Birthday research

 Today was about research.

Gil's been learning about animals, where they live and what they eat, so (after some maths on shapes) he chose five animals (lemurs, snow leopards, penguins, rhinos and orang-utans) to learn about. He discovered how to use an index in an animal encyclopedia, how to look up videos on youtube (supervised by Mum) and how to compile the information he'd acquired in note form.

Ferdy has been doing explanation texts at school and (after some rounding and subtraction in maths) chose today to research Leaf Cutter Ants and what they do with their leaves.

But really, the best way to learn about animals, is to see them. Sadly, we couldn't go to the rainforest, and it had to be Atherstone rather than Africa, so off we went to Twycross Zoo.

I wouldn't usually suggest doing research in the ladies toilets, but at Twycross, it is the best place to study Leaf Cutter Ants.

We noticed how initially they weren't carrying any leaves, but then quite a few of these reddish brown creatures started walking along the rope with large pieces of greenery. These were bigger ants and we spotted three different sizes; some were even carrying berries. Ferdy informed us that there can be over one million ants in one colony (and I noted that he hadn't just been watching Monster Bug Wars on youtube).

Deciding that it was best not to eat our lunch in the toilets, we then set out to explore the rest of the zoo and, despite the cold, wet weather, managed to see three out of five of Gil's animals: the penguins were being fed herrings and the rhino had a calf with it, so Gil was able to add those facts to his information sheet.

Later on, however, after Ferdy had put all his research into a piece of explanation text and Gil had written the diary of a lemur (he was dismayed to see the the lemur enclosure was closed as lemurs can get coronavirus too), the real research began...

It's no mean feat reading three of your birthday books simultaneously, but when you've spent most of your ninth birthday working hard and not looking at your presents, it's necessary.