New
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Lesson 2 of 10
New
New
- Year 4
Producers in a food chain
I can identify and name producers in different food chains.
Lesson details
Key learning points
- Plants are living things that cannot move around to hunt for food. They must make their own food to survive.
- Plants use water, sunlight, and carbon dioxide to make a sugar that it can use as food.
- A food chain begins with a plant; this is the producer in the food chain.
- Plants are called producers because they make, or produce, their own food.
Keywords
Plant - A plant is a living thing with leaves that it uses to make its own food. Grass and trees are plants.
Absorb - To absorb is to be able to soak up or take in.
Photosynthesis - Photosynthesis is the way in which plants make food.
Food chain - A food chain shows how living things depend on each other for food.
Producer - A producer in a food chain makes its own food.
Common misconception
Pupils may think that a plant is at the start of the food chain because it is the smallest organism or because it cannot eat an animal.
This lesson makes reference to the fact that the plant is the producer in a food chain because it makes, or produces, its own food.
This lesson includes the word photosynthesis for pupils to begin to use if they are able to, however, focus on why plants are the producers in a food chain. This lesson contains a disgnostic question on slide 28 - see additional materials for further guidance.
Teacher tip
Equipment
Licence
This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2026), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).
Lesson video
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Which of these are basic needs of animals?
Which of these are basic needs of animals?
friends
toys
Q2.What information can be presented in a food chain?
What information can be presented in a food chain?
A chain of events which explains what time of day different animals eat food.
A list of foods for shopping.
Q3.How are herbivores and carnivores different from one another?
How are herbivores and carnivores different from one another?
Herbivores only eat plants, carnivores eat both plants and animals.
Herbivores eat any food, carnivores only eat meat.
Q4.What do the arrows in a food chain represent?
What do the arrows in a food chain represent?
eats
is bigger than
Q5.Herbivores depend on to stay alive or survive.
Herbivores depend on to stay alive or survive.
Q6.Which statement is true about plants?
Which statement is true about plants?
A plant needs to hunt other plants for food in order to survive.
A plant does not need food to survive.
Assessment exit quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Which statement about plants is true?
Which statement about plants is true?
Plants are not living things.
Plants can move around and hunt for food.
Q2.Plants make their own food, so they are called the in a food chain.
Plants make their own food, so they are called the in a food chain.
Q3.Which of the following are producers in a food chain?
Which of the following are producers in a food chain?
deer
Q4.What do plants do during the process called photosynthesis?
What do plants do during the process called photosynthesis?
get smaller
lose their leaves
change colour
Q5.Where would you put a plant in a food chain?
Where would you put a plant in a food chain?
In the middle of the food chain.
At the end of the food chain.
Q6.Which of these do plants need to make food?
Which of these do plants need to make food?
flowers
garden
Q3 image 3 Lake Quinalt forest clover, dierken, 2005, licensed under CC-BY 2.0.
