Montessori Mom

 Ant City

Find a very large, clean jar with a lid.
Hammer small holes in the lid for air.
Put a smaller jar or solid object in the middle of the jar.
Fill it with clean sand or crushed Styrofoam.
Push a few cotton balls soaked in sugar water into the sand using a stick.
Find an ant hill, they are as close as your backyard or park.
Attract ants by putting a cotton ball soaked with sugar water in shallow plastic bowl that has a lid. Quickly put the lid on the bowl to catch your ants. I don't like to pick up ants, they sometimes bite so this works great. Put the ants in the refrigerator, sealed in covered container for 20 minutes or until they become sluggish.
Place the ants in the glass jar and put out of direct sunlight. Soon the ants will wake up as they warm up. You can continue to add ants over time. Make sure they are from the same ant hill, they will go to war if they aren't from the same group.
Give your ants some dry cereal, dried fruit and a few drops of water every few days.
Soon you will see tunnels and lots of activity.

All About Ants has some ideas and pictures about ants.

Ants like to live together in large families. Every ant has a job to do. The most important ant is the queen. She lays lots of eggs to make the big ant family. 

Ants love to dig tunnels as they build their ant city. They make lots of rooms in their cities. They even have a special room for their babies called larvae.

Ants eat many kinds of different food. They like sugar, grain cereal, and other dead insects. They need water to live. They love sugar water the best.

Draw a picture of an ant or make an ant puppet out of an old sock. Glue on pipe cleaners for antennae, use 6 small cut up straws for legs, googley eyes or buttons for eyes. Use a marker for any other parts of the ant.

Ants Go Marching One by One
This song is not only fun, but it teaches counting skills. You can count up to any number. Start where you last left off, and see how far your child will want to count

 

ant farm Search Amazon.com for toys and books.

Fun ant science lesson!