♨️ Where Did All the Energy Go? ☀️ How the Sun Feeds Us All 🌍🌿🐛🦅🍄

Do you remember the last time you were laying underneath the sun? ☀️ You closed your eyes, and the warmth wrapped around your face. At first, it felt cozy… then hot… then so hot you thought you might boil in your clothes! 🥵😅

That’s the Sun’s energy hugging you (a little too tightly in the summer!). Scientists have a word for that kind of energy: it’s called a joule (say it: jool). A joule is a way to measure energy—like how we use grams to measure weight or meters to measure length.

🧠 The name joule comes from a real person! James Joule helped us understand how heat and movement are both types of energy. So every time we say joule, we’re remembering the scientist who helped discover what energy is!🌡️⚙️

Today, as I tell you a story about the journey of the Sun’s energy, we’re going to build an energy pyramid together. We’ll add each level as the energy moves—from the base all the way to the top. Let’s see how much energy is left as it travels… and who gets the last bite of the Sun! ☀️🍽️

Now imagine the Sun sends 1,000,000 joules of energy down to Earth. That’s more energy than we can see or feel at once—it’s all around, but it’s invisible! ☀️💨 Here’s the surprise: plants only keep about 1% of it. 🌱

🌱 The Sun-Catchers

At the bottom of the energy pyramid are the producers: plants, algae, and phytoplankton.
They are called AUTOTROPHS 👏 Au-to-troph 👏👏👏 🧠 The name is derived from two words: auto = self, troph = nourish → self-nourisher
They make their own food using: ☀️ sunlight 💧 water and 🌬️ carbon dioxide.
From the Sun’s 1,000,000 joules, the producers keep only 1% which is 10,000 joules.
The rest of the energy is reflected, scattered, or lost as heat. ♨️

🦗 The Plant Eaters

Next come the Primary Consumers which are the plant-eaters—grasshoppers, deer, zebras, caterpillars, and more. ( invite children to suggest more )
These are: HETEROTROPH 👏 Het-er-o-troph 👏👏👏👏 🧠 The name is derived from two words: hetero = other, troph = nourish → nourished by others
They can’t make their own food, so they eat producers.
They receive only 10% of the producers’ energy which is 1,000 joules.
The rest is used or lost as heat. ♨️

🐍 The Small Predators

Then come the Secondary Consumers - animals that eat the plant-eaters. Let’s think: who eats grasshoppers and caterpillars? Snakes, frogs, small birds, and even foxes.
They get just 10% of the energy from the primary consumers—only 100 joules.
The rest is used or lost as heat. ♨️

🦉 The Bigger Predators

Next are the Tertiary Consumers which are predators that eat the smaller predators, like owls, wildcats, or eagles.
They receive only 10% of the energy from the secondary consumers - only 10 joules.
The rest is used or lost as heat. ♨️

🦅 The Top Predators

At the very top are the apex predators known as Quaternary Consumers —hawks, polar bears, or orcas.
They receive only 1 joule of the original 1,000,000 joules of solar energy.
😲 So much energy from the Sun—and just one joule makes it to the very top!
The rest is lost as heat. ♨️

🍄The Cycle Keepers

But what happens when living things die? Nutrients still have a job to do. That’s when decomposers get to work: fungi, bacteria, and earthworms break down what’s left and send nutrients back to the soil—where producers grow again. DECOMPOSER 👏 De-com-pos-er 👏👏👏👏 🧠 The name is derived from two words: de- = down, componere = to put together → to break down

♨️ So Where Did All the Energy Go?

When an animal eats food (or when a plant makes sugar from sunlight), it gets energy.
But that energy isn’t all saved or passed on to the next animal that eats it. Instead, living things use most of that energy just to stay alive.
For example:

• ❤️ An animal’s heart needs energy to pump blood

• 🌬️ The lungs use energy to breathe

• 🕺 The body needs energy to move—walking, jumping, hunting, flying

• 🌱 And even growing new leaves or fur takes energy!

As these life processes happen, some of that energy “escapes”—it’s released as heat (♨️) into the air. That’s why animals (including us!) feel warm. That warmth is energy leaving the body.

🧍‍♀️Where are we on this Energy Pyramid? We are omnivores—we eat both plants and animals.

The higher we go, the less energy is left. Humans try to catch this prescious Sun’s energy too. We use solar panels! They don’t make sugar like plants, but they turn sunlight into electricity ⚡—to light our homes, charge our devices, and cook our meals. Solar panels are like human-made leaves 🍃.


I wonder ... ⚡How do solar panels work? What are they made of?
How much energy does it take to power a fridge? A laptop? A school?

Here are the names of the trophic levels in the energy pyramid and how much energy is available at each level. 🧠 They are not color-coded, because we want children to use their reasoning mind when explore the relationships.

🙏 Courtesy to Sarah from Waterpark Montessori , and Laura from Montessori Inspiredco for the inspiration behind this story.🌿✨

With Montessori joy,
Vanina 😊