Today brings us to the end of our ant unit study. We learned about a few ant enemies, did some literary activities, had more fun with homophones, and ate ants on a log. We learned a lot about ants this week and had a lot of fun in the process.
Ant Enemies
Discuss:
Anteater- The anteater’s tongue can reach two feet in length, and only 1/2 inch wide. The anteater can cover its tongue in a sticky saliva, allowing the ants to stick to it’s tongue. It can extend and withdraw it’s tongue up to 150 times per minute. When hunting for food, anteaters will use their sharp claws to tear open anthills or rotting wood that might contain ants or termites. Since their eye-sight is poor, they use their noses to smell for food. Then they use their long snouts and tongues to scoop up as many ants and termites as possible. Since they don’t have teeth, they can’t chew the insects. Instead, they swallow them whole. As they eat, they also swallow small pebbles and other debris. These pebbles help them digest the insects by grinding them in the stomach.
Woodpecker- Woodpeckers like to eat ants too. They peck them off of the trees when they climb.
Ant Lion- the ant lion digs a circular sand pit and waits at the bottom. When an ant looks into the pit, the ant lion tosses sand into the air to trip up the ant. The ant stumbles into the pit, and the ant lion grabs it with its large pincers.
Read: Giant Anteater by Sara Antill
Comprehension Questions:
- Name an animal that eats ants? Anteater, woodpecker, ant lion
- How does the anteater find the ants? The anteater smells the ants.
- Why do the ants fall into the ant lion’s pit? The ant lion tosses sand into the air to trip the ant.
Ants on a Log
Ingredients:
- Celery Sticks
- Peanut Butter
- Raisins
Directions:
1) Wash the celery
2) Spread peanut butter in u-shaped part of celery.
3) Press raisins into peanut butter.
4) Eat your Ants on a Log
Aunt Farm
Discuss:
Homophones are words that sound alike but have different meanings (ant the insect and Aunt your relative).
Read: Truman’s Aunt Farm by Jama Kin Rattigan
Comprehension Questions:
- What did Truman feed the aunts for breakfast, lunch and dinner? Rice pudding, jelly sandwiches and little hot dogs
- True or False; The aunts were not having fun and could not wait to get out of Truman’s house. False
- What did Truman’s sign say was the cost of each aunt? Free
- What did Aunt Fran get Truman for his birthday? Ant Farm
- What was in the package for Truman at the end of the story? Aunt Fran
Directions:
Ant and Aunt
An ant is a small insect that gets into food and usually lives underground.
Your aunt is a woman who is your Mother’s or Father’s sister.
Fill in each sentence with the correct ant or aunt.
- There is an ____________ in the sugar bowl.
- My brother has _____________’s in his pants.
- My ____________ is coming to visit us.
- I have an ____________ who lives far away.
- An ____________ has six legs.
- My friends gets birthday presents from two ____________’s.
- Does your _____________ live near here?
- There must be a hundred ______________s in that hill.
- Please get the ____________ off that cracker.
Write your own sentence using the words ant and aunt.
Here are the other days of our Ant Unit Study: