Bug Unit #1 - Ants

For our latest Science Unit we used Janice Van Cleave’s Play and Find Out about Bugs. It has fun, creative, interesting, and educational ideas for kids 3-7 years old to explore BUGS. It was the perfect way to have some Science fun with all three of my kiddos Tinker Bell (2), Minnie (4), and Goofy (7). First up….. ANTS!

We learned about an ant’s life cycle in the book Ant Cities and then the kids got to interact with the different stages with the Ant Life Cycle Stages. It really helped them to visualize & understand the stages. We put them in order and then Tinker Bell (almost 2) got to play with them.

We drew an ant hill and the tunnels inside. Then we made fingerprint ants going up the hill and inside the ant. we added ants in the different lifecycle stages, the larger queen ant, and labeled them. (My kids tell me this was their favorite part).

We put ants in our ant farm and observed them building tunnels – so cool!

 

We made spoon ants (an idea that has been around since I was a kid. This post at Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational) reminded me of it and we decided to make our own! We painting spoons black and then wrapping pipe cleaners around the spoons to make legs & antennae. We added some googly eyes and WHALA – we have our own, super cute ANTS!

We did a simple experiment to learn how an ant walks. We put 6 legs (toothpicks) in Play Dough to see how ants balance. Then we tried pulling out different toothpicks until we found the maximum number of toothpicks we could pull out and have the ant still balance. You can pull out 3 toothpicks (the middle on one side along with the front & back on the other row). That is how an ant balances when they walk. They pull up those legs, balance, move forward, and repeat on the opposite legs.

We had the classic Ants on a Log (with a twist). I didn’t have any raisins on hand so I used some mini chocolate chips we had laying around – YUM!

Earlier (in one of our many travels this year) we got a chance to see GIANT Bugs at a zoo. There were GIANT bugs, information, a HUGE ant farm, chances to interact with actual bugs, and even a chance to eat bugs! Yep, the kids ate a bug – they said it tasted like cereal!

And we finished up our unit by watching Disney’s  A Bug’s Life movie. Such a fun movie! This was actually at our local park district and included interacting with actual bugs during intermission!

Looking for {free} ant / bug printable resources? Our unit was focused on Science, but you could easily do a whole week theme using one of these great Tot/Preschool Packs here.

• {Free} Bug Sight Words Game (K-2) by Living Life Intentionally
• {free} Measuring Bugs Printables by Living Life Intentionally
• Pretty Bugs Preschool Pack from 1+1+1=1
• Bug Pack by 3 Dinosaurs
• Ants Pack by 2 Teaching Mommies
• Insect Activities for Kids (mazes, word finds, coloring sheet, dominoes, chore charts, stationary, and more)
• Insect Coloring Sheets
• Ant Lapbook (Elementary Age by Homeschool Share)
• Bug Unit – Ants, Spiders, Worms, Butterflies, and Bees by Living Life Intentionally
• Bug Sensory Bin