Blue-Black Mouth, Gray Body: teacher key

Black Mambas, grade 4 edition, written for 4th grade. A black mamba is gray or brown, not black. Learn where it lives, how fast it has been reported to slither, how it moves, how it spends its day, what it eats, what kind of venom it has, whether it is endangered, and how its young hatch and grow.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. What gives the black mamba its name?
   • The blue-black inside of its mouth (answer)
   • Its black eyes
   • Its black body
2. About how fast has a black mamba been reported slithering, at most?
   • About 2 kilometres an hour
   • About 20 kilometres an hour (answer)
   • About 90 kilometres an hour
3. What does neurotoxic mean for black mamba venom?
   • It tastes sweet
   • It glows
   • It acts on the nervous system (answer)
4. A black mamba is active in the daytime. When would you most likely see one basking?
   • In the daytime sun (answer)
   • At midnight
   • Only in winter
5. What is a lair?
   • A kind of egg
   • A home it comes back to (answer)
   • A fast speed
6. How long was the longest recorded life of a captive black mamba, as of November 2026?
   • 50 years
   • 2 years
   • 11 years (answer)

Words

• savannas: grassy lands
• neurotoxic: harming nerves
• basking: resting in sun
• rodents: gnawing animals
• lair: home den
• endangered: at risk