Before the Project
Watch videos and read books on ants and their colonies before
beginning the project. These are recommended:
Magic School Bus gets Ants in the Pants Video
Magic School Bus Book to match
Read About Insects That Live in Families' by Dean Morris. (Out of print;check library)
I Can't Said the Ant by Polly Cameron (also out of print)
One Hundred Hungry Ants by Elinor J. Pinczes.
(this one is about one hundred ants on their way to a picnic).
The Activities
You will need:
An extra large piece of construction paper
a rectangle of fabric
raisins
an ink pad
glue
markers
old magazines
The Picnic
We glued the fabric down to be our 'picnic tablecloth' on the paper. Next we
looked through the magazines for pictures of food we would like on our picnic and
glued them to the tablecloth.
We glued three raisins on the paper,
added legs and antennae with markers to make raisin ants.
Finally, we made
finger print ants by making three finger prints in a row (except Eammon's
Queen with four body segments because she didn't want to miss the macaroni
and cheese at the picnic) and again used a marker for legs and antennae.
This is a spur of the moment substitute for making an ant farm!
A Writing and Reading Activity
Write a story about what would happen if you were suddenly turned into an ant.
Where would he live?
What would he
eat?
How would he spend the day?
Read "If you were an ant..." by Barbara Brenner or a similiar book. Have the kids write
their own stories starting with "If I were an ant..." Pay no attention to
spelling, handwriting or grammar. The idea is to foster imagination and
creative writing skills.
About the Author
Catie Hayes is founder/editor of WomanLinks.com,
a community of support, spirituality, growth and empowerment for women. She is a freelance writer, the single homeschooling mom of two, and an avid fan of laughter, spontaneous dancing, cats and chocolate (not necessarily in that order).
