Love this idea for show­ing the food chain from Earth Mama via E is for Explore. It pro­vides such a nice active visual for a basic con­cept of nature. The nearby Macbride Rap­tor Cen­ter is amaz­ing so I chose an owl food chain (grass, grasshop­per, mouse, snake, owl) know­ing that many of the sto­ry­time chil­dren will be able to relate to the food the rap­tors eat. Maybe they can make their own set of cups and take them on a scav­enger hunt at the Rap­tor Center.

My pic­tures are cour­tesy of old Zoo­books as well as Jan Brett’s web­site. Sty­ro­foam cups work best because of their wide rim. Start with the grass cup on its own and then add the cups with their respec­tive ani­mals as you move up through the food chain until you end up with a pile with the owl on top and the other ani­mal names showing.

Some pic­ture books about the food chain:

Snap by Mick Manning

Trout are Made of Trees by April Pul­ley Sayre

The  Story Goes On by Aileen Fisher

This is the Sea that Feeds Us by Robert  F. Baldwin

This week’s Flan­nel Fri­day host is Lisa at Library­land. You can also find past and future roundups and lots more infor­ma­tion about Flan­nel Fri­day at the Flan­nel Fri­day web­site. For a visual round-up of all post­ings, check out Flan­nel Fri­day on Pin­ter­est.