© 2015 by Vicki Whiting, Editor Jeff Schinkel, Graphics Vol. 31, No. 34
Ask a friend to give you each type of
word. Fill in the blanks and read the
story aloud for some silly fun.
Dee Dee on a Roll
Dee Dee was a dung beetle that
dreamed of bigger and better
How much do
you weigh?
By Nellie Fly
ung beetles are
nature’s clean-up
bury
bugs. They eat and
animal waste. This portant
activity recycles im il and
nutrients into the so tracts
buries waste that at A dung
pests such as flies. to 250
beetle can bury up t in
times its own weigh
dung in a night.
things. She wanted to ________
with _________ and _________
0
Multiply that by 25
amongst the ____________ .
lbs.
That number is the u
amount of dung yo
could bury if you .
were a dung beetle
But those were pretty big dreams
for a little dung beetle. Poor Dee
Dee thought she might never get
her chance to become a
____________ ____________.
In rainforests, dung beetles roll up balls of monkey dung containing
fruit seeds from the monkey’s meal. They bury the monkey dung,
seeds and all. After a while, the seeds sprout and grow new trees.
“You have __________ of
elephant dung as far as the
Some experts say that dung
beetles clean up 80% of the
cow manure in parts of Texas.
___________ can see!” said Dee
Dee’s father. “Stop wasting time
and start minding waste!”
One afternoon, Dee Dee saw a
Standards Link: Life Science: Students know that all organisms cause changes in their
environments and these changes can be beneficial.
bright, ___________ object in
the _________. It was a marble!
Each dung beetle belongs to
one of three groups: rollers,
tunnelers, or dwellers.
Ancient Egyptians
viewed the dung beetle
as a symbol of their
sun god. They thought
the sun god pushed the
sun around the sky,
much as the dung
beetle pushes around
balls of dung.
Rollers shape dung into balls
that they roll. They then bury
these dung balls to eat later or
to use as a place to lay eggs.
When the eggs hatch, the larvae
eat the dung.
Dee Dee became quite skilled
and eventually entered a
__________ marble competition.
She performed _________ tricks
and scored the highest of all.
Tunnelers bury their dung balls
by tunneling underneath a pile
of dung and taking their
treasure underground.
Grouping
Puzzle
Dwellers – Can you guess what
they do? Write your guess here:
Now fill in the missing vowels
to figure out why they are
called dwellers.
Not all of the food an animal eats gets digested. Any undigested
bits pass out of the animal in its dung. It is those undigested bits
of food that nourish the dung beetle.
Standards Link: Life Science: Behavior of individual organisms is influenced by internal
cues (e.g., hunger) and external cues (e.g., changes in the environment).
ow can Andy be inventive and
imaginative in an essay
contest on conservation? He
comes up with the idea of people
eating insects as a way of
conserving their food budgets.
Before long he’s making toasted
beetles and more.
Unscramble the title of this book.
Then, check it out at your local library this summer!
Standards Link: Reading Comprehension: Read age-appropriate text in a variety of genres.
DUNG
TUNNELERS
NOURISH
BURIES
RECYCLES
SYMBOL
MONKEY
CLEAN
ROLL
BURY
PILE
FLIES
SOIL
GROW
Cut out all the ads in
today’s newspaper.
Sort them into at
least three groups.
The ads in each
group should share
at least one
characteristic that
the other groups’ ads
don’t have. Name
each group,
identifying its
important feature.
during her victory speech. “I’ve
gone from the ________ bottom
to the _____________ top!”
Standards Link: Grammar: Understand the
parts of speech; use the correct parts of
speech from context clues.
Complete the grid by using all the
letters in the word DUNG in each
vertical and horizontal row. Each letter
should only be used once in each row.
Some spaces have been filled in for you.
Standards Link: Scientific
Investigation: Things can be
grouped according to
common characteristics.
Find the words in the puzzle,
then in this week’s Kid Scoop
stories and activities.
S O I L N E D N W C
S R A A L S O U O T
E S E I R U B N N E
L L P L R F T U C G
C L E I E I L L R A
Y N S U N N L I P Y
C H C E M O N K E Y
E R N G R O W U E S
R T L O B M Y S T W
Standards Link: Letter sequencing. Recognized identical
words. Skim and scan reading. Recall spelling patterns.
DUNG
The noun dung means the
manure of animals.
Dung beetles roll dung
into round balls.
Try to use the word dung
in a sentence today when
talking with your friends
and family members.
Add
Adjectives
Exclamation Points!
Count all the exclamation points you can
find in each section of the newspaper.
Graph your results. Which section has the
most? Why do you think this is?
ANSWER: Leftovers.
Standards Link: Data Analysis: Students summarize and
display data results in a clear and organized way.
“______________!” she shouted
Add colorful adjectives
to this sentence:
The dung beetle walked
across the table and onto
the plate of pickles.