4C COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL JANUARY 25, 2017
© 2017 by Vicki Whiting, Editor Jeff Schinkel, Graphics Vol. 33, No. 7
The scientific name
for killer whales is
Orcinus orca. They
are often called orcas.
iller whales are powerful predators that eat fish, seals, sharks and
even other whales. However, they are not interested in eating
people. There has been only one attack on a person in the wild.
Scientists believe the whale mistook a surfer for a seal. Interestingly,
the whale realized the mistake and spat the person out.
Are you an eagle-eyed reader?
Read the article below and circle
the six errors you find. Then
rewrite it correctly on the lines
below the article.
Orca babies are called calves.
They are born undurwater. As
soon as the calf is born, the
mother orca helps it swim to
the surface for its first breathe
of air.
The calf will drink its mother’s
cream-like milk for too years.
The milk is about 48% fat and
helps the calf develop a thin,
warm layer of blubber.
From the land, the orca’s black
and white pattern may not look
like good camouflage. But it
is, and it helps the orca
sneak up on its prey.
Orcas have a patch of gray
behind the dorsal fin. This
patch is called a saddle patch.
Each orca has its own
distinctively shaped
saddle patch.
When an orca is swimming
in the deep, fish swimming above
it look down and see only inky darkness.
Fish swimming below an orca
look up to the white of the orca’s
underbody, which blends with the bright
light of the sun shining down.
Standards Link: Life Science: Students know that living organisms have distinct structures
and body systems that serve specific functions in growth, survival and reproduction.
Follow these easy steps to create
a whale of a drawing!
Orcas have 40 to 52 sharp teeth,
each of which is about three
inches long. As an orca gets
older, it grows layers on
the outside of its teeth,
forming rings. If you
slice an orca tooth and
count the layers, you
can discover the age
of the orca.
The calf will start eating solid
food such as herring, young
salmon and squid at about tree
months old.
An orca never leaves it’s
family. Even a fully grown
adult male spends its life with
the family group called a pod.
Most pods have between 5 and
50 orcas. Occasionally, two or
more pods meat and briefly
form a “superpod” with up to
150 orcas.
Draw over the
pencil lines in
ink. Erase the
pencil lines. Fill in the
black patches of the body.
Orcas look a bit like fish and live in the
sea, but they are mammals. They are
warm-blooded, feed their young with milk
and breathe air through nostrils called
blowholes. Orcas must hold their breath
when they are underwater.
Look at the two pictures, then read
how to tell the difference between a male
and female orca. Label each one.
The male dorsal fin is upright and triangular.
Black and
It can be about six feet high and is the tallest
White
and
dorsal fin in the animal
kingdom. The female’s is
Red All Over
Look at one
shorter and curves
page of today’s
backward.
newspaper and
circle in red all
the words you
know!
Standards Link: Vocabulary:
Understand level-appropriate
reading vocabulary.
Standards Link: Life Science: Students
know that organisms can be compared to
observe their similarities and differences.
Each underwater creature is worth points. Which bubble has
the highest score?
Standards Link: Number Sense: Calculate sums and differences.
BLOWHOLES
DORSAL
KILLER
WHALES
ORCINUS
FIN
SURFER
SEAL
NOSTRILS
RINGS
PATCH
GRAY
WILD
LIGHT
Find the words in the puzzle,
then in this week’s Kid Scoop
stories and activities.
W S E L O H W O L B
T O H K R A H S K A
H L R E H R A I O R
G F A C E W L Y T
I A T F
I
I
L E A L N
L A R L E N S R E G
P U D R I
E U G O S
S R C F D O R S A L
A T S L I R T S O N
Standards Link: Letter sequencing. Recognized identical
words. Skim and scan reading. Recall spelling patterns.
This week’s word:
DORSAL
The adjective dorsal
means the top side or
back of an animal.
Orcas have tall, pointy
dorsal fins.
Try to use the word dorsal
in a sentence today when
talking with your friends
and family members.
A Whale of a Pet
Synonym Search
Orca and killer whale are synonyms.
Synonyms have the same or nearly the same
meaning. Look through today’s newspaper
for five or more pairs of synonyms. Write a
paragraph using all ten words.
ANSWER: In the “Kelp Wanted” ads!
Standards Link: Grammar: Identify synonyms.
Standards Link: Life Science: Students know
that living organisms have distinct structures
and body systems that serve specific functions
in growth, survival and reproduction.
What would
your life
be like with
a whale for
a pet?
Cottage Grove Sentinel
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