Fourth Grade
Worksheets
Shake, Rattle, But Don't Run: A Rattlesnake Warning
The sound was hard to miss. It was a very loud buzz. Where was it coming from? Did someone have a rattle in his backpack? No, but someone had a rattle on his tail! There was a rattlesnake in the bushes!
Rattlesnakes are reptiles. They are long and narrow like many other snakes. But, they are different in one major way. Rattlesnakes are the only snakes with rattles on their tails. No other snake has this special tool. These rattles are made up of sections. Every year between one and three new sections grow onto the rattle. While in theory, a snake's rattle should tell you how old it is, it doesn't. Most rattles break off when they get too long. Usually even the oldest snakes only have between seven and eleven sections on their rattles.
