- Find out if the group all understand the idea of a food chain, where a plant is eaten by an animal (herbivore), which is eaten by another animal (carnivore), which is in turn eaten by another.
- Distribute the cards among the players, and then ask them to find the organism that they eat/consume to form a food chain.
- When the players have resolved into food chains, ask them to perform a ‘lap sit’ as a group – each person puts their hands on the hips of the person standing in front of them, and then everyone in the group lowers themselves so that they are sitting on the lap of the person behind them and a self-supporting circle is created.
- Explain that all members of a food chain are important. To demonstrate this, have one person representing an animal in the middle of the chain stand up and see what happens!
This warm-up game works well to introduce any other activities with an ecology theme, such as Food Webs or Bird Beaks.