Sea Creatures

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Check It Out! A Sea Creature Cartoon Sea Creature Sleepover Inside the Sea Camouflaged Creatures What Lives in the Ocean?

Sea Hear Puzzles Make a Fish Eye Green Sea Terror 10 Unusual Sea Creatures Sharks Don’t Share Hanging Around Cowboy Clark & Larry Ocean Creature Riddles The Dolphin Mystery Ziggy’s Mail Zone Kids Corner Puzzle Solutions

J nel/Shutterstock.com

Imagine being a creature of the sea. What would you be? There are huge creatures, like whales. Scary ones, like sharks. And unique ones, like seahorses.

There are so many to choose from, I am not sure what I would want to be.

After reading this issue of Fun For Kidz, you will have a better idea.

As you settle back somewhere in the sun, maybe on a beach, and read this new issue, you’ll discover many things. Would you like to have a sleepover with your friends and some awesome sea creatures? You will find out how to make that happen.

What if your legs were dangling in the ocean and you felt creatures brushing up against you? Would you be afraid that it was something looking for a meal? Maybe what you felt was a harmless school of little fish.

Read and imagine what goes on under the surface of the deep blue sea.

Then write a story and send it to us. Perhaps it will be about what happened when you dangled your feet in the seawater. You might see your story in a future issue of Fun For Kidz. Have fun in the water!

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by Julie Closson

At the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, Georgia, kids can explore the aquarium . . . at night, and in their pajamas! After everyone has gone home, and the Aquarium closes its doors after a busy day, boys and girls have the Aquarium to themselves and can find out how sea creatures spend their nights. Aquarium workers are their personal guides.

Imagine getting a behind-the-scenes tour, where you visit the top of the live coral reef and discover the secrets of the tropical waters. Curious garden eels pop up out of the sand, and swirling masses of tiny, glassy sweepers of silver and yellow dart by. You will meet sea animals in person when you visit the veterinary clinic. The penguins are always popular and seem to love all the attention! Tropical fish of all shapes and sizes come up to greet you as you go near their tanks. Octopuses are more active at night. They may even press themselves against the tank and show off their long tentacles.

If you do get tired, you can curl up in your sleeping bag and watch the sea creatures through enormous windows. You can count schools of shimmering, swirling fish to put you to sleep. It’s like sleeping under the sea.

After a night at the aquarium, you will be ready for breakfast. The seals like to dine on sardines and other small fish when they wake up, but you won’t share their breakfast. You will probably have a muffin or toast with jelly and juice.

Your parents can contact an aquarium near you to see if it has a sleepover program. It is a wet and wild overnight adventure!

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by Diana Smith • illustrated by Roz Fulcher colored by Gaurakisora Tucker

I can’t see inside the sea.

Does a monster wait for me?

What brushes my leg?

What nibbles my toe?

How I wonder what’s below.

Could it be a slimy eel Tries to claim me for his meal?

What flashes by?

What looks so dark?

Not an angry, unfed shark!

I can’t see inside the sea, Unknown things that wait for me.

It wouldn’t be fun To be the buffet At a fishy sea café!

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by Debby Shade

The leafy sea dragon, a relative of the seahorse, is crafty at camouflaging. Its name comes from its long, flowing projections that resemble leaves. Leafy sea dragons can be yellow, green, or brown. These colors help the animals blend in with seaweed and kelp. As they slowly drift along shallow water, leafy sea dragons look like floating seaweed. They are such experts at melting into their surroundings, most predators don’t spot them. Leafy sea dragons can be extremely difficult to find, even in large numbers!

The decorator crab carries its camouflage around with it. It uses whatever items are around – corals, sponges, sand, shells, and seaweed – and sticks them to hooked hairs called setae (see-tee). These special hairs line its shell and work like Velcro to keep everything attached. This crab decorates itself so that predators, such as octopuses and fish, won’t notice it. It even has the ability to remove old decorations and place new things on itself so it can adapt to any background.

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Aleksei Alekhin/Shutterstock.com

Kris Wiktor/Shutterstock.com

How do sea creatures protect themselves from predators? They don’t have trees, bushes, or tall prairie grass to blend in with. Instead, they rely on their surroundings to help conceal themselves by using color and movement. This is known as camouflage. And it is vital because it allows animals to hide from predators as well as sneak up on prey. These particular animals have some pretty amazing ways to protect themselves. Their natural camouflaging abilities help keep them safe and secure in their water habitats.

One of the truly remarkable creatures of camouflage is the mimic octopus. It gets its name because it mimics, or takes on, the appearances and behaviors of other animals. This incredible creature can flatten its body to mimic a flounder. With its striped arms spread out, it imitates a lionfish or jellyfish. It can even narrow its body to look like a striped sea snake. The mimic octopus tends to camouflage itself within its surroundings when it is not moving, but it mimics other animals while swimming.

It usually mimics venomous or bad-tasting creatures to trick possible predators, such as barracudas or sharks, to stay away.

Stubblefield Photography/Shutterstock.com

Jonathan Churchill/Shutterstock.com

Another master of disguise is the peacock flounder. It is an unusual-looking flatfish with both eyes located on one side of its head. Its speckled coloring helps it blend in with the sandy ocean bottoms where they lie. Peacock flounders are capable of quickly changing their color, as well as their markings, to match their backgrounds. This ability helps them hide from large fish, sharks, stingrays, and other predators. It also helps them catch prey.

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by Diane Winebar

The blue whale, the largest creature to ever live on Earth, makes its home in the ocean. So do teeny-tiny zooplankton. Sea creatures come in an incredible variety of sizes and shapes.

Underwater animals seem to have strange features. You’re familiar with fish. But look closely at the longhorn cowfish you see here. Its mouth is a tube! Many ocean animals, like jellyfish, have soft, rubbery bodies that can’t be crushed by water pressing down on them.

Some animals glow. Others are almost completely see-through, like the glass octopus. Colossal squids have eyes the size of dinner plates. Trichoplax are flat blobs with no mouth and no stomach. To eat, their cells absorb algae. Then there’s the hagfish. It eats by crawling inside its prey and devouring it from the inside out!

New sea creatures are being discovered all the time. What kinds of unusual animals do you think lurk in the ocean deep?

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illustrations by Pamela Harden When I was young, my grandfather had a big coiled shell that came from the ocean. He said it was a magic shell because it had the sound of the sea trapped inside. I held the opening of the shell against my ear and listened. I couldn’t believe my ears. From the inside of that shell, I DID hear the sea.

You can hear what I heard. You don’t need a magic seashell or any magic at all.

What You Need: • a large drinking glass

• a very quiet room

• your ear

What You Do

Hold the opening of the drinking glass against your ear.

Don’t press it tightly against the side of your head. Hold it so your ear is just inside the glass. Now listen carefully. You will hear the “roaring sea” in the glass. You can hear it even better if you cover your other ear with your other hand.

The Science Secret

The secret of my grandfather’s seashell was science, not magic.

No matter how quiet your room is, there are always sounds in it. Sounds travel in the air to every part of a room.

Some of these sounds go into the air inside the glass. There, the tiny sounds bounce off the sides of the glass, like an echo. Because of this, and because the inside of the glass is much smaller than the room you are in, the sounds you hear in the glass will be different from any other sounds in your room.

It’s not really the sound of the sea, but it will sound a lot like it – especially if you have a good imagination!

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created and illustrated by Rebecca Spohn

Look carefully at this underwater picture puzzle. Can you find a mouse, tulip, pencil, cup, house, shoe, apple, spoon, sailboat, bell, and banana?

baseball bat horse's head pitcher

Find these hidden pictures . . . bottle candle bell butterfly spoon mushroom elephant face sock hat

created and illustrated by Heather Walker

Find your way through this seashell maze. Begin at the arrow on the left. Be careful not to cross any lines.

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See the Sea Mammals

by Guy Belleranti

Ten mammals that live in the ocean are hidden in the letter maze. Find your way through the maze by connecting letters to spell out the following eight: ORCA, PORPOISE, WHALE, SEAL, WALRUS, DUGONG, OTTER, DOLPHIN. You may move forward, backward, up, down, or diagonally, but letters cannot be connected more than once. The unconnected letters will spell out the final two sea mammals.

created and illustrated by Neal Levin

Something fishy is going on here! All six of these fish look the same, but only two are exactly alike. Can you pick them out?

START

C A A E A GN O T T

OMA R R P P O T OND G U E E R L I DO

I O R U S L O

S N L A A P N

E W H W L H N

A E L D E S S A E I

FINISH Final two sea mammals: __ __ __ __ __ __ __

__ __ __

__ __ __

__ __ __ __

by Linda Healy Find at least 18 differences between these two drawings.

For

Answers & Solutions Page 30 15

You are going to make yourself an eye just like a fish’s. This will allow you to see what is under the water in a lake, a pond, or the ocean. You won’t get your eye wet, and everything will be very clear to see. You will need 2 paper or Styrofoam cups (4 cups if you want to make 2 eyes), clear plastic wrap, and scissors.

What You Do: 1. Cut the bottoms out of the cups.

2. Set one cup upside down on the table.

3. Lay a sheet of plastic wrap over the bottom of the cup.

4. Turn the other cup upside down and press it down over the plastic wrap and the cup underneath it. This fastens the plastic wrap between the cups and stretches it tight between the open bottoms.

(Repeat this to make 2 fish eyes.)

Using Your Fish Eye Go into a body of water until the water is up to your waist. Press the top of the cup against your eye and bend down so the plastic bottom is under the water. You will have a clear “fish-eye” view of what’s going on down there. If you don’t see any fish, at least you can study your toes.

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The Green Sea Terror

by Diane Winebar In the undersea world of bizarre and spectacular-looking sea creatures, the green moray eel fits right in.

This long, slim fish with a flattened body can grow to be eight feet long. He has a scary-looking face and gnarled rows of teeth ready to latch on to prey. When a green moray swims, his head moves from side to side in an eerie snake-like motion. His dorsal fin extends the length of his scaleless body.

It sways gently as the green moray moves silently through the water.

Green moray eels are really not green. A slimy yellowish mucus covers their blue skin – that’s right, blue! – and this makes them look green. The mucus protects the eels from parasites that can hurt them.

These eels have poor eyesight, but they have an excellent sense of smell. When it’s mealtime, they know when fish, squid, octopuses, and crabs are nearby. Green morays are ambush predators.

Instead of going out and hunting, they lie in wait until food comes near them. Then they attack. The green moray’s teeth are long and thin, and they point backward. This makes it difficult for prey to escape once it is caught. A green moray even has a second set of teeth in the back of his throat to make sure dinner doesn’t escape!

They live along rocky shorelines and in coral reefs. Green morays like being by themselves, and they spend their days hiding in the cracks and crevices of reefs with just their head showing. They are nocturnal animals and come out mostly at night.

So how did this shy and secretive fish get such a fierce reputation? Maybe it’s because they are always opening and closing their mouths, which shows their sharp teeth. The eels aren’t being aggressive. They are just forcing water through their gills for oxygen. A green moray will bite if it’s bothered, and that can be dangerous because its teeth are covered with bacteria that can hurt people.

The green moray doesn’t really want to harm you, though. It just wants to be left alone.

Sailors of long ago often were afraid of what they would find in their travels. They believed in stories of sea serpents and other monsters. It’s easy to see how the green moray eel inspired some of those myths. He may not be too pretty, but he is pretty remarkable!

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by Ellen Davis Macaulay

Martin Prochazkacz/Shutterstock.com

I bet the first thing you think of when someone says ‘shark’ is TEETH! Most sharks have 5 rows of teeth. Some have 50 rows! When sharks lose a tooth (and they go through thousands in a lifetime), an extra tooth moves forward to replace it. Pretty nifty!

These creatures are always hungry and eat almost anything. We’re talking about cans, tires, and other things that people shouldn’t throw into the ocean. Sometimes sharks from miles around smell food and move in for a meal. A feeding frenzy occurs! They can go a little crazy attacking the prey and each other. Sharks are not good at sharing.

The smallest shark, the dwarf lantern shark, is 4 to 8 inches long. The largest is the whale shark, at about 60 feet long. That’s nearly as big as a semi-truck! Sharks are found the world over in all kinds of waters – warm or cold, salty or fresh, deep or shallow. Some are loners. Others travel in groups called schools.

Their sleek bodies are perfect for swimming. They can zoom along at up to 40 miles per hour as their powerful tails push them forward. Most species must keep swimming, even when they’re asleep. The forward motion brings oxygen to their gills so they can breathe. Sharks have no bones, just cartilage, making for quick and easy twists and turns.

It’s true that sharks can smell a few drops of blood in the water from a mile away. Even though they have little beady eyes, sharks have excellent eyesight. They can hear well too. Fins are for balance and steering, not for touching. Instead, many bump their prey with their snouts before they taste it.

Sharks are not the scary monsters they are made out to be. Out of 500 known types, only 12 are truly dangerous. Sharks rarely attack humans. They would much rather eat fish or seals.

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dmore

by Ellen Pri

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to swim upside down? Shrimpfish are the only fish that can swim like this, and they do it all the time!

With their snouts pointing down, shrimpfish swim together in synchronized groups. Where one shrimpfish swims, the others follow. They live in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans, as well as in the Red Sea. They feed and camouflage themselves among the spines of sea urchins.

Shrimpfish swim horizontally only when hunting for food. They flip onto their bellies and search mostly for small pieces of animals and plants floating near them. Because they have no teeth, shrimpfish suck in their food and swallow it whole. Many large fish eat young shrimpfish, but adult shrimpfish have very few enemies.

Shrimpfish are nicknamed “exclamation fish” because they look like exclamation points when they swim! They measure six inches long, about the length of a hot dog. They are also called “razorfish” because of their straight, razor-like, sharp bodies.

Like their cousin the seahorse, they do not have scales. A shrimpfish has one long spine and two shorter spines at the end of its body. The clear bony plates under its skin have a jagged edge. A shrimpfish will point its sharp-edged belly toward any predator that tries to invade its territory.

When you see these fish, you may think they look strange. The truth is, they are just fish that hang around – upside down!

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Cowboy Clark and Larry were enjoying a nice cooldown in the local pond, when a dragonfly started zipping around Larry’s head. He barked at it, but it wouldn’t go away.

“It’s making googly eyes at me,” Larry yelled, running out of the water. The dragonfly finally flew away.

“Trouble, boys?” Mrs. Whiskers asked, sitting on the dock.

“You should have seen the big dragonfly that circled my head.” Larry shuddered.

Cowboy Clark ignored Mrs. Whiskers. “Let’s go back in the water, Larry.”

“You’re not afraid?” Mrs. Whiskers asked.

“Afraid?”

Mrs. Whiskers answered, “Well, dragonflies lay their eggs in ponds and rivers and even oceans. Any water, really. And once they hatch, there are thousands swimming around for months or years. In fact, there are more in the water than out here.”

“Dragonflies are in the water?” Larry was shocked.

“The sun must be frying your braincells, Mrs. Whiskers,” Cowboy Clark said, laughing. “Dragonflies fly.”

“It’s not a dragonfly until it goes through a nymph phase.”

Cowboy Clark wasn’t buying it. “Quit joking.”

“You know a caterpillar turns into a butterfly. Why is it so hard to understand that a nymph turns into a dragonfly?”

Larry was amazed. “What does it eat?”

“Mosquito larvae, small fish . . .”

“Small fish?” Larry’s mouth hung open. “You’re spooking me out, Mrs. Whiskers.”

“Look it up,” Mrs. Whiskers said. “Did you also know there are over 3000 species of dragonflies?”

Cowboy Clark enjoyed the water too much to think about anything but having fun with his pal. He knocked into Larry’s shoulder. “You’re it!” He sprang back into the water.

Forgetting his worries, Larry jumped in. The two friends continued to play the rest of the afternoon. They put all thoughts of any creatures lurking beneath the surface of the water out of their minds.

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by Nancy Dearborn illustrations by Rebecca Spohn 1. Which ocean creature is never in a good mood?

2. Which creature is a great body of salt water and is always lying around?

3. Which fish is made by churning cream and can fly through the air with wings?

4. Which creature is best on toast?

5. Which creature is the most closemouthed?

6. Which creature is the bottom of a foot?

7. Which creature has a cracker named after it?

8. Which ocean creature is a nickname for a slowmoving person?

9. Which ocean creature is the most impressive, especially in size?

10. Which fish is part spider?

11. Which fish is used in a baseball game?

12. Which ocean creature is the third letter of the alphabet and part vegetable?

Answers on page 30

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by Diane E. Hall • illustrated by Ginny Pruitt • colored by Gaurakisora Tucker “Good girl, Maya!” praised Hallie, a 12-year-old park volunteer. She took the candy wrapper from the dolphin and tossed her a fish. Maya was one of the sea life park’s bottlenose dolphins. “She really likes her treats.”

“I think this is going well,” remarked Kathy, the dolphin trainer. “Dolphins usually try to eat anything they find. Teaching them how to retrieve items that have dropped or blown into their tank lowers their risk of getting sick or injured. It’s important to do a thorough sweep of the tank every two hours. Didn’t you just finish a sweep?”

“Yes, a few minutes ago,” Hallie told her.

“You apparently missed that candy wrapper. You’ll have to be more careful. The other dolphins aren’t trained yet. They might get hold of something.”

“But I always check everywhere,” Hallie answered, feeling a little defensive.

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“Maybe you had better check twice next time,” Kathy said as she walked away.

That wasn’t fair, thought Hallie. She would never put the dolphins’ lives at risk.

She knew she had done a thorough check. There had been nothing left in the tank.

Working with the dolphins was a dream come true for Hallie. She was thrilled when her mom, the park’s veterinarian, told her about the arrangements she had made with the trainer. Hallie loved dolphins and planned to get a job at the park when she was older. She even thought about becoming a vet, like her mom. Working as a volunteer was going to make this the best summer vacation ever. But tonight, as Hallie walked to her mom’s office, her enthusiasm was gone.

“Hi, Mom,” said Hallie quietly.

“Hi, honey! How was your day?” Mom asked.

“I don’t know,” Hallie sighed, flopping down in a chair. “Maybe it wasn’t a good idea for me to work with the dolphins.” Hallie explained what had happened and the comments Kathy had made.

“Don’t get discouraged,” Mom said, comforting her with a hug. “It sounds as if you have a mystery to solve. Maya’s getting those things from somewhere. Maybe you should do a little spying on her.”

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During the ride home, Hallie thought about what her mom had said. When supper was over and the dishes put away, Hallie went to her room to think some more. By bedtime, she knew exactly what she was going to do.

The next morning, Hallie arrived at the park early. She put on her scuba gear and jumped into the tank for her usual underwater sweep. Finding nothing, she climbed out of the tank just in time to see Kathy jumping in on the other side. After yesterday’s conversation, Hallie knew what Kathy was doing. She watched as Kathy did her underwater search. Hallie wasn’t surprised when the trainer came up empty-handed.

During the tank sweeps, Maya had been swimming playfully. But now the dolphin stopped suddenly and darted to the rear of the tank, where the filter box was located.

She stuck her nose down behind the box and then swam away.

Hallie jumped back into the tank and swam to the rear. What was Maya doing back here? she wondered. When she looked behind the box, her question was answered. Hallie swam back across the tank and emerged from the water to find Kathy removing her scuba gear. As Kathy turned around, her mouth dropped open. There was Maya, at the edge of the tank with a comb in her mouth, waiting for her treat.

“Maya! Where did you get that?” demanded Kathy, taking the comb and tossing her a fish.

“I know where she got it,” declared Hallie. She climbed out of the tank with a handful of items still wet from their watery resting place.

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“What’s all this?”

Kathy asked, confused.

“This is Maya’s secret stash,” proclaimed Hallie with a big grin. “Something strange had been going on. You didn’t think I was doing a good job, but I knew I was. I decided to spy on Maya. When you got out of the tank, she swam over to the filter box. I jumped back in to check it out. This is the stuff I found.”

From the look on Kathy’s face, Hallie knew everything was beginning to make sense.

“Remember you said that Maya really liked her treat?” asked Kathy. “Well, I think this was more than a training exercise for Maya. I think it was a contest, and you were her opponent. Every time you found something in the tank, that meant one less fish for her. Maya couldn’t bring all the items to me at once, so she found a hiding place for them. That way, you came up empty-handed, and Maya would always get her treat.”

“OK, Maya,” said Hallie, facing the dolphin. “You win! The treats are all yours.”

Maya dove to the bottom of the tank then leapt out of the water, turning a somersault in mid-air. Hallie and Kathy stared. Maya was smart, but had she actually understood what Hallie said? They looked at each other and burst out laughing. Shaking their heads in disbelief, they reached for the bucket of fish. Maya deserved the treat.

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Send Us...

your stories, photos, drawings, poems, and jokes & riddles for publication! We can’t wait to see what you send in!

EMAIL TO: kidscorner@funforkidz.com

OR MAIL TO: Kids Corner, PO Box 227 Bluffton, OH 45817-0227

Leo Finds Pipi

by Samia Zafar, age 11 One day Leo the kitten stumbles across a broken nest.

He sees an egg. It starts to shake a little, then it shakes harder and harder. Then it starts to roll. And now it’s rolling down the hill!

“Where are you going?” says Leo. He runs after the egg. It goes down the hill. But it’s heading toward the river! Leo grabs the egg with his paw. The egg starts to crack. And out comes a little yellow bird. “Hi there, little guy.” says Leo. The little bird starts to chirp. “Pi-pi-pi.”

“But where’s your mom, little guy?” They both head up the river to where Leo found the egg. Leo looks around for the little bird’s mother. But there is no other bird around.

“Well, looks like your mom left.” Leo looks at the little bird’s sad face and says, “I guess you will have to stay with us. I’m sure my mom won’t mind.” The little bird’s spirits cheer up immediately. “Come on, let’s go home,” says Leo. Then he stops and looks around. “But where are we?” says Leo. “Hmmm. I know we have to go that way!” says Leo, pointing his paw. They both head toward the house. But they hear a “Grrrrrrrrrr!” Leo looks back and sees a very angry bear who’s heading toward them.

“Ahhh!” they both say, as they start to run. Leo runs as fast as he can and then loses the bear in the jungle.

It’s getting late. Pretty soon, they arrive at home.

Leo’s mom is watering the flowers. “Mom!” cries Leo and heads toward his mother. “Mom, look.” Leo shows his mom the little bird. “He doesn’t have a home,” says Leo. “Please, can we keep him?” They both give her their most hopeful face. “I guess we have no other choice,” says Leo’s mom, “but what shall we name him?”

“I know! We can name him Pipi!”

So now Leo has a new friend, and Pipi has a new family.

THE END

by Raijah Tinsley, age 7

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PS UO L ZU ZT LI EO

Something Fishy Puzzle on page 14

Ocean Creatures Riddles on page 23 1. crab 2. sea lion 3. butterflyfish 4. jellyfish 5. clam 6. sole 7. oyster 8. snail 9. whale 10. scorpion 11. batfish 12. sea cucumber

Fish Mix on page 15

N S

A and D are exactly alike.

B is missing a spot.

C has its mouth filled in.

E has an extra gill.

F has its eye filled in.

Seashell Maze on page 14

See the Sea Mammals on page 15

C A A E A G N O T T

O R P O G E I

M R O N U R D

A P T D E L O

I O R U S L O

S N L A A P N

E W H W L H N

A E L D E S S A E I

Final two sea mammals: MANATEE AND SEA LION

Sea Creatures Fun on page 14

Moving Day on page 15 Photo Credits: Photo courtesy Georgia Aquarium, 8; National Aquarium 17 (top); Peter Leahy/123RF Stock Photo 17 (bottom); Lakshmi Sawitri [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons 21.

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V i s i t U s O n l i n e ! F a c e b o o k . c o m / F u n F o r K i d z • w w w. F u n F o r K i d z . c o m Vol 21 No 4 • JULY/AUG 2022 Publisher: Thomas M. Edwards Editor: Marilyn Edwards Associate Editor: Diane Winebar Graphic Design: Gaurakisora Tucker Marketing Director: Jonathan Edwards Circulation Manager: Mark Studer Science Editor: Larry White Science Illustrator: Alan Wassilak Cowboy Clark & Larry Editor: Lisa Rehfuss Cover Artist: Jason Williams

FUN FOR KIDZ (ISSN 1536-898X) is published bi-monthly by the Bluffton News Publishing and Printing Company, P.O. Box 227, 190 Sunset Dr., Bluffton, OH 45817.

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