Ants!

Ants!

    What an exciting morning!  Noa's mom, a/k/a Dr. G. came to visit and share her science expertise with us.  She is presently teaching a course in animal behavior at a local college.  We asked her to tell us about ants, and to answer our questions.

  Noa's Mom:  There are different kinds of ants.  Do you know where they live?
  Pearl:  in a colony!

 
   And so began the discussion.  Dr. G described the life cycle of the ant (egg, larva, pupa, adult), the three body parts (head, thorax, abdomen), the number of legs (6), the number of antennae (2), and their jobs.  We already knew so much, so we were very comfortable hearing a college professor speak with us.

 
  There was new info, too.  So many questions:

  Rami:  How do they carry the dead bugs?

  Noa's mom:  They are very strong!  Do you know that an ant can carry 10 times their weight!  That's as if you could carry both mommy and daddy.

  Hannah:  Why do they crawl on each other?

  Noa's mom:  Well, in your families, do the children sometimes crawl on each other when they're playing?  Sometimes an ant is walking one way, another ant is walking another, and then they crawl on top, and over, each other.

 
  Noa's mom then turned the tables on us!  She asked us a question:

  Noa's Mom:  What do ants eat?

  The children:  cherries, anchovies, hot dogs!

  Noa's Mom:  They will eat anything!

  Then, in true 3 year-old and 4 year-old tradition, we got silly.     

  Kitah Gimmel yeledim:  Will the ants eat a table?

  Noa's Mom:  No.

  Kitah Gimmel:  a chair?

  Noa's Mom:  No.

 

  Later Noa's mom told us how ants find food.  First, one ant finds a crumb.  (She crawled on the floor to demonstrate, and yes indeed, Dr. G. did find a crumb.)  Then, the ant leaves a pee-pee trail (so disgusting, no wonder we don't want them in our houses!)   The actual term is pheromone, she told the adults. The ant returns to the nest, and then the other ants know to follow the trail to the crumbs.  

 It was almost time for Noa's mom to go.  She had explained so much, and she was so entertaining.  We loved the ant puppet and the book she showed us.  Then she said, "Can you sleep like an ant?"  What?  Well, yes we can!  We stretched out and pretended to be sound asleep in the library, curled up like an ant.  Funny!       

 

  And just a bit more info:  Earlier in the week, Kitah Bet came to visit us.  Levi and Shlomit stand by, ready to show the Kitah Bet yeledim the tunnels and rooms that the ants have created.

  

Our Questions and comments when observing our ant farm:

Sam:  What's going on--whoa!

Ari E:  Let me see these ants! (holds magnifying glass.)

Sam:  One ant goes in here and comes out there!  It will escape!

Reed:  (They're) digging!

Shlomit:  They climb up!

Ruthie: ANTS!  It's an ant farm!

Pearl:  These are good bugs.

Noa:  (agreeing) They are good bugs.

Pearl:  We're going to watch them all day!

Ari S:  How do they die?

Ruthie:  Why are they on top of each other?

Henia:  We should put water in them.

   We created our own "ants" using stick-on sponges.  We know that we need three body-parts (head, chest, tummy), two antennae and six legs. Here's the children's descriptions about their ants:

Leiba:  a Leiba ant, she collects honey,

Sam:  it's a Sam ant, a superhero ant; it saves other ants from bad guys,

Noa: it's an ant, a Noa ant, it's a carpenter ant, 

Hannah:  It's a baby ant, that Leora and Asher and Aba and Mommy take care of,

Yoni:  a Yoni carpenter ant, I always like to climb on wood,

Shlomit:  a Shlomit ant, it talks!

Izzy:  an Izzy ant--she builds, she helps my dad build!

Shaya:  a carpenter ant, he builds with wood,

Ruthie:  a Ruthie ant, she takes care of babies,

Levi:  a Levi ant, it likes to crawl in the house,

Henia: a Henia ant, she likes to take bugs out of her house,

Ari E:  an Ari ant, she collects food,

Ari S:  an Ari ant, it lives in Atlanta!

Pearl:  a Pearl ant, she takes care of babies,

Rami:  a Rami carpenter ant,  because I want it to be because I want it to be a carpenter,

Reed:  a Reed ant, it builds.  

What great fun, and learning too!

Morah Susan and Morah Yael--with all the entomologists in Kitah Gimmel