Animal Restaurant

Objectives

• Compare and contrast the features of other animals.

Materials

• Per Student Pair:
  computer with Internet access
  paper and construction paper
  hole puncher
  string
  markers/crayons
  decorations

Key Questions

• What do animals eat that we don't eat?
• What is the weirdest way that animals eat their dinner? Why do they eat this way?
• What are some of the techniques used by animals to capture their prey? (e.g. sit-and-wait, hunting/stalking, catching in a web, grazing with a herd, camouflage)? Would they do this if they could buy their food in a restaurant?

What To Do

Divide the students into pairs.

Student instructions:

1. With your partner, select an ecosystem that contains a variety of different species (mammals, reptiles, insects, crustaceans, birds, etc.). Ecosystems could include a desert, a tropical rainforest, the arctic, a temperate rainforest, the intertidal zone, the deep ocean, etc. Double-check with your teacher to make sure you haven’t chosen the exact same ecosystem as another team.
2. Research your ecosystem on the Internet and make a list of six species that live there. Answer the following questions: What do they eat? How do they eat? How do they find their food? How do they catch their food? What time of day do they forage?
3. Use the paper, construction paper, markers, and decorations to design a menu that could feed all the animals on your list. Each menu item should include how the food was prepared, based on the animal’s preference.
4. Would you divide your menu based on the type of food or the type of eater? Think about how we divide our restaurant menus.
5. On the cover, paste images of the animals you have chosen to cater to, along with their names.
6. Hole punch your menu and string it together.

Extensions

• Exchange your menu with another team. Can they guess which menu item is eaten by which animal on the menu's cover?
• How would Canadians eat differently if we all had to hunt and gather our food? What types of food would we eat? How would we prepare it? How would we obtain it? Would it vary throughout the year? How would we deal with seasonal variation? Would each family be responsible for getting their own meals or would it be shared among several families? What would be considered a treat?