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Presents... 3 Check It Out! 4 Animal Chatter 6 Talking Hands 7 Klever Kodes 8 Foreign Language Bingo 10 The Lion’s Roar 11 Super Sleuths 12 Puzzles 14 What’s Your Ring Tone? 16 Write Away 17 Secret Color Writing 18 Guinea Pigs Can Talk 19 The Unbreakable Code 20 A Pair of Shoots 23 Trucker Talk 24 Speaking British 26 Comics 27 Hobo Signs and Slang 28 Max & Gracie 29 Kids Corner 30 Puzzle Solutions 2

et’s talk. That means we are communicating. When I say hello in English, you can understand what I am saying. What if I said bonjour or ciao? If you don’t know the language that I am speaking, you wouldn’t know how to respond. Learn a new language with “Foreign Language Bingo.” There are many ways to communicate with others. Maybe you write a letter to your grandparents, leave a thank-you note for your teacher, or email a friend. If you have a secret, you can communicate it with a secret code. Check out “Klever Kodes” and “Secret Color Writing.” If we want to express ourselves to someone without talking, we might use our hands. How do animals communicate? They have sounds and actions that speak louder than words. You’ll find out more in “Animal Chatter,” “The Lion’s Roar,” and “Guinea Pigs Can Talk.” A popular way to communicate in 2017 is with the cell phone. We can call, text, or email. What was it like before cell phones? “What’s Your Ring Tone?” will tell you all about it. Enjoy reading this issue. Then communicate to us what you liked best. Send us a letter, a picture, or a drawing. Tell us your favorite way to send a message to a friend. Mail your communication to Kids Corner, PO Box 227, Bluffton, Ohio 45817-0227. Or email us at kidscorner@funforkidz.com. We’ll get back to you and include a gift! That’s something to talk about!

by Diane Winebar Can animals communicate with one another? They sure can! Many animals live in family groups. They have their own collection of sounds that they use to “talk” to each other. They don’t sound like the words that people use, but they get the message across. Let’s listen in on some vocal animal signals.

Monkey Messages and Chimp Chat Monkeys chatter constantly. They’re not just making funny sounds. They’re giving important messages to each other. Chimpanzees are apes, not monkeys. (Monkeys have tails, but apes do not.) But like their monkey cousins, they use sounds to communicate. • Smart Diana monkeys may be the top bananas when it comes to monkey talk. They put two or more calls together to make monkey sentences. And they have an alarm call for each of their bothersome predators. The call for jaguar is different from the call for eagle. These monkeys can even understand the calls of other monkey species. • A tamarin monkey uses a “wait up” whistle when it realizes it’s all alone. Other tamarin monkeys whistle back to say, “We’re over here!” • Chimpanzees use the pant-hoot call when they are excited or want to be social. It starts with soft hoos, which get louder and more frequent, until the chimpanzee is screeching! As the call ends, the hoos become softer and less frequent. • An annoyed chimpanzee will cough or bark. A soft grunt means there’s some especially delicious food available. Whimpering or crying means “Help me. I’m in trouble.”

A chimpanzee’s excited hoo call is well known. A softer hoo sound means a chimpanzee is puzzled.

Dolphin Discussion Super-intelligent dolphins have a very complex language. They even seem to talk back and forth with each other. • Dolphins whistle, squeak, moan, make popping noises, chirp, and click. And these are just some of the sounds we know of. Dolphins can produce sounds that are too high for the human ear to hear.

Dolphins don’t have vocal chords! To make sounds, they squeeze air back and forth between air sacs in their heads. The sounds come out of their blowholes.

• Each bottlenose dolphin has its own signature whistle. (Like a person’s voice, each dolphin signature whistle is unique.) Dolphins will repeat their signature whistle over and over. They are letting other dolphins know who they are. • Another type of whistle is used when separated dolphins want to find each other. Still another whistle means a dolphin is happy or excited. • When a dolphin is aggravated, it will let loose with a lot of buzzing clicks. When it’s in trouble or anxious, it will squeak to let others know.

Wolf Words Wolves and howling seem to go together. If one wolf begins to howl, others soon join in. But the king of the forest communicates with other sounds too. • Growling is used as a warning to other wolves or predators to stay away. • When two wolves are fighting, and one wolf wants to give up, it will whimper and roll onto its back. This means “You win.” • A wolf barks when it senses danger. When defending their territory, wolves use a bark-howl to scare away intruders. • Why do wolves howl, anyway? Wolves often roam long distances looking for food. When it’s time to call the pack back together, a long, loud howl does the trick. Wolves can hear this call from very far away and through thick forests. Another type of howl tells wolves to stay together and defend their area from intruders. Sometimes wolves howl just because they’re happy to be together.

Wolves don’t really howl at the moon. They are just communicating with each other at dawn and dusk, when they are very active and the moon is visible!

by Joan Sprung Did you ever think about how often people “talk” to each other without being heard? Suppose you walk into a crowded room. You see a friend, but it’s too noisy to call to him. Ah – he’s looking your way, so you wave your hand in the air. Good. He sees you. He crooks his finger to say “Come here.” “OK,” you signal, making a circle with your thumb and index finger. He pats the chair next to him to let you know it’s saved for you. You respond with a grin and a “thumbs up” sign. You’ve had a whole conversation with your hands, and you’ve understood each other perfectly! We communicate with hand-talk every day. We point with a finger when we mean “Look at this.” A raised hand tells the teacher we have something to say. A gesture that mimes wiping perspiration from our forehead means “Whew, that was close!” Referees at sporting events use hand signals to tell that a team scored points, a player broke a rule, or a time-out is being called. Have you ever noticed how people fiddle with their hair or clothes when they’re nervous? Their body language gives away their feelings. Native Americans used signs when they met members of tribes who spoke different languages. They could let strangers know where there was water and good hunting or warn them of danger. Many deaf people use American Sign Language (ASL), which enables them to say anything a hearing person can say. They just use their hands. They can argue and joke, and, using the signs for each number and letter of the alphabet, do math and spell. Hands help people understand each other. Watch and see. Hands communicate as clearly as voices.

saying “Surprise!” in This common gesture means “I can’t believe it!”

American Sign Language

by Linda Judd What better way to share a secret than with a secret code? Here are two you can use with your friends and family.

ROT-13 (“ROT” is short for “ROTATE”) There are 26 letters in the English alphabet, so it is possible to rotate the last 13 letters to the front of the alphabet and the first 13 letters to the end. This makes an easy key for you and your friends to use.

Original Letters: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Code Letters: N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M Use the code letter under the original letter you want to write. For example, if you want to write “school,” you will write: F P U B B Y. Can you use the ROT-13 key to decipher this message?

ZRRG

NG GUR OHF

FGBC. .

TIC-TAC-TALK This fun code will puzzle anyone who doesn’t know the key. A

J K L M

W X Y Z

In this code, an “A” would be written like this because this is the shape of the Tic-Tac-Talk lines forming the “A” space. Similarly, M=

O =

Y =

Can you decode this message?

. .

Answers are on page 30.

by Holly Faith Cepeda • illustrations by Joan Waites Do you know someone who speaks a different language? It might be someone in your neighborhood or a classmate. Would you like to learn to speak with them in their language? You don’t have to go to their country to learn this. Here is a game you can make that will teach you Spanish words. You can make this with different languages. Look for foreign language dictionaries in your library. Show this game to your teacher. Wouldn’t it be fun if your class made and played this game together? Take a picture of your class and send it to us!

What You Need: • 34 note cards or index cards • markers or crayons • 10 sheets of paper • buttons or beans to use as markers

Step 1:

Draw a simple picture on a note card, then label it with its Spanish word. For example, draw a cat, and label it “el gato.” Draw a different picture on 34 different note cards, and label each one.

Step 2: Make 10 bingo cards. On each sheet of paper, draw 3 lines across and 3 lines

down to make 16 squares. In each square, draw one of your word pictures with its label. Don’t repeat any picture on any one card.

Step 3: Get together with a couple of friends and play! Someone calls out the note

card words, pronouncing them correctly. The words are easy to pronounce if you say the words one part at a time. Players repeat the words. This helps them learn the words better. If a word is on your card, mark it with a button. Four marked pictures in a row in any direction wins! In another version, the first player to fill the entire card is the winner. Each time you play, take turns being the one to call out words. Switch cards so each player has a chance to learn different words.

Here are Spanish words you can use: 1. one – uno (oo-noh) 2. two – dos (dohs) 3. three – tres (trehs) 4. four – cuatro (koo-wah-troh) 5. five – cinco (seen-koh) 6. six – seis (seh-ees) 7. seven – siete (see-eh-teh) 8. eight – ocho (oh-choh) 9. nine – nueve (noo-eh-veh) 10. ten – diez (dee-ehs) 11. the tree – el arbol (ehl ahr-bohl) 12. the flower – la flor (lah flohr) 13. the hat – el sombrero (ehl sohm-breh-roh) 14. the shoe – el zapato (ehl sah-pah-toh) 15. the sock – el calcetin (ehl kahl-seh-teen) 16. the girl – la muchacha (lah moo-chah-chah) 17. the boy – el muchacho (ehl moo-chah-choh)

18. the orange – la naranja (lah nah-rahng-hah) 19. the grapes – las uvas (lahs oo-vahs) 20. the apple – la manzana (lah mahn-sah-nah) 21. the ice cream – la nieve (lah nee-eh-veh) 22. the pear – la pera (lah peh-rah) 23. the banana – el platano (ehl plah-tah-noh) 24. the frog – la rana (lah rah-nah) 25. the cat – el gato (ehl gah-toh) 26. the dog – el perro (ehl peh-roh) 27. the rabbit – el conejo (ehl cohn-neh-hoh) 28. the bird – el pajaro (ehl pah-hah-roh) 29. the guitar – la guitarra (lah gee-tah-rah) 30. the star – la estrella (lah ehs-treh-yah) 31. the drum – el tambor (ehl tahm-bohr) 32. the balloon – el globo (ehl gloh-boh) 33. the pencil – el lapiz (ehl lah-pees) 34. the heart – el corazon (ehl kohr-ah-sohn)