Weekly lesson plan output
Introduction to Ecosystems
Upper elementary | Science | Week of June 8, 2026
Objective
Students will explain how energy moves through a simple ecosystem and identify producer, consumer, and decomposer roles.
Materials
Whiteboard, printed food web cards, exit ticket, science notebooks, projector slides.
Assessment
Exit ticket: name one producer, one consumer, and one decomposer from the class food web.
Differentiation
Provide vocabulary cards, partner reading, sentence frames, and extension prompts for students ready to build a second food web.
Week plan
Warm-up: Sort picture cards into living and nonliving examples.
Activities: Mini-lesson on producers, consumers, and decomposers; build a shared anchor chart.
Exit: Students write one example of each ecosystem role.
Warm-up: Review yesterday's vocabulary with partner talk.
Activities: Model a simple food chain, then have pairs arrange food web cards.
Exit: Explain what happens if one organism is removed.
Warm-up: Read a short ecosystem scenario.
Activities: Groups create food webs and label arrows for energy movement.
Exit: Circle one producer and describe its role.
Warm-up: Add one missing organism to a food web.
Activities: Students revise a broken food web and justify their changes.
Exit: Complete a three-question check for understanding.
Warm-up: Vocabulary review relay.
Activities: Independent exit task, notebook reflection, and extension challenge.
Exit: Submit the ecosystem exit ticket.