Plants make their own food; animals eat plants or other animals. Sort living things by how they get their food.
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Plants make food; animals take it.
Plants are nature's ultimate chefs! They literally pull carbon dioxide out of the air and combine it with water and sunlight to create their own food. Animals, on the other hand, have to steal their meals.
How plants make their own food.
Every living object interacts with its surroundings to survive. In our environment, plants play the most critical role—they make their own food! Because they produce food for themselves (and indirectly for the rest of us), they are called producers.
How plants use sunlight to make food.
To cook up this food, plants use a green pigment called chlorophyll to trap sunlight. They combine this energy with carbon dioxide from the air and water from the soil in a process called photosynthesis.
Here is the exact biological recipe:
Animals that eat plants, animals, or both.
Unlike plants, animals cannot prepare their own food. Because they must consume other organisms to survive, they are called consumers or heterotrophs (hetero = other; troph = food).
Based on what they eat, consumers are divided into three main categories.
Herbivores, carnivores and omnivores, side by side.
Consumers are classified into herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores based on their diet.
Sort each animal by what it eats.
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