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Take One Out of the Web is a free printable Grade 5 science worksheet on predicting how a change to one part of a food web affects the rest, aligned to NGSS performance expectation 5-LS2-1. It prints 7 questions with an answer key on its own sheet of paper, in 25 versions that each ask different questions, so no two students in the class work from the same page. Print it from the browser or download it as a PDF — no account, no email.

Set 16 of 25 · the same problems every time you open this link.

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Set 1 has all 25 in a single PDF. All 25 sets ask different questions.

Take One Out of the Web

5-LS2-1

NameDate

Read the food web, then answer the questions.

1.Read the record, then answer the questions.

Who Eats What in Our Pond

A food web the class drew from a term of pond-dipping records. WHO EATS WHAT Pondweed and algae are eaten by snails, tadpoles and mayfly larvae. Mayfly larvae are eaten by newts and fish. Snails are eaten by newts and frogs. Tadpoles are eaten by newts and fish. Frogs and fish are eaten by herons. Dead plants, dead animals and droppings are broken down by bacteria and worms in the mud, returning matter to the water.

  1. 1. What does every food chain in this web begin with?
  2. 2. What claim does this web support?
  3. 3. If a disease killed the pondweed and algae, what would happen?
  4. 4. Why do the bacteria and worms matter to the pondweed?
2.A forest fire burns the trees. Which animals lose their food first?
  • A.None, fire does not affect food
  • B.The animals that eat other animals
  • C.Those that eat the leaves and seeds of the trees
3.Rabbits were brought to a country where nothing ate them. What happened?
  • A.They died out at once
  • B.Their numbers grew huge and they stripped the plants
  • C.Nothing changed
4.A farmer sprays a field to kill every insect. What could happen to birds that eat insects?
  • A.They get more food
  • B.They start eating the spray
  • C.They have less food, so fewer survive
5.Why can removing one plant affect an animal that never eats it?
  • A.Animals smell plants
  • B.The animals that animal eats may depend on that plant
  • C.It cannot affect it
6.Gray squirrels were brought into Britain. What happened to the red squirrels?
  • A.They declined, partly because the gray squirrels took their food
  • B.They ate the gray squirrels
  • C.They increased
7.The rabbits in that field then increase. What happens to the grass?
  • A.There is less of it, because more rabbits are eating it
  • B.It is not affected
  • C.There is more of it

LessonPrint · 5-LS2-1 · Set 16 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Take One Out of the Web

Set 16. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. Pondweed and algae. 2. Matter moves from the pondweed and algae through the animals to the bacteria and worms, and back to the water. 3. The snails, tadpoles and mayfly larvae would lose their food, and then so would the animals that eat them. 4. They break down dead plants and animals, returning matter to the water that the pondweed can use.
  2. 2.Those that eat the leaves and seeds of the trees
  3. 3.Their numbers grew huge and they stripped the plants
  4. 4.They have less food, so fewer survive
  5. 5.The animals that animal eats may depend on that plant
  6. 6.They declined, partly because the gray squirrels took their food
  7. 7.There is less of it, because more rabbits are eating it

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to 5-LS2-1 of the Next Generation Science Standards.