Ants: 1) 8 ANTS One ant two ants, three ants four. Our picnic is their grocery store. Five ants, six ants, seven ants, eight. They are crawling on my plate! Eight ants, seven ants, Stomp around. Six ants, five ants On the ground. Four ants, three ants, On the run! Two ants, one ant, No more fun. 2) I'm an Ant I'm an ant and a gi-ant I'm a gi-ant to an ant but I'm an ant to a gi-ant 3) Ants Live Here Ants live here by the curb side, see? They worry a lot about giants like me. 4) Once I Saw An Anthill Once I saw an anthill With no ants about; So I said, "Dear little ants Won't you please come out?" Then as if the little ants Had heard my call, One, two, three, four, five came out, And that was all. 5) Ant Use 3 sections of a cardboard egg carton to form the body of an ant - have the children paint it and add - using pipe cleaners - on the first section antennas and on the back two sections eight legs (4 each section) and draw eyes on the front section - they are very cute. 6) BIG LETTER A WITH ANTS- Materials needed: stamp pad, paper, markers Instructions: Cut out a big letter A shape for each child and let them make ant prints all over it with their fingerprints and a stamp pad. Let them use small tip markers to draw in some legs. 7) Ants can teach us how some insects work together as a community. Watch ants scurry in and out of their ant hills or find some spilled food on the sidewalk. Do they eat their food on the spot, or carry it back to their anthill? When an ant finds food, it runs back to the hill to "tell" the others. As it runs, it leaves a trail that other ants in the hill can smell. The ants find the food by smelling their way along the trail. 8) ANT ON A LEAF- Materials needed: construction paper, hole puncher, collage materials, markers. Instructions: Supply each child with a construction paper leaf shape - give them a hole puncher & let them at it! When they're done punching, have them create the ants on their leaf with collage materials such as: pompoms, pipe cleaners, yarn bits, etc. - or they can decorate with markers etc. 9) SENSORY: Add plastic bugs to your sensory table 10) SCIENCE: Use bug catchers outside Inside - dead or alive bugs with magnifying glasses. 11) ANT PUPPET- Materials needed: paper bags, scissors, glue. Instructions: Use paper bags and have kids cut large circles for sections in bug and glue to paper bag, add face antennae, whatever. 12) ANTS Cut about 4 shapes of picnic foods 1-4" in size from construction pater. I use a chicken leg, cookie, strawberry, and a watermelon slice. Using plastic ants, see how many ants it takes to cover each food and record answer. 13) An idea for teaching the short "a" sound : Have the children pretend they are having a picnic. As they spread out the food and begin eating, they notice that there are ants crawling on the food, and then up their arms. In surprise, they say "a - a - a !!", while "walking" their fingers up their arms like pretend ants. 14) You could also make giant ants! Use toothpicks to connect 2 styrofoam balls and 1 styrofoam egg (for the 3 body parts of the ant.) Insert 6 pipe cleaners into the styrofoam for the legs. Bend the pipe cleaners so that it looks like the ant is walking. Paint it red or black. When dry, glue on googly eyes and there's your giant ant! You could also make giant ant hills by cutting brown construction paper and rolling it into a cone shape. Children can use crumpled pieces of tissue paper to glue on the "sand/dirt." They can build from bottom/up. They could also glue on real sand. 15) Ants on a log snack (peanut butter, raisins, and either celery or apples) 16) I Can't Said the Ant - this is a great rhyming book - make up more pages in the shape of a big ant to make a class ant book with different rhymes...let children illustrate 17) Have an ant hunt....go outside with magnifying glasses and hunt for ants. 18) Ants in a picnic basket Materials: Clothespins, Black pipe cleaners, White construction paper, Black paint, brown paint, and other colors to make food. Glue & scissors. small wiggley eyes Procedure: 1. Paint clothespins black. When dry add Black pipe cleaners for legs & antennas. Glue on wiggly eyes. 2. Use white construction paper (or very stiff paper) to paint picnic basket on and paint food in basket. 3. When everything is dry, Glue "ants legs to picnic basket" 19) DRAMATIC PLAY Make a big box into a picnic basket. Make Ants pipe cleaner antennas & add them to the play area. Now kids can pretend to be ants around a picnic basket. Add play food for them to carry away. 20) Snack: ANTS IN YOUR PANTS Cut bread into pant shapes. Spread with peanut butter Put raisin ants on top. 21) DRAMATIC PLAY To emphasize that ants(or insects) have 6 legs, make 2 extra legs for the children to wear. I made mine out of black material. I made long tube shapes, stuffed, then sewed onto a band for tying around child's waist. You can make antenae's by using pipe cleaners and head bands. Add tunnels, pretend food (fruit, seeds, and picnics), pretend ant eggs etc. 22) ART Make an Ant Farm.. . . Have children paint one side of a piece of construction papaer or small poster board with glue/water solution (the paper should be sized to lay flat in a large zip lock). Children may leave a dry area on one portion of the page to be the area of grassy ground above the ant farm. Then have each child cover the paper with sand (shake off excess). Let children make tunnels by scraping off a few lines of sand. After the page dries, make ants in the sand/tunnels with finger or thumbprints. (draw legs) Paint or draw the grass above the Ant Farm. Place the entire page in a large zip lock and seal it to it will become a keep-sake. 23) NOTE:You could use green Easter grass for the grass. They could even glue little plastic ants. 24) BOOKS TWO BAD ANTS Chris Van Allsburg I CAN'T SAID THE ANT Polly Cameron 25) SENSORY TABLE Add plastic ants to sand table Plastic ants and sawdust (carpenter ants) 26) FINE MOTOR Have small containers, ants and tweezers We purchased ants form Oriental Trading company (144 for $2.00) The children then glued ants on their ant farm. The children loved them and it was easy. *********************************************************************** We did this and I also took the plain cotton aprons and had the kids sponge paint red stripes across them to make a checkboard pattern ( makes it look like a table cloth) Another time we took actually cheap flannel backed table cloths and glued ants to them and had a party outside Ants included! *********************************************************************** I did this too except instead of purchasing the ants I had the kids use their little finger on a black ink pad to make the ants. I also got a picture of a picnic basket off clip art and had the kids color it and cut it out. They glued it on the tablecloth too. *********************************************************************** AT story time last week we read the book "Effy the ant". Foe a project we did antg hills. Before hand paper cups were glued to a paper plate. The children painted the entire thing brown. *********************************************************************** the last few days of school...i read OH the Places YOU;ll Go by Dr. Seuss and Leo the Late Bloomer Our end of the year celebration is just a picnic at a park with our parents...we try and keep it simple! *********************************************************************** FINE MOTOR Have small containers, ants and tweezers *********************************************************************** THE ANTS GO MARCHING (Sung to When John Comes Marching Home) The ants go marching one by one Hurrah! Hurrah! The ants go marching one by one Hurrah! Hurrah! The ants go marching one by one Watching Ants is lots of fun, So let’s all go marching One by one by one Additional verses The ants go marching two by two/ Worker ants have lots to do; The ants go marching three by three/ The ants all live in a colony The ants go marching four by four/ Now they’re marching through the door The ants go marching five by five/ Hey, it’s time to say good bye. *********************************************************************** HOMEMADE ANT FARM Use a clear plastic shoe box. Heat a nail and press it against the box lid to make air house. Make several holes. Find an area that has lots of ants and scoop them up along with dirt or sand. Transfer them to box. Stuff cotton into the air holes and securely tape on the lid. Then cover the box with a dark cloth. Once a week, use en eyedropper to place a small about of jelly or honey mixed with water through one of the air holes . Remember to replace the cloth whenever you are not observing the ants. *********************************************************************** ANTS ON A LOG snack To make the log, fill celery sticks with peanut better, place four raisin ants along the log. *********************************************************************** EGG CARTON ANTS You can make big ants. Cut 3 egg sections ( 3 bumbs) then have the children paint them black. Use black pipe cleaners for legs..ext.... *********************************************************************** PRETEND PLAY: Put a picnic basket in the house area, with play foods to pack in it, and a checked table cloth. *********************************************************************** BOOK: SPOT’S FIRST PICNIC *********************************************************************** A FILLED UP PICNIC BASKET (Tune: A Tisket, a Tasket) A tisket, a tasket, a filled-up picnic basket. Mom stuffed it with such yummy treats, I can’t wait to unpack it. Unpack it, unpack it, I can’t wait to unpack it, Crackers, cheese, and fresh fruit please, Kept safe tucked in our basket. Our basket, our basket, There’s more things in our basket. Juice and bars and my toy cars To play with - let’s unpack it! *********************************************************************** HOMEMADE LEMONADE Let the children wash the lemons in a water tub, and then roll the lemons by pushing them back and forth on a table - to make them more juicy. After slicing the lemons in half, the children twist the lemons on plastic juicers. Borrow several juicers so the children won’t have to wait for a turn. Help get them started by pushing the lemon onto the juicer and turning it a couple of times. 6-7 large lemons 1 cup sugar 2 qt. cold water Pour juice into a large measuring cup. This should yield about 1 1/2 cups of juice. Remove any seeds. Taste the juice without sugar. In a large pitcher, combine the juice and the sugar. Stir in 2 quarts of cold water. Serve over ice. *********************************************************************** TWO BIG LEMONS (tune: 'This Old Man') Way up high, in a tree; (raise hands over head) Two big lemons smiled at me (smile) So I shook that tree with all my power; (Pretend to shake tree) Down came the lemons, whoa, they were sour!!!! *********************************************************************** LEMON COUNTDOWN fingerplay Five big lemons in the bowl. (hold up five fingers) One fell out and started to roll. (hold up 1 finger, then roll hands) It bumped the table and hit my toe; (clap once, touch your toe) How many lemons in the bowl? 1-2-3-4 (Counts fingers) Four big lemons in the bowl. Three, Two, One big lemon in the bowl.