1. Discuss with students the elements needed by all animals for survival; food, shelter, water, appropriate habitat.   Students should also understand the terms herbivore, omnivore, carnivore, predator, prey.
2. An example of a student drawn web - see below
   

   How did the student use the arrows? (predator to prey or energy source to user)
   Do you see any errors? If the Cooper's Hawk arrow to the Gopher Snake means prey to predator, then Columbian Ground Squirrel, which way should the arrow point from the hawk to gopher?

3. Give students reading assignments and write a summary of what they read from the Glenrose Watershed Gazette - This newsletter was produced by 130 7th and 8th graders.
   See a list of stories in the Glenrose Watershed Gazette >>

   Directions:

1. Have students stand in an open space.
2. Give each student an Ecosystem Element Card.
3. Give one student the ball of string.  The student will tell the “element” on his/her card.  This student holds the end of the string when passing the ball of string.
4. Other students will look at their cards to determine if they are connected. 
5. The ball will be passed to the student holding a connecting card. ( Multiple connections are possible.)
6. Repeat steps 3-5 until all the element cards are connected.

Here is another option:

1. Photocopy the ecosystem cards and pass them out to your students.
2. One student will go to the whiteboard and write their element on the board.
3. Each student will take turns going to the whiteboard and drawing lines to connect their element with an element on the board.
4. When students have a duplicate element, they should connect it to a different element.