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5th grade · Science · Unit 8 of 9

Matter Moves in Ecosystems

Producers, consumers and decomposers recycle matter.

What your child practices

Practices how matter moves among plants, animals, decomposers and the environment, with Pacific Northwest examples like salmon feeding forests after they spawn.

Alaska content standards learning standard: 5-LS2-1 · the movement of matter among plants, animals, decomposers and the environment

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Producers (plants) make food. Consumers eat plants or other animals.
  2. Decomposers, like mushrooms, worms and bacteria, break down dead things.
  3. They return matter to the soil so plants can use it again.
  4. Without decomposers, dead things would pile up.

Example: Which is a decomposer: a hawk, a mushroom or a fern? A hawk is a consumer and a fern is a producer. A mushroom breaks down dead matter. Answer: a mushroom

Matter Moves in Ecosystems in Alaska

In the Alaska content standards, this is unit 8 of 9 in 5th grade Science, after Energy from the Sun and before Engineering Challenges.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Alaska Department of Education and Early Development

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Decomposers return nutrients to the…

    • moon
    • clouds only
    • sun
    • soil

  2. Question 2

    Plants take in matter from the air and…

    • rocks
    • metal
    • sunlight as matter
    • water from the soil

  3. Question 3

    After salmon spawn and die, their bodies…

    • feed the forest and river life
    • swim to the ocean
    • vanish
    • turn to stone

  4. Question 4

    What would happen without decomposers?

    • Nothing would change
    • Animals would live forever
    • Dead things would pile up
    • Plants would grow better

  5. Question 5

    An animal that eats plants and animals is an…

    • omnivore
    • producer
    • decomposer
    • herbivore

  6. Question 6

    Where does the matter in a mushroom come from?

    • Sunlight only
    • Rocks
    • Photosynthesis
    • Dead plants and animals it broke down

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