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Did you know that every time you
run or jump, your body is using

energy? Do you know where that
energy comes from?
IT COMES FROM
THE SUN!
It's the sunshine hitting the
earth that keeps life going!

Thanks to some very special life forms, like green
plants, we have the carbohydrates that we use as the
fuel to live and grow. We call those life forms
PRODUCERS because they can make their own
food.Producers take sunshine, mix it with some simple
chemicals from the air and water, and turn it into
SUGAR and OXYGEN! That process is called
PHOTOSYNTHESIS. Animals and humans can't make
their own food and can't eat sunshine. We're
CONSUMERS and we really need those green plants
to turn it into oxygen that we can breathe and into a
form of energy (FOOD) that we can use - like
lettuce, or carrots, or strawberries.
Photosynthesis starts the
chain of energy. Energy flows
from one living thing to
another. All living things get
the energy they need to
move and grow from the food
they eat. When your body
digests your breakfast, it
releases the energy you need
to play.

Biologists use a food chain or food cycle
to show how each living thing gets its
food. All food chains start with the sun
and some type of plant. Each link in the

Remember that when you look at a
food chain, the arrows are drawn
from the food source to the food
consumer ... in other words, you can
substitute the arrows with the
words is eaten by

chain is food for the next link. When an
animal eats the plant, food energy is
transferred from the plant to the
animal. That animal is eaten by another
animal and in turn that animal is eaten
by another, with energy being
transferred and used up at each step in
the chain.
The animals in the chain are called
CONSUMERS and there are different
levels.
If it eats plants it is called a primary consumer. The
animal or bird that eats the primary consumer is
called a secondary consumer. The animal or bird that
eats the secondary consumer is called a tertiary
consumer.
There are different types
of CONSUMERS.
It is based on what they
EAT.

HERBIVORES
eat only plants
or plant
products. That
makes them
PRIMARY
CONSUMERS.

CARNIVORES
only eat meat!
They eat other
animals. That
makes them
SECONDARY OR
TERTIARY
CONSUMERS.

OMNIVORES
eat both plants
and meat. So
when a squirrel
eats acorns or
fruits, it is a
PRIMARY
CONSUMER;
but, when it
eats insects or
baby birds, it is
a SECONDARY
CONSUMER.

DECOMPOSERS
are the cleanup
crew of life.
They're just
carnivores and
herbivores that
like their food

already dead.
Like maggots,
bacteria, fungi,
earthworms and
other
scavengers.

It may be called a food cycle, but it's not really an
endless cycle of energy going around and around. It's
more like an in and out of energy. As energy moves up
the food chain some of it gets used up. For example,
a lot of the energy that a rabbit gets from eating all
that clover, he has to use to keep warm, and to keep
breathing and hopping. So there is less of that
beginning energy to pass on to the wolf who eats him.
At the end of the food chain there isn't much of that
original sunshine energy left. It's an in and out of
energy because we need fresh sunshine everyday and
we need new plants to keep growing. Everything
depends on those producers. Without the producers
there'd be nothing to eat. We would all run out of
energy and die.

Another way biologists look at the whole
food/energy thing is with an energy pyramid
or energy triangle. The triangle shape (big on
bottom and small on top) is great because it
makes it easy to remember that there is less
and less energy available as you move from
plant to herbivore to carnivore. Less and less
as you go up the pyramid. It also makes it
easy to remember that there are a lot more
herbivores than big predators.
Food chains and energy pyramids look
pretty simple, but the communities
they are part of are really quite
complex.
Just think of how many different
animals eat grass? Think about how
many different foods you eat?
Most animals are actually part of more
than one food chain. These
interconnected food chains form a food
web.

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Did you know that every time you

run or jump, your body is using

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