Let’s Build Our Local Ecosystem

Go on a fun journey to discover the secrets of our neighborhood’s plants and animals. Explore your local area, study plants that catch your eye, and create a special food chain model to show how plants and animals work together in our community.

• Paper
• Pencils
• Colored pencils (optional)

Pick Your Plant

Let’s take a walk around our neighborhood or park and find a plant we like. It could be a big tree, a pretty flower, or even just some grass. Look closely at its leaves, flowers, and how it grows.

Research About Your Plant

Find out more about your plant. If you have a camera, take a photograph to identify the plant. Use books to identify the plant.

• What’s its name?
• What does it look like?
• Does it make seeds, flowers, or fruit?
• What does it need to survive?

Write down what you find out.

Draw a Model of Your Plant

Now, let’s draw the plant we picked. Get drawing materials and a blank notecard. Make a picture of it as best as you can. Don’t forget the leaves and any flowers!

Find Out Who Uses Your Plant for Survival

Think about the animals that use your plant.

• Who eats its leaves?
• Who helps it make seeds or fruit?
• Who spreads its seeds around?

Pick one animal and draw it on another piece of paper.

Draw Who Eats That Animal

Once you’ve drawn your first animal, think about what eats it. Draw that animal on another card. You should end up with three drawings in total.

Label Your Drawings

Write the names of the plants and animals on each of your drawings. This will help everyone understand the connections between them.

Connect Your Drawings

When everyone is finished, let’s put our drawings together into a big web on the floor or wall. Arrange the drawings so they show how energy moves between plants and animals.

Share Your Part of the Food Web

Let’s take turns explaining our drawings to each other. Show your plant and the animals that use it. We’ll all learn about how everything in our neighborhood works together!

By working together, we’ll make a cool food web that shows how every living thing in our neighborhood is important and connected. Let’s go, Nature Explorers!