The food chain I used when making this example was:
Sun --> Seeds --> Mouse --> Weasel --> Fox
Begin with a square piece of paper. Fold the paper along the diagonals and add lines as seen in the drawing below:
In the middle lined section, fill in the following (beginning at the botton/largest spot):
- Producers
- Primary Consumer
- Secondary Consumer
- Tertiary Consumer
On an ajoining side, fill in the corresponding organism (seeds, mouse, weasel, fox).
The other lined section can be used to represent another food chain.
When all sections have been filled in, cut along one of the diagonals (adjacent to the blank section) until you reach the center point.
Then fold the pyramid, tucking the blank side underneath, so a pyramid is formed.
This visual representation helps students remember that it takes a lot of producers to feed one primary consumer, many primary consumers to feed one secondary consumer, and so on.
