Food Chains: Producers, Consumers, and Decomposers

What You'll Learn

• Producers make their own food from sunlight, water, and air (photosynthesis)
• Consumers eat other living things — herbivores eat plants, carnivores eat animals, omnivores eat both
• Decomposers break down dead things and return nutrients to the soil
• Every food chain starts with the Sun's energy, then a producer
• The arrows in a food chain mean "is eaten by" and show energy flow

Words to Know

Producer

A living thing that makes its own food — plants use sunlight to make sugar.

A tree is a producer because it makes food from sunlight.

Consumer

An animal that eats other living things because it can't make its own food.

A rabbit is a consumer because it eats plants.

Herbivore

An animal that eats ONLY plants.

A deer is an herbivore — it munches leaves and grass.

Carnivore

An animal that eats ONLY other animals.

A hawk is a carnivore — it eats mice and rabbits.

Omnivore

An animal that eats BOTH plants and animals.

A bear is an omnivore — it eats berries AND fish.

Decomposer

A living thing like a worm or fungus that breaks down dead things and returns nutrients to the soil.

A worm is a decomposer that recycles a dead leaf into soil food.

Photosynthesis

How plants make their own food from sunlight, water, and air.

A plant uses photosynthesis to turn sunshine into sugar.

Food chain

A path that shows how energy moves from the Sun to plants to animals to decomposers.

In a food chain, grass gives energy to a rabbit, and the rabbit gives energy to a hawk.

Check What You Learned

Fun Facts

• A food chain shows how energy moves from one living thing to the next

  Source: National Geographic Kids

• Producers are living things that make their own food — plants use sunlight + water + air to make sugar, called photosynthesis

  Source: BBC Bitesize

• Consumers eat other living things — herbivores eat plants, carnivores eat animals, omnivores eat both

  Source: National Geographic Kids

• Decomposers like fungi, bacteria, and worms break down dead things and return nutrients to the soil so plants can reuse them

  Source: BBC Bitesize

• Every food chain starts with the Sun's energy, then a producer

  Source: NASA Climate Kids

• The arrows in a food chain mean "is eaten by" and show the flow of energy

  Source: Khan Academy