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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 2 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 claim does this web support?
  2. 2. Why do the bacteria and worms matter to the pondweed?
  3. 3. If the frogs disappeared, what would happen to the snails at first?
  4. 4. What breaks down the dead plants and animals?
2.A farmer sprays a field to kill every insect. What could happen to birds that eat insects?
  • A.They have less food, so fewer survive
  • B.They start eating the spray
  • C.They get more food
3.Why can removing one plant affect an animal that never eats it?
  • A.The animals that animal eats may depend on that plant
  • B.Animals smell plants
  • C.It cannot affect it
4.Why does a web with many kinds of living thing cope better with a change?
  • A.Big webs never change
  • B.If one food runs short, animals can eat something else
  • C.More kinds means less food
5.A new road cuts a wood in two. What is one effect on the animals?
  • A.Some can no longer reach food or mates on the other side
  • B.They all get more food
  • C.None at all
6.Rabbits were brought to a country where nothing ate them. What happened?
  • A.They died out at once
  • B.Nothing changed
  • C.Their numbers grew huge and they stripped the plants
7.Gray squirrels were brought into Britain. What happened to the red squirrels?
  • A.They increased
  • B.They declined, partly because the gray squirrels took their food
  • C.They ate the gray squirrels

LessonPrint · 5-LS2-1 · Set 2 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Take One Out of the Web

Set 2. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. Matter moves from the pondweed and algae through the animals to the bacteria and worms, and back to the water. 2. They break down dead plants and animals, returning matter to the water that the pondweed can use. 3. There would be more snails, because only the newts would be eating them. 4. Bacteria and worms in the mud.
  2. 2.They have less food, so fewer survive
  3. 3.The animals that animal eats may depend on that plant
  4. 4.If one food runs short, animals can eat something else
  5. 5.Some can no longer reach food or mates on the other side
  6. 6.Their numbers grew huge and they stripped the plants
  7. 7.They declined, partly because the gray squirrels took their food

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