More Than Meat on the Menu: teacher key

Red-Bellied Piranhas, grade 6 edition, written for 6th grade. Red-bellied piranhas eat many things, from fish and insects to plants and fruit. They also make sounds and swim in shoals.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. What do piranhas make sounds with?
   • Their fins
   • Muscles attached to the swim bladder (answer)
   • Their eyes
2. Which of these do red-bellied piranhas eat?
   • Plants and fruit (answer)
   • Metal
   • Paper
3. Why do they gather in shoals?
   • To build nests
   • To find water
   • For protection (answer)
4. Who builds the nests?
   • Females
   • Males (answer)
   • Young fish
5. Why does the menu of the red-bellied piranha surprise many people?
   • It is wider than only meat (answer)
   • It is only fruit
   • It never changes
6. What is carrion?
   • A kind of plant
   • A fish egg
   • Dead animal food (answer)

Words

• carrion: dead animal food
• crustaceans: shrimp and crabs
• bladder: a body sac
• shoals: fish groups
• scavengers: leftover eaters