by Catie Hayes of WomanLinks.com

Before the Project

Magic School Bus gets Ants in the Pants Video

Magic School Bus Book to match

Read About Insects That Live in Families' by Dean Morris. (Out of print;check library)

I Can't Said the Ant by Polly Cameron (also out of print)

One Hundred Hungry Ants by Elinor J. Pinczes. (this one is about one hundred ants on their way to a picnic).

The Activities

An extra large piece of construction paper

a rectangle of fabric

raisins

an ink pad

glue

markers

old magazines

The Picnic We glued the fabric down to be our 'picnic tablecloth' on the paper. Next we looked through the magazines for pictures of food we would like on our picnic and glued them to the tablecloth.

We glued three raisins on the paper, added legs and antennae with markers to make raisin ants.

Finally, we made finger print ants by making three finger prints in a row (except Eammon's Queen with four body segments because she didn't want to miss the macaroni and cheese at the picnic) and again used a marker for legs and antennae. This is a spur of the moment substitute for making an ant farm!

A Writing and Reading Activity

Where would he live?

What would he eat?

How would he spend the day?

Read "If you were an ant..." by Barbara Brenner or a similiar book. Have the kids write their own stories starting with "If I were an ant..." Pay no attention to spelling, handwriting or grammar. The idea is to foster imagination and creative writing skills.

About the Author

Catie Hayes is founder/editor of WomanLinks.com, a community of support, spirituality, growth and empowerment for women. She is a freelance writer, the single homeschooling mom of two, and an avid fan of laughter, spontaneous dancing, cats and chocolate (not necessarily in that order).