Learn About the Boreal Forest Food Chain
You may not have ever really thought about teaching your child about the different food chains that exist in nature. However, doing so is a simple and fun way to teach our children about different animals, habitats and ecosystems…all at the same time! Since food chains are completely different in different sorts of environments, studying different food chains as a unit of study will give your child a way to think globally about the variety of habitats all over the world and the many interesting creatures who dwell in them!
Today, we’re sharing a Boreal Forest Food Chain Coloring Book that is perfect for introducing younger children to the Boreal Forest in a fun and easy way!
The pages in this printable coloring book include a colorful cover page as well as six black-and-white pages for your children to color as you teach them more about the Boreal Forest Food Chain. These coloring pages also include handwriting practice with the names of each animal discussed in this particular food chain: the ladybug, the songbird, the owl and the lynx.
I think it’s a great idea to use these pages to introduce each animal to your child, and then spend some time talking and/or reading more about each animal and how they relate to each other on the food chain as your child colors the pages! Giving kids something to color as they listen can actually really help them pay better attention!
Easy Lesson Ideas to Learn About the Boreal Forest Food Chain
Introduce the Food Chain
If you’re studying the Boreal Forest or food chains (or both) with your children, there are some fun and easy ways to make the most of your lessons without adding a lot of extra work and planning! One of the simplest things you can do is look at these pictures together. Talk about the names of the animals. Let your children color the pages with crayons, markers, or paints as a way of beginning to build interest in the topic and starting to feel more familiar with the topic.
Talk About Relationships
Look at the food chain and talk about the relationship of animal to others in the chain (particularly to the one before and after it on the food chain chart that comes with the printable). Look together at how the food chain begins with smaller animals and increase in size. Discuss how plants and animals need food to live and thrive, how this cycle works and how it continues. (Of course you can decide how in depth you do or don’t want to go based on your own children’s ages and maturity levels.)
Handwriting Practice
Use the handwriting practice that’s provided with each coloring page to encourage young children to work on handwriting skills as you learn together, but don’t worry about perfecting the handwriting of young children just yet! You want them to be interested in handwriting, but very young children aren’t ready yet to work too much on beautiful handwriting. That will come with time, maturity, and the building of greater fine motor skills. For now, let them enjoy the practice and don’t worry about how it looks.
Sequencing
After your child colors the page showing the complete food chain, cut it apart and have him or her put the animals in the correct order. This is another opportunity to discuss why each plant or animal feeds on another particular plant or animal as well as to work on memory and vocabulary.
Read Some Books
Studying Food Chains as a Unit?
Well, we’re here to help with that! You’ll find even more ideas for using food chains to teach your children on Learning About Life in the Pond and Learn about the Rainforest Food Chain where we share learning ideas and coloring books for these food chains, too!