Producers and Consumers

Discover producers & consumers! See how plants make food and animals eat. Perfect for young scientists.

Producers and ConsumersBy Cindy GriggAll living things need food. How do living organisms get food? Different organisms get food in different ways.Green plants use sunlight to make or produce their own food. This process is called photosynthesis. Plants and other organisms that make their own food are called producers.Most organisms cannot make their own food. They must eat or consume their food. These organisms are called consumers. Some consumers such as mice, rabbits, and deer eat plants. Other consumers such as hawks, coyotes, and lions eat other animals.Many consumers hunt for their food. Animals that hunt for their food are called predators. The animals they catch and eat are their prey. 1. All living things need _. food school a car 2. Green plants get food by _. using bait to catch their own food using other animals to get food using sunlight to make their own food 3. Plants and other organisms that make their own food are called _. 4. Living things that cannot make their own food are called _. 5. Animals that hunt other animals for food are called _. consumers predators producers 6. Animals that are hunted by other animals and are eaten for food are called_. Hawks fly over fields and look for animals to catch and eat. Some snakes quietly wait for small animals to come near. Then they catch and eat the animals. Lions follow herds of zebras. They wait for one to wander away from the herd. Then the lions chase and catch the zebra for food.Think of your favorite outdoor place. How many different living organisms live there? You can probably name many different types of living things. A meadow may have several kinds of trees, grasses, and other plants. It may have many kinds of birds and animals. Some animals you might see in the daytime. Some animals you might see only at night. Some of them will be too small for you to see at all! All the different kinds of things that live together in the same place make up a community.Each organism in a community lives in its own special place or habitat. An organism gets everything it needs from its habitat. It gets food, water, shelter, and space to live.Organisms in a community depend on each other for food. A food chain is the way food passes from one organism to another in a community. An example of a food chain is this: Grass grows in a meadow. The grass uses sunlight to make its own food. Rabbits eat the grass. Foxes eat the rabbits.All communities have food chains. Different food chains are found in the soil, on land, and in water. You are part of a food chain when you eat a hamburger. The food chain begins with plants that use sunlight to make their own food. Cows eat the plants. Then you eat the hamburger meat that comes from cows. 7. All the different kinds of animals that live together in the same place makeup a _. population habitat community 8. Each living thing gets everything it needs to live from its _. father habitat mother 9. The way food passes from one organism to another organism in a community is called a _. food chain prey predator 10. A frog that catches and eats a grasshopper is a _. predator prey producer