Free interactive · Manitoba Grade 4 Science · Habitats and ecosystems

Habitat Web Lab: follow the food, then take one link out

Students build boreal, prairie and wetland food chains, then remove a hare from a web. They distinguish an animal's adaptation from habitat cover and a feeding relationship, and sort pollination and seed dispersal. It is free, runs in the browser, and needs no login or email.

Free · No login · No email · Nothing saved or sent

Milestone Teachers · Manitoba Grade 4 Science · Last reviewed 16 October 2026

Open Habitat Web Lab (free, full screen) · Manitoba classroom science

What it is

• Three Manitoba chains. Boreal shrubs, snowshoe hare and Canada lynx. Prairie big bluestem, grasshopper and western meadowlark. Wetland cattail, muskrat and mink.
• A web with a missing link. Lynx and great horned owl both eat the hare. Taking the hare out affects both hunters.
• Survival connections. Distinguish a hare's white-coat adaptation from shrub cover in its habitat and the lynx-hare feeding relationship.
• Pollen and seeds. A bee or butterfly moves pollen. A burr, a berry and cattail fluff move seeds.

• Free. No login, no email, no sign-up.
• Runs in the browser.
• Nothing a student does is saved or sent.

How to use it in class

1. Read the boreal chain. The chain is already built. Switch to prairie, then wetland.
2. Clear and build. Ask which living thing has to go first. The plant makes the food.
3. Take the hare out. Ask who loses food. Both hunters do.
4. Name the connection. Ask whether each card shows an organism adaptation, habitat cover or a feeding relationship, and ask why.
5. Sort five cards. Pollination moves pollen. Seed dispersal moves the seed afterward.

Curriculum link

Partial support for selected habitat outcomes in Manitoba's renewed Grade 4 Science curriculum.

• SCI.4.E.14: Food chains and food webs. Demonstrate an understanding of the cycling of matter and flow of energy among organisms and non-living parts of an ecosystem. The chains and the web follow food from a plant to the animals that eat it. They do not show matter cycling or the non-living parts of an ecosystem.
• SCI.4.E.13: Adaptations. Demonstrate the understanding that every living organism has adapted to survive in a specific habitat. The white winter coat is an organism adaptation. The other two cards distinguish habitat cover and a feeding relationship from that trait.
• SCI.4.E.15: Pollination and seed dispersal. Demonstrate an understanding of how plants and animals (including humans) rely on each other and the environment for survival. The last cards separate pollen reaching a flower from a ride that moves a seed. Cattail pollen and seeds travel on the wind.

Contains information from the Government of Manitoba, licensed under the OpenMB Information and Data Use License (Manitoba.ca/OpenMB). OpenMB licence.

Manitoba classroom science

Units for this year

Habitat Web Lab is free online. The Habitats & Food Webs website edition is a separate download; the lab is not included in its ZIP.

• Manitoba Grade 4 Habitats & Food Webs | 10-Lesson Science Unit. SCI.4.E.13 to E.15: habitats and adaptations, food chains and food webs, decomposers, pollination and seed dispersal. A separate Milestone Teachers website edition. Habitat Web Lab is free online and is not included in the ZIP.

Honest limits

• Each chain leaves out many living things.
• The survival cards show one animal adaptation. Shrub cover and the lynx-hare feeding relationship are different kinds of survival connection.
• Prairie and wetland pictures are sketches, not a count of one place.
• A real lynx can eat other prey when hares are scarce. This web shows its main food.
• Partial support for SCI.4.E.13 to E.15. It does not show matter cycling or the non-living parts of an ecosystem.
• Not a diagnosis or a grade.

Credits

• Science: Canadian Wildlife Federation, Hinterland Who's Who, for the boreal food web, the Canada lynx, the snowshoe hare and its winter coat.
• Curriculum: Manitoba Education and Early Childhood Learning, renewed Grade 4 Science, partial support for SCI.4.E.13 to E.15.
• Made by: An independent teaching resource from Milestone Teachers.

Sources

Checked against the sources below on 16 October 2026.

• Manitoba Education and Early Childhood Learning: Science: Grade 4
• Canadian Wildlife Federation: Hinterland Who's Who: Boreal forest
• Canadian Wildlife Federation: Hinterland Who's Who: Canada lynx
• Canadian Wildlife Federation: Hinterland Who's Who: Snowshoe hare

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