141. 1st Grade SRR: Claws Swipe

Smile! You have teeth to use for eating food. Animals use their teeth to eat, too. Animal teeth come in different shapes and sizes for eating different kinds of food.

What animal has the sharpest teeth? This fish could win that prize! Its teeth help it eat insects, frogs, other fish, and even dead animals it finds in rivers where it lives.

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Some animals have long, sharp teeth called fangs. This animal can live in plains, grasslands, forests, and other spaces. It uses its fangs to catch and eat animals.

It has smaller teeth behind its fangs that can crush bones. Yes, it can eat bones! It has other, sharper teeth that slice and cut meat into pieces small enough for it to eat.

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A beaver uses its sharp front teeth to chop down trees. It carries them in its teeth and uses them to make dams. The dam makes a pond where the beaver lives.

Beaver teeth get dull from chewing on so much wood, which would not be helpful for the beaver. It should be glad that its teeth never stop growing and always stay sharp!

Most animals that eat plants have flat, wide teeth. This animal has sharp teeth in front for nipping and pulling up the grass it eats. Its back teeth look like bumpy stones. Those are the teeth that grind the grass.

Did you know that a cow has no top front teeth? Instead, it has a thick pad that its lower front teeth press as it pulls up grass.

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This animal has large front teeth called tusks. It can push down trees with them so it can reach the parts it wants to eat. It digs up grass and plant roots with its tusks and uses the tusks to dig for water.

Tusks can be many feet long. Males have the longest tusks. How would you use tusks if you had them?

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Look at all those teeth! A gator has lots and lots of teeth, but it does not use them for chewing. It uses them to grab and hold the animals it eats.

It bites a big animal and shakes it into smaller bits before eating it, and it can eat small animals in one gulp. New teeth grow in to replace its old ones all the time.

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