Today we learned about the life cycle of an ant. We also learned about an ant year and played a math game. T liked playing with those tiny plastic ants that I found. He seems to like bugs more than J does. I’m glad he doesn’t take after his Mama, I can’t stand them!
Ant Life Cycle
Discuss: Life Cycle:
Egg – queen ants lay tiny oval shaped eggs
Larva – worm like larva keep growing causing their skin to shed; they don’t have eyes or legs
Pupa – once the larva reaches a certain size, it spins a cocoon and pupates; during the time in the cocoon, the ant’s body changes to adult form
Adult – the pupa emerges out of the cocoon into an adult nt
A worker ant generally lives about four years. However, the queen can live up to 10 or 20 years!
Read: The Life Cycle of an Ant by Trevor terry & Margaret Linton
Comprehension Questions:
- What are the four stages of the ant life cycle? Egg, larva, pupa, adult
- Who lays the eggs? Queen ant
- What is an ant larva like? Don’t have eyes or legs
- What happens in the pupa stage? Ant larva spins a cocoon to change to an adult
Ant Life Cycle Activity
Discuss: The life cycle of the ant consists of four stages: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. Fertilized eggs produce female ants (queens, workers, or soldiers); unfertilized eggs produce male ants.
EGG- Ant eggs are oval shaped and tiny (they are on the order of 1 mm long, but the queen’s egg is many times larger).
LARVA- The worm-like larvae have no eyes and no legs; they eat food fed to them by adult ants. The larvae molt (shed their skin) many times as they increase in size.
PUPA- After reaching a certain size, the larva spins a silk-like cocoon around itself and pupates. During this time the body metamorphoses (changes) into its adult form.
ADULT The pupa emerges as an adult. The entire life cycle usually lasts from 6 to 10 weeks. Some queens can live over 15 years, and some workers can live for up to 7 years.
Directions: We used the Ant Life Cycle print out for a review.
The Ant Year: A Year in the Life of an Ant
April – open nest
May – time to mate and lay eggs
June – larvae grows and grows
August – work, work, work
November through March – hibernation
We made a book on page 35 of this download for our A Year in the Life of an Ant activity.
Ants Go Marching in a Number Line
Materials:
- A die labeled with +1, +2, +3, -1, -2, -3
- Little plastic ants
- A number line that goes as high as you need
Directions:
- Each player puts their counter at the beginning of the number line at 0
- The players take turns rolling the die/cube and moving their counter along the number line by the number rolled on the die/cube. (Player says the number square he is on and then says +3 if that is what he rolls and says the answer.) If a player lands in the same box as another player, the other player goes back a space.
- The first player to reach the end of the number line wins!
Here are the other days of our Ant Unit Study: