Super Ants Lesson Plan

Academic Standards

Reading Objective:

Do ants really talk to each other? (Not like we do. But ants use a liquid to say hello.)

Next Generation Science Standards:

K-ESS2-2 Animals can change the environment to meet their needs

1-LS1 Animals use their external parts to survive

Vocabulary:

liquid, antennas

Use these questions to check students’ understanding and stimulate discussion:

1. What are some things that ants can carry?
(a flower, a leaf, other ants)

2. What does the trap-jaw ant do with its jaws?
(It shuts them fast to catch food.)

3. What do some ants do when they come to
a place they can’t cross? (They make a bridge.)

4. Do ants really talk to each other? (Not like we do. But ants use a liquid to say hello.)

Go online to print or project the Reading Checkpoint.

Ants don’t have ears, and some don’t have eyes!
Ants feel the ground vibrate under their feet. That’s one way they know another ant is coming.
They also use their antennas to smell other ants
to see if they are friendly.

Materials: washable markers; pencils; copies of the skill sheet

Overview: Children get a hands-on lesson on parts of an ant and practice following directions as they create a colorful fingerprint ant diagram.

Directions:

Remind students that, like all insects, ants have three body parts. Tell kids they will create those body parts with their fingertips.
Pass out the skill sheets and markers.
Tell children they will color the tip of their thumb or finger and then press that onto the gray dots at the center of the skill sheet to create the ant’s three body parts. If you like, you can tell them the body parts are, in descending order, the head, the thorax, and the abdomen.
Tell kids: Ants, like all insects, have six legs. The legs are attached to the thora—three on each side. Draw six legs.
Now tell students: Insects also have two antennas. They come out of the head.
Draw two antennas. You made an ant! Make more if you like.

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