Monday 17th May

Today we looked at a big book called Sugar for Tea. It is about ants who go and collect a sugar bowl to take back to their larder. When we looked closely at the pictures we discovered that the ants had not been drawn properly and that instead of having 6 legs they only had 4. It was interesting how the ants worked together to get the sugar bowl. We also looked at a book that Finn had brought to school, there was a picture of a wolf spider in it which was very hairy. The book told us that the wolf spider doesn’t have a nose, ears or tongue so it uses its hairs to taste, hear and touch. We saw hairs on a fly do they use their hairs for the same thing?
Shawn had done some great bug hunting yesterday and brought to school an earwig that he had found on the carpet. It was dead, which meant we could have a good look at it . It had 3 body parts, 6 legs and 2 antennae, which means that it is an insect. It also had a spiky tail, Sabrina was worried that it might poke her.
Shawn also brought a piece of swan plant to school. I asked Shawn what usually lives on swan plants.
Shawn: Well sometimes caterpillars live on it. But there are little tiny bugs on it.
We looked at the bugs with magnifying glasses so that we could see them.
Jeherson: They are yellow and they have black feet.
Jessica: They are gorgeous
Taylor: They look like dirt.
Jeherson: They live on the leaves.
Finn: Ants are small and they are small, I think they might be ants.
Miss B: Why do you think they live on the leaf?
Finn: They like leaves.
Jessica: Eating leaves.
Miss B: I think this might be a sap sucking bug, it sucks the juice out of the middle of the plant.
Jessica: I saw one upside down, I think they have sticky feet cause they are stuck to them (the leaves).
Miss B: How do they live on the plant?
Taylor: They live altogether.
Sabrina: They live with friends in a family.
Miss B: Why do you think they live together?
Jessica: They love each other.
Finn: They like each other and play. If they don’t have friends they get lonely.


Questions or ideas to explore further:
Why do insects live together? Possibly looking at bees and ants and the different roles of bugs with in each of these colonies.