or a park. Find a bird or an insect and guess how it gets its food. Ask your child to say whether it hunts, grazes or is fed by people.

Tick what your child got right in StudyDen. Anything missed comes back in a later Look back box, so there's no need to redo the sheet.

The rest of this unit

3 more sheets come with a StudyDen plan, in teaching order:

Following food chains(with a plan)
Roles in a food chain(with a plan)
Comparing food chains(with a plan)

Every Year 2 science worksheet

The worksheets plan opens a printable sheet for every lesson in Years 1 to 6, each with its answers on a separate page for you. It costs £6.99 a month or £59 a year for the whole family, with no free trial.

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