A food chain shows who eats what, and how energy moves from one living thing to the next. It starts with the sun and a plant that makes food. An animal eats the plant. Another animal eats that animal. Every link in the chain gets energy from the one before.
Peabody: Hi, I am Peabody! Every living thing needs energy. A food chain shows who eats what. It tells how energy gets passed along.
Crumb: I am Crumb! It starts with the sun. A plant uses sunlight to make its own food. We call plants producers, because they produce food.
Peabody: A rabbit eats the plant. The rabbit is a consumer. It cannot make food, so it eats. A consumer that eats plants is called an herbivore.
Crumb: Then a fox eats the rabbit. The fox is a predator. An animal that is hunted is called prey. Rabbit is the prey, and fox is the predator.
Peabody: When living things die, mushrooms and tiny bugs break them down. They are decomposers. They put nutrients back in the soil, and new plants use them.
Crumb: Most animals eat more than one thing. Many chains join into a food web. If one link disappears, the others feel it. Everything is connected!
Crumb: Here is a recap! Energy goes from the sun to plants, to plant eaters, to hunters. Decomposers return nutrients to the soil. Many chains together make a web. Everything is connected!
Quiz: five questions
Tap an answer. Stuck? Tap the hint. Nothing is scored or saved.
Question 1 of 5
Where does the energy in a food chain start?
The words
producer
a living thing that makes its own food
consumer
a living thing that eats other living things
predator
an animal that hunts other animals
prey
an animal that is hunted
decomposer
a living thing that breaks down dead plants and animals
Make it: put the explainer in order
Tap the scenes in the order they happen. Which comes first?
Try it without a screen: Make a food chain mobile
You need: paper, crayons, string, a hanger or stick.
Draw the sun, a plant, a plant eater and a hunter on four cards.
Tie them in order on the string, sun first.
Add a fifth card for a decomposer at the bottom.
Tell the chain out loud with the word eats between each card.
For the grown-up
This explainer gives the standard terms (producer, consumer, predator, prey, decomposer) and the sun-to-plant-to-animal flow of energy. Arrows in food chains point from the food to the eater, which confuses many children; the mobile makes the order visible. Nothing here is saved or shown to anyone.