Basket Stars

Summary
The article will teach children basic facts about the Basket Star and its environment under water.

Objectives
• Students will learn basket star facts.

• Students will learn basket star and aquatic life vocabulary.

Suggested Grades
4th Grade
5th Grade
6th Grade

Excerpt
Not many people are fortunate enough to see Basket Stars because they live in very deep water, curling themselves up during the day in dim-lit areas and spreading themselves out at night with their tentacles against the current trying to catch plankton or other microorganisms. Plankton includes lots of tiny animals and plants in the ocean that drift in the current ?flowing water in the ocean. The expanded animal acts like a net catching its food with its thin, long tentacles that look like plant vines. Small hooks on the surface of the tentacles catch the food. Basket Stars do not have suckers at the end of their tube feet, as do common sea stars.

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