Swimming today was a great success! Everyone did a great job taking care of themselves in the change rooms and we were excellent swimming students for our instructors. Next week we will be swimming everyday so please remember to bring your swimming gear and maybe a slightly larger lunch than usual. Swimming is a lot of work!
This morning before it was time for swimming we started by talking about our Whispering Woods ants. Ms. Boyer shared some research she had done about the way that ants find food. Ms. Boyer had found out that when one ant finds food they take it back to their anthill and they leave a scent trail for other ants to follow. Then more ants will follow the scent trail and find the food. We took some sugar outside and tried to see if we could see this idea in action. We put about 5 piles of sugar at different places around the anthill and waited to see what would happen. We observed for about 15 minutes and then it was time to go to swimming. After we came back from swimming we went back to the anthill to see if anything new was happening. Then we came inside and each of us shared an observation. Here are our observations:
Evelyn – Some of the sugar piles were more active than
others. One sugar pile was really active from the beginning and in another one
the ants seemed to be piling up.
Isla – This morning the ants didn’t really seem to find the
sugar, but at the end of the day they did.
Reid – I noticed that in the morning the ants were really
fast, but at the end of the day the ants had slowed down.
Sarah – I think that the sugar on the pathways was eaten by
the ants because it was gone when we came back.
Bilal – I noticed that on the anthill there were more ants
on it in the morning and after swimming I noticed there weren’t as many ants on
the anthill.
Jessica – I noticed that after swimming way more ants had
found the sugar. I think they needed time to find the sugar.
Ashton – We found out that the anthill we were looking at is
getting bigger.
Levi – We noticed that before we went swimming only a few
ants were on the sugar but when we came back there were a whole pile of ants on
the sugar.
Anjalika – When we came back after swimming all the ants
looked like they were stuck to the sugar. They were piled on top of each other.
Addison – I noticed that the ants were moving fast in the
morning and then they started moving slower.
Shawn – I noticed that the ants looked like red ants.
Lily – There were less ants on the path when we checked after
swimming.
Jasper – I saw that there weren’t very many ants moving to
the sugar at the start. I think they were scared of us. After swimming the ants
seemed to moving more at the sugar.
Dhvani – I noticed that some of sugar had been eaten by the
ants.
Morgan – I noticed that ants were very skittish around the
sugar when we first put it there. After swimming they seemed calmer and didn’t
seem afraid of the sugar.
Abdul Ahad – I noticed that the ants ate lots of the sugar.
Tessa – I think the ants were taking the sugar back to their
anthill
Peter – The middle of the anthill had barely any ants. There
were more ants on the outer parts of the anthill.
Isabel – I noticed that the ants were building holes and
tunnels near the sugar.
Katie – The ants are storing the sugar.
Have a great weekend!
