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Welcome to the first day of the ABC’s of Nature hosted by School Time Snippets.
For today’s A is for Ant we went into the garden over the weekend to take a closer look at the little ants.
At our home we have 3 sizes of ants. There are the tiny tiny ones that always seem to make their way into my kitchen, these are extremely hard to see. The medium black ants like the ones in the pictures below, they are all over the garden. Then there are these HUGE red ants that we rarely see, we leave those alone.
On first exploration we found a nest entry area for our black ants, although it looks like they might have been moving as they were carrying their larva around.
Seeing the ants with their eggs / larva was also a great learning opportunity for my preschooler and toddler (who is interested in anything her older brother is doing).
A few interesting facts about ants
These are great to talk about while watching the ants go about their daily routine:
- Ants are omnivores, this means they eat vegetables, fruits and meat
- Average life span is anything from a few weeks to several years
- A group of ants is an Army or Colony
- Each colony of ants has a Queen
- Ants can lift and carry more than three times their own weight
- Ants have 6 legs
- Ants use their antennae to hear, taste, touch and smell. They also use their antennae to touch one another, which is the way they communicate
Our ants even like to play with our cloud dough! Below is an image of an ant making off with a bit of our taste safe cloud dough. Safe for toddlers and ants! hehe
Resources for learning about Ants:
ANT PRESCHOOL UNIT – With tons of printables, includes a life cycle printable as well.
Toys
Ant Works A Space Age Ant Habitat
Books to Read:
- Ant Bully
- I Saw an Ant on the Railroad Track
- All for Pie, Pie for All
- One Hundred Hungry Ants
- Sing And Read – The Ants Go Marching
- Ant, Ant, Ant! An Insect Chant
- An Ant’s Day Off
- Next To An Ant
- Dot’s Great Big World
- Ants, Ants, Ants
- Ants in Your Pants
- Ants at the Picnic
- I Saw an Ant in a Parking Lot
- Are You an Ant?
- The Magic School Bus – Ants in Its Pants
Videos:
Still Playing School says
I love your photos and that even the ants approve of your cloud dough! Too cute!
Emma @ P is for Preschooler says
I think ants are fascinating to watch – love how they took the cloud dough! lol!
Kristina @ School Time Snippets says
Wow! Great close-ups of the ants!! Too funny they were taking the cloud dough! ha!
Thanks for putting together a great resource!