Two Bad Ants
For my Summer Reading Dig into Reading program I went with an ant theme and read Chris VanAllsburg's book, Two Bad Ants .This is a beautifully illustrated and well crafted book that opens the beauty of language and perspective to the reader. It begins:
"The news travels swiftly through the tunnels of the ant world. A marvelous crystal has been discovered in a faraway place. The queen of the ant colony declares that the crystal is the most delicious substance she has ever eaten. "
Chris VanAllsburg has a informative website that includes a lesson plan from
Houghtonmifflin.
After the book was read, we began our crafts.
They first made a fingerprint ant on a small jewel box.
The next project was to make an ant-sized book to fit in the box. I photocopied and reduced 18 of the illustrations for each child. Their task was to sequence the images in story order.
I left a wider space on the left side of the picture to allow room to staple the book together.
I gave each of them 2 ants and a sugar cube to fit in their box.
I purchased the ants online at www.windycitynovelties.com
Our last activity was to make grape ants. There were plenty of grapes to snack on too.
Here's the model and the results.
I had a guessing jar for the children and the winner was drawn at the end of our program.
The prize was a gift bag that included a large ant decal and books.
I made a spinning funnel, water toy with 2 ants and white Styrofoam bits to simulate the part of the story where they are twirling in the garbage disposal. I gave those to the winner as well.
Fun times!
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