José and his friends begin working on the first edition of the Fly on the Wall Journal, using information received from a beetle. "Reporting for duty, sir!" the biggest of the ant gang said, while saluting José. "We heard you might need help creating a newspaper."

"Well Ricky, I did hear Mary complaining that we don't have any paper for printing." José whispered.
"You hear that gang! We need to find some paper!" Ricky barked, and all of the ants instantly lined up behind him. They marched in a long straight line, down the side of the tree and were quickly out of sight.
Matty and Cindy were arguing over the headline for their first story.

Cindy suggested "HUMAN NESTS
COMING." But Matty wanted
something more dramatic like
"PARK WILL BE DESTROYED."
By the time they settled on "PARK IN DANGER," Ricky and his gang returned. Each ant was holding a giant piece of paper over his head.

"Wow, thanks guys!" Mary said, trying to figure out where she was going to store all of the paper they had found. "You're just in time. We're ready to write our story.""You're welcome ma'am. We'll just wait over here for our next orders," Ricky tipped his camouflage- coloured hat to Mary.

As soon as Mary handed Rocko the paper, he went right to work. Rocko's hands moved across the paper so quickly, everyone just watched in awe.

Every now and then, he'd get moving too fast and accidentally hurt himself. First, he poked himself near his eye with a pencil. "Now slow down Rocko," Cindy said softly, as she put a bandage over his right eye. But a few minutes later, she was cleaning out a cut on his knee, and a little after that she was pulling a staple out of his back. None of the bugs could figure out how he did that one!

"Our first issue of Fly on the Wall Journal is ready to go!" Rocko announced, while Cindy put her last bandage across his round, green belly. "Ok Ricky, we need your help again," Mary alerted the troops.
"Can you deliver our first newspaper to all of our friends in the park?"

"Right away sir, I mean ma'am," Ricky said. And José and Rocko rolled on the floor laughing. They both decided that from now on Mary would be called "sir."

It seemed that Ricky and his gang had only been gone a few moments when discussions about the "Human Nest" story filled the whole tree. Everyone was worried and José and his friends were pleased with themselves for getting out the news.

"We did it!" Cindy sang. "Because of us, everyone knows what's going on." "Well, you did get the news out… but the news is wrong," a ladybug flew into the middle of the celebration.

"What do you mean by 'wrong'?" José asked the shiny insect. "We all heard the crash, and I listened to the humans."

"I don't know who your source is, but your story is simply not true," the ladybug continued to ruin everyone's fun. "You see, I heard those humans talking too, but I stuck around long enough to hear the whole story.

Instead of trying to destroy our park, they're trying to help it. They are planning a project to clean up the trash in the park, and one of them accidentally backed his truck into a statue. It fell over and broke into a million noisy pieces."

"Oh no, what have we done?" José asked. "It'll be ok, Little José," Cindy promised. "We'll figure something out." "I've got the perfect idea!" Rocko said, but as he held up his finger to emphasize his point, he accidentally poked himself in the other eye. "I think we just get working on our next edition. And from now on, we double and triple check our stories before we print them."

"And we'll be sure to run a correction about our first story," Cindy added. "Maybe you could be one of our editors," José said to the ladybug. "We could use someone with an eye for detail. What's your name?"
"My name is Jake," the ladybug said to everyone, daring them to make fun.

"But you're a ladybug," Matty chuckled, while everyone else tried not to laugh. "I know I'm a ladybug! But not all ladybugs are females," Jake was trying not to sound too much like a teacher. "Wow, you guys do need an editor don't you?"

"Sorry about that", José jumped in. "It was an honest mistake. We'd love to have your help!""Great, I'd like to be part of your team. In fact, I've got a great scoop for your next story!" Jake said, as everyone gathered around to listen.

To be continued ...

Written by Cathy Sewell Illustrated by Blaise Sewell Donated by The Curriculum Closet (www.curriculumcloset.com)