5th Grade Ocean Food Chain
Fifth graders at Varina Elementary have been reading and writing nonfiction text (SOL5.6 & 5.7) and they have been learning about ocean food chains in Science (SOL5.6). So today students in Ms. Primrose’s and Mr. Williams’ classes created an ocean food chain in Google drawing and wrote about it. First I gave them each a copy of a blank Google doc in Google classroom. I showed them how to add the title and change the font, size, and color. Next we had to research our food chain. The students could pick whichever sea creatures they were interested in, but they had to have the correct predator-prey relationships. For example, they couldn’t have a jellyfish eating an octopus. I explained how to open a new tab and ask Google questions like, “What is an ocean plant? What eats seaweed? What predators does a dolphin have?” Once they had their correct food chain facts, they wrote about the sequence in their Google doc. Then we clicked Insert > Drawing, and the students created their food chain diagram using images (click the Image button > Search) and arrows (click the Shapes button). Finally, we clicked File > Publish to the web, copied the link, and posted our projects to Google classroom. You can see them all here.