Nature's Clean-Up Crew: teacher key

Bugs That Clean Up, grade 2 edition, written for 2nd grade. Decomposers break down dead plants and other leftovers. Meet termites, millipedes, earthworms and beetles, and see why a compost pile gets warm.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. What do people call decomposers?
   • Nature's clean-up crew (answer)
   • Nature's paint team
   • Nature's drivers
2. Who lays the eggs in a termite colony?
   • Workers
   • Soldiers
   • Queens (answer)
3. Why does a millipede have many legs?
   • Most of its body parts have two pairs of legs (answer)
   • It is a fast hunter
   • It lives in a home
4. Where does the heat in a compost pile come from?
   • The sun
   • A hot pipe
   • Tiny living things eating inside it (answer)
5. What does the word "colony" mean here?
   • A group of termites living together (answer)
   • A kind of leaf
   • A tunnel
6. A fallen log sits in the wild. Which helper might break it down?
   • A beetle that buries dung
   • A termite (answer)
   • An earthworm that eats leaves only

Words

• decomposers: leftover breakers
• colony: big group
• beetles: hard-backed bugs
• compost: dark brown dirt