A is for Ants

Ant day is always a fun preschool day at our house! It’s one of the only days my girls are fascinated by ants, instead of scared of the bugs!!

• Fingerprint Ants
• Read Ants by Nessa Black and learn about ants.
• Make fingerprint ants (using black ink or paint) – 
• three fingerprints, for the three sections of their body
• draw 6 legs
• draw 2 antennas
• draw 2 eyes

• Weigh your preschooler to see how much they could carry if they were an ant! Using the ant they made above, draw something really big on the back of the ant to show how much ants can carry!

• Make an Ant Restaurant
• After reading Ants by Nessa Black, and a Zootles magazine about Ants, discuss what ants like to eat.

• Make an “Ant Restaurant”
• Use a paper plate or preferably a piece of paper (it’s easier for the ants to get to quicker)
• Have your preschooler choose food items they think ants would like to eat. Put them on their restaurant.
• Set the plate/paper outside where there might be ants nearby.
• Check back later!

• Ant Sensory Bin
1. Using rice, wheat, oatmeal, beans, etc in a container, add large plastic ants for the preschoolers to find using tweezers/tongs.
• you could also add black pom poms or black sticker felt pads and have your preschoolers pretend those can be made into ants.
2. After they have found all the ants (and are done playing in their bins), use the ants for math! (see below)

• Ant Math
1. Using large plastic ants (that they found in their sensory bin, above), work on math skills.
• Use a layout like our ant page (with + and =), or simply write + or - and = on a piece of paper.
• Put a number on plastic ants on the left side of the + or - and a number of plastic ants on the right side of the + or – and have your preschooler add/subtract the ants and write the number answer after the equals sign.
• Practice this a few times, saying the math equation with your preschooler. IE:  “3 ants plus 2 ants equals 5 ants”

• How to Walk an Ant by Cindy Derby
• Read How to Walk an Ant, looking for letter Aa’s throughtout the book and finding all the ants.

• Walk an Ant!!
• With the large plastic ants, as used before, tie a piece of yarn around the ant and take it on a walk.
• In the book she walks a lot of ants, so the more the merrier (we stuck with one ant each though!).
• While on your walk check your ant restaurant and observe the ants!

• ART: After your walk, see how tangled your ants got, like in the book!

• Paint a “tangled” art picture, like in the book!
• Use the remnants from the ant lease to dip in paint and pull it across the page to make of colorful line art.
• Add ant stickers.