Teacher Procedure:
1. For this activity, set up the following five activity centers in your classroom, each to explore one of the "tools" that reef animals use to feed:

Activity Center 1: Triggerfish
Supplies - a Dot or mini marshmallow and six toothpicks for each student, turkey baster and dishtub of water.

Activity Center 2: Parrotfish
Supplies - hard chocolate chip cookie, napkins

Activity Center 3: Butterflyfish
Supplies - cardboard egg carton with dime-sized holes cut along sides, regular pliers, needlenose pliers, small gummy worms

Activity Center 4: Seahorse
Supplies - cake decorations (small enough to fit through straw), straw and cup of water for each student.

Activity Center 5: Stone Crab
Supplies - walnut or other nut in a shell for each student, nutcracker.

2. Begin the activity by telling your students they will be experimenting with the eating "tools" of some reef animals. Divide the class into five groups and start one group at each activity center. Ask one student in each group to read the paragraph to the rest of the group and then follow the directions on the card (see Teacher Backgrounder above). Encourage them to discuss the results. After they have all tried the activity, have the class rotate through the centers until they have visited all of them.

After they have rotated through all the activity centers, encourage the students to exchange ideas about what they found. Show them photographs of each animal, if possible. Ask: Did you find it difficult to eat like these animals? Why? What advantage or disadvantage does each type of eating tool have? For example, the parrotfish has the disadvantage of having to contend with the coral skeleton to get at their food but at the same time a parrotfish has a reliable food source since coral, and the algae growing on and around coral, is very plentiful on a reef.

Extension Activities:
Explore other reef animals feeding adaptations (i.e., sharks, sea stars, pufferfishes). Design your own coral reef creature and a way for it to obtain food.