© 2016 by Vicki Whiting, Editor Jeff Schinkel, Graphics Vol. 32, No. 21
Whoops! The octopus
grabbed some of the words out
of this article. Can you replace them?
n octopus mom is a busy mom.
She lays from 50,000 _________
to as many as 200,000 eggs!
She carefully ____________
her eggs and stitches
them together in long
____________. She then
attaches them to
the roof of a cave.
This is
her
nursery.
It can take ___________ for the eggs to
hatch. The mother octopus stays with
her eggs the entire time. She protects
the eggs from _______________. She
waves her tentacles gently over the
eggs. The moving water keeps them
clean and _____________ them with
plenty of oxygen.
Are you an eagle-eyed reader?
Read the article below and circle
the six errors you find. Then
rewrite the article correctly on
the lines below the article.
The wolf spidur is a caring
mom. While most spiders
wrap their eggs in a silken
pouch and leaf them
behind, this mom carries
her egg sac on her back.
She carry it everywhere
she goes. If it fall off, the
wolf spider mom puts it
back on. And once her
eggs hatch, she takes care
of the little crawlers and
let’s them ride on her back
until they are reddy for
life on their own.
But watching the eggs means she can’t
go ____________ to feed herself. Sadly,
after the eggs hatch and she releases
them into the ocean, she dies.
Standards Link: Life Science: Animals adapt in different ways in
order to survive.
Donkey mothers may be the most
devoted of all. They will not let any
other animal come between
them and their babies.
Even if a curious little kitten comes
close, a donkey mom will chase
it away.
Find the
diferences
between the
mother donkey
and its foal and
their reflection in
the pond.
mama alligator covers her eggs with
old, rotting plants. As the plants
rot, they give of heat which means
mama doesn’t have to sit on her
eggs to keep them warm.
Help the alligator
find her way back
to the nest.
While she may not sit on
her eggs to keep them
warm, a mama alligator
does stay close to the
nest to protect the
eggs from predators.
Once her babies are
born, she carries them
around in her jaw for
protection.
Standards Link: Visual
Discrimination: Finding
similarities and differences
in common objects.
The temperature of
an alligator’s nest
determines if a baby
alligator will hatch
as a girl or a boy.
Look through
today’s newspaper
for adjectives that
describe each of
the animal mothers
on today’s Kid
Scoop page.
What did the mother
Surinam toad say to
her kids? Unscramble the answer:
90°
80°
86°F - 89°F:
Both boys and girls
ore than 90°F:
More
All boys
Standards Link: Language
e
Arts: Grammar: Identify
adjectives.
Standards Link: Life Science: Animals adapt in different ways in order to survive.
he mother Surinam toad cares for her eggs in one of the
strangest ways. As the mother toad lays eggs, the male toad
presses them one by one into the soft skin on the mother’s
back. After a while, each egg sinks into a little pocket that forms
on the mother’s back. Then a covering of skin grows over the
pocket. The baby toads hatch
and develop in these little
pockets. A few weeks
later, the mother rubs
her back and the
little toads swim free.
Less than 86°F:
All girls
100°
ALLIGATOR
PREDATORS
OCTOPUS
SURINAM
CURIOUS
DONKEY
MOTHER
HATCH
WAVES
TOAD
BABY
BORN
CAVE
NEST
SWIM
R W I C U R I O U S
D O N K E Y C L D R
A W T M C T A N M O
O A D A O Y B A B T
This week’s word:
T V V P G T N C O A
STRAND
S E U S S I H R R D
One meaning of the noun
strand is a single length of
something long and thin.
W S A E R Z L E N E
I Y N U M O M L R R
M S S H C T A H A P
The hairdresser cut off a
strand of her long hair.
Try to use the word strand
in a sentence today when
talking with your friends
and family members.
“Mom, You’re Fired!”
Imagine you could fire your mom. Look
through the newspaper to find all of the
different people and companies you would
need to hire to replace your mother. How
much would it cost for one week? One year?
Standards Link: Math: Estimation.
Write about a woman you
admire. Include three or
more reasons why you
selected this woman.