A Fish Full of Batteries: teacher key

Electric Eels, grade 4 edition, written for 4th grade. An electric eel is a fish with a body full of electric cells. It lives in the rivers of South America, breathes air and hunts at night.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. What is an electric eel?
   • A true eel
   • A fish (answer)
   • A frog
2. How does an electric eel make electricity?
   • With special cells called electrocytes (answer)
   • With a battery it finds
   • With the sun
3. About how much of its oxygen does an electric eel get from air?
   • 80 percent (answer)
   • 8 percent
   • Almost none
4. What does an electric eel use a weak charge for?
   • To find its way (answer)
   • To dig a nest
   • To sing
5. The water can be low in oxygen. What does an electric eel do about it?
   • It comes up to breathe air (answer)
   • It sleeps all day
   • It leaves South America
6. What does a male electric eel build a nest out of?
   • Mud
   • Leaves
   • Saliva (answer)

Words

• electrocytes: power cells
• oxygen: air gas
• crustaceans: crab-like animals
• saliva: spit
• prey: food animals