Praying Mantis Feasts on Monarch Butterfly!

Hey fourth-graders! I've been thinking about our first unit, Food Chains, and lo and behold, I wake up this morning and find a praying mantis eating a monarch right in my backyard. A praying mantis is a stealthy hunter. Because it eats meat (butterfly is meat!) it is a carnivore. The butterfly eats nectar from plants and is therefore a herbivore. Do you know who might eat the praying mantis?

ARE YOU READY TO GO BACK TO SCHOOL?

I am!
After a great vacation in Israel and Jordan (that's me floating in the DEAD SEA!), I'm getting my lessons ready and preparing to go in and set up the room for you guys. I'm very much looking forward to seeing some of my former students and meeting my new ones. It's going to be a great year full of hands-on experimentation and learning.

So why is it so easy to float in the Dead Sea?
The Dead Sea has a LOT of salt in it. I saw chunks of salt some as big as snowballs! Salt water is heavier (denser) than regular water. People can float in regular water, but since salt water is even denser, it is even easier to float in the Dead Sea.