Want Some More Fun Activities About Ecosystems?

1. Online Flash Cards
Click Here to see some online flashcards.
These flashcards from "Study Stack" test vocabulary about fourth grade ecology.
If you scroll down on the site, there is a tool bar with various other games like crosswords, unscrambles and hangman that the students can play instead.

2. Predator and Prey Match-Up Activity
Students will pull cards out of a hat that have the name and picture of an animal (see attached game cards). They will have to move around the classroom silently and pair up with the predator or prey that corresponds with the animal on their card. When they agree that they have made all the correct matches, they will go up to the page open on the Activ Board and will draw a line connecting the two animals.

Click Here for the teacher document with printable game cards and answer key.
Click Here to see the document for completing the connections.

3. Webbing Activity
Students each get name cards of different species that they place around their neck. Starting from the sun, they will ask "Who depends on me?" and the sun, holding a ball of string, will pass it to whoever depends on them. The string will get passed continuously from one student to the next asking the same question. When it is complete, pretend that a species becomes extinct and have a student sit down, still holding the string. Whoever felt the pull of the string will have to sit down as well. This shows the close connections the species have to each other and their dependency.

Here are two alternative versions of the game.
Click Here for the first version.
Click Here for the second version.

4. Earth Day Websites
These websites will give the students ideas for what they can do to help preserve the environment.
Environmental Protection Agency Website