Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to today's lesson from the Unit, Introduction to Food Chains.

This lesson is called How animals get food.

In today's lesson, you'll learn how animals get the food they need in order to stay alive.

Hello, my name's Mr. Loudon, and I can't wait to learn science with you today.

I know if you concentrate and work hard, you are going to be amazing learning superstars.

So let's get started.

Let's look at the keywords for this lesson.

Animals, food, hunt, graze, research.

Do you know what any of the words mean? Have a think.

Have you heard them before? This lesson is split into three parts.

The first part is animals need food.

The second part is how animals get food, and the final part is about finding out using research.

Let's look at the first part now.

Animals are living things.

There's lots of different types of animals on Earth.

Birds are animals, fish are animals, and even humans are animals.

Do you recognise these pictures? This is a picture of a blue tit.

It's a type of small bird.

This is a picture of a clown fish.

It's a fish.

A bit like "Finding Nemo." This is a picture of a person.

A person is an animal too.

What other animals can you think of? Can you tell your partner an animal that you can think of? Animals need lots of different things in order to stay alive.

They might need air to breathe and they might need a safe place to live.

What other things might they need to stay alive? Jun says they might need water to drink.

Do you think they might need anything else? All animals need food to stay alive.

Food gives them energy and it makes sure they stay healthy.

This bird, a seagull, eats fish, but do all animals eat the same foods? Can you think of some other foods that an animal might eat? Different animals eat different types of food.

A rabbit is an animal that's called a herbivore, and a herbivore only eats plants.

A wolf is an animal that's a carnivore.

That's an animal that only eats meat from other animals.

And a pig is an omnivore because it can eat plants, but it can also eat other animals too.

Let's check your understanding now.

Animals need food in order to stay alive.

Is that true or false? What do you think? Can you give a reason why you think it's true or false? Let's go through the answer now.

Animals need food in order to stay alive.

That's true.

You might have said that the reason that's true is because all animals need food to stay alive.

Food is important to animals because it gives them energy and helps them to keep healthy.

Which statement is true? All animals eat the same type of food.

Some animals eat the same type of food.

All animals eat different types of food.

What do you think? Let's go through the answer now.

Which statement is true? Some animals eat the same type of food.

Can you think of two animals that might eat the same thing? What are they and what do they eat? Match the word with the correct animal to show what it eats.

Omnivore, carnivore, herbivore.

And then on the right-hand side, we've got three pictures of animals, rabbit, wolf, and pig.

Which one's an omnivore? Which one's a carnivore? And which one's a herbivore? Can you match the pictures to show what each animal eats? Let's go through the answers now.

A pig is an omnivore.

It can eat plants and animals.

A wolf is a carnivore, it only eats other animals.

A rabbit is a herbivore, it only eats plants.

Well done, scientists.

Let's move on to Task A now.

Choose one of these animals.

Find out about what it eats and create a fact file about it.

So there's an example here of a pig, a bull shark, a lady bird, and a chameleon.

What's the name of each of the animals? What does it eat? Is it a herbivore, a carnivore, or an omnivore? And I wonder whether you can find out another fact about your animal.

Let's have a look at an example fact file now.

This fact file is about a pig.

Pigs have a great sense of of smell, which they use to find food around them.

They eat everything they find, including plants and dead animals.

Pigs are omnivores.

Pigs often live on farms and are fed by farmers.

They feed them lots of grains such as corn and soya beans.

Did you know pigs are smarter than dogs? Let's move on to the second part of the lesson now, how animals get food.

Animals use their senses to find food in different ways.

Foxes have an amazing sense of smell and great hearing.

They use them to find food.

Elephants also have amazing smell and they can smell out water and food from a long way away.

Some animals hunt for their food.

This means they catch other animals and eat them.

Do you think you know the names of these animals that hunt for food? What's this animal called? It's very fast and it lives in Africa.

It's a cheetah.

What about this animal? This has very white fur, doesn't it? What's this animal called? It's called a polar bear.

And finally, what's this animal called? It looks a bit like a dog, doesn't it? It's a wolf.

A wolf hunts for its food too.

Some animals graze.

This means they eat grass and plants around them.

A mountain goat is a type of animal that grazes.

It's a really good climber and it eats plants and grass that it finds on the floor.

Can you think of any other animals that graze? Robins live in gardens and parks.

They eat food like insects and worms and seeds.

Some of the food they find and some of their food is provided by humans.

Some animals are looked after by humans as pets.

They need food provided by the humans in order to stay alive.

Here's two animals that might be kept as pets.

A bearded dragon and a horse.

Can you think of any other animals that might be kept as pets? What food would you feed them? Let's check your understanding now.

Animals get their food in the same way.

Is that true or false? Did you get it? Let's go through the answer.

Animals get their food in the same way.

That's false.

Can you think of a reason why it's false? Is it A, humans need to feed all animals in different ways or B, animals get their foods in lots of different ways, including hunting and grazing? What do you think? Animals get their food in lots of different ways, including hunting and grazing.

What does grazing mean? a, living in the mountains.

b, being a good climber.

c, Eating grass and other plants.

What do you think? Did you get the answer? Let's look at it now.

What does grazing mean? Grazing means eating grass and other plants Owls use their senses to hunt for food.

This means they, a, find and catch other animals.

b, eat grass and plants that they find around them.

c, eat food provided by humans.

What do you think? Let's look at the answer now.

Owls use their senses to hunt for food.

This means they find and catch other animals.

Well done, scientists.

Let's move on to Task B now.

Aisha and Alex are talking about how animals get food.

Aisha says, "Birds are the only animals that get their food from humans.

We put bird seed in our garden and my sister loves to feed the ducks at the park." Alex says, "I think that other animals get their food from humans too.

I have a pet hamster and I feed him seeds and vegetables like carrots." Who do you agree with? Why? Can you explain to someone else who you agree with? Let's go through the answers now.

Who do you agree with and why? Alex is correct.

Humans feed lots of different sorts of animals, not just birds.

Many people keep dogs, cats, lizards, and snakes as pets and must feed them to keep them healthy and alive.

Farmers must feed the animals they have on their farm.

Many people leave out food for wild animals such as hedgehogs, squirrels and badgers.

Let's go on to the final part of the lesson now, finding out using research.

Scientists ask questions about the world around us and try to find out possible answers.

This person is an animal scientist, and he wants to find out what that animal eats and where he gets its food from.

How might he find out the answers to those questions? One way scientists search for answers is by looking in books, by using the internet.

This is called research.

Let's check your understanding now.

What does it mean when scientists carry out research? They measure out how big something is.

They find more out about something.

They make a video about something.

What do you think research means? Did you get it? Let's have a look at the answer now.

What does it mean when scientists carry out research? They find more out about something.

Which would you use to research what animals eat? a, a ruler, b, a book, or c, a stopwatch.

What do you think? What would be most useful to find out what animals eat? Should we look at the answer? Well, I wouldn't use a ruler to find out what animals eat, and I wouldn't use a stopwatch to find out what animals eat, but I might use a book to find out what animals eat.

And that book looks really helpful, doesn't it? It's got pictures of animals in it.

Let's go on to Task C now.

Use research to find out more about each animal from Task A.

So we've got pig, bull shark, ladybird, and chameleon.

What do these animals eat? How do these animals get their food? Can you find out by doing some research? Now let's complete the table using your research about each animal.

On the left-hand side, we've got the names of the animals, pig, bull shark, ladybird and chameleon.

And what I want you to do is fill this in with what that animal eats and how the animal gets its food.

Let's have a look at some answers now.

A pig eats, leaves, roots, eggs, grains, and dead animals.

A pig eats lots of different things.

It gets its food from finding what is around them and from the farmer.

A bull shark eats fish, stingrays, seals and turtles, and it gets its food by hunting.

A ladybird eats aphids and other insects, spiders and insect eggs.

It gets its food from hunting and grazing.

And a chameleon eats insects, birds, leaves, and flowers.

It also gets its food from hunting and grazing.

Great research, scientists.

Let's go through what we've learnt this lesson.

Animals need food to stay alive.

Different animals eat different types of food.

Animals get food in different ways.

This could be by hunting, grazing, or from humans.

Scientists do research to find out more about things.

Now it would be a great time to look back at those keywords and tell a partner what they mean.