Amazing Ants

May 19, 2016

In kindergarten over the past week or so, we have been very interested in ants.  The children found ants outside and began asking questions about them.  Then they found ants in the classroom, and they became even more interested!

A few of our students began making houses for the ants out of paper, so we thought we should find out more about ants to determine what kind of home they would actually like to have.  We went outside in the afternoon on May 19th to do some research, and see some ants.

We were lucky enough to find an area outside that had a lot of ants.  We wondered if there might be an ant hill nearby, so we went to get some food to see if we could observe the ants more closely.  We found some cookies and candy and put them on the ground, and the ants came running!

We took lots of pictures and videos, and drew pictures of what we saw.  The children were very engaged.  The inquiry continued after our outdoor time.  The children looked through many books to find out more about ants.  We learned that ants have 3 body parts: the head, the thorax, and the abdomen.  We also discovered that ants have 6 legs.

The children used their new knowledge to create ants out of tissue paper and plasticine.  We even made antennae out of pipe cleaners.  One student let us know that ants use their antennae to smell things, and then the students were leaning over to put their antennae on the table, or their food so they could smell things.  One student even "smelled" her mom at pick up time!