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f-ANT-astic Children get an early start on learning to respect all creatures, however small, as they observe the fascinating ways of ants. Read your children the story (link below – choose Maltese or English version) about a group of ants whose home is threatened by fire. Download the story pictures (link below), make copies for your students and give them pictures to colour (the file includes coloured versions) as the story unfolds. At the end of the story, bind the pictures to make storybooks. Take the children to an area where you know there are ants. Let them observe how ants follow a trail to find food (see ant facts below) and explain what is happening. Take the class out regularly to put food for the ants and watch them carry it. Learning to observe nature helps children grow into adults who make allowance for other wildlife sharing the planet with us. Make ant masks (overleaf) and play the ant game. Take the class to the play area with their masks and let them pretend to be ants. Hide pictures of food around the area and appoint three ‘ant scouts’ to look for them. Give the scouts string or a bag of clothes pegs (or other small light objects). The other ‘ants’ watch and wait. When a scout finds food, he/she walks back to the waiting ants, leaving a trail of string or objects. Divide your ants into three groups and tell them to follow the scout’s trail to find the food. The ants find the food and bring it back to base. Take photographs of the children (1) doing the storybook, (2) playing the game and (3) watching ants, for verification. Aim Action For more information about Dinja Waħda check out our website www.birdlifemalta.org or email [email protected] or call 21347644/5/6 (office hours) Points Dinja Waħda Action Guide • 25 F-ANTASTIC • 01 • 2014 120 points In Malta we have about 50 species of ants. Little is known about many of these. Most ants live in a colony with one queen and 100s or 1000s of worker ants, who are all female. A colony lives in holes and tunnels that they dig under the soil (often building a small hill of excavated earth around their main entrances), in plant debris, or in a dead tree. In a colony there are ants whose job is to defend the colony, others who forage for food and others who look after the young. When a scout finds food, she returns to the nest leaving a scent in her trail. Other worker ants ‘smell’ this trail with their antennae and follow it till they find the food. Very ANTeresting! Each ant adds her scent to the trail, so if an ant finds a heavily marked trail she knows there’s a large source of food. This ability to gather in numbers may seem like a miracle of cooperation to us but it’s all about the way ants produce and detect scent trails. The queen ant is larger than the workers. She too controls her colony with scent messages. In an emergency (like in the story) the queen produces a special scent which the others follow when escaping. • • • • • • • Victor Falzon Maybe you can buy some magnifying loupes for your class to watch ants close-up. To download the story and pictures click ACTIVITIES > F-ANT-ASTIC > ANT BOOK.pdf Go to www.birdlifemalta.org and click the Dinja Waħda logo • level For Kindergarten and Year 1 ONLY
Transcript of level f-ANT-astic - WordPress.com...f-ANT-astic Dinja Waħda Action Guide • 25 F-ANT-ASTIC • 02...
f-ANT-astic
Children get an early start on learning to respect all creatures, however small, as they observe the fascinating ways of ants.
Read your children the story (link below – choose Maltese or English version) about a group of ants whose home is threatened by fire.
Download the story pictures (link below), make copies for your students and give them pictures to colour (the file includes coloured versions) as the story unfolds. At the end of the story, bind the pictures to make storybooks.
Take the children to an area where you know there are ants. Let them observe how ants follow a trail to find food (see ant facts below) and explain what is happening. Take the class out regularly to put food for the ants and watch them carry it. Learning to observe nature helps children grow into adults who make allowance for other wildlife sharing the planet with us.
Make ant masks (overleaf) and play the ant game. Take the class to the play area with their masks and let them pretend to be ants. Hide pictures of food around the area and appoint three ‘ant scouts’ to look for them. Give the scouts string or a bag of clothes pegs (or other small light objects). The other ‘ants’ watch and wait. When a scout finds food, he/she walks back to the waiting ants, leaving a trail of string or objects. Divide your ants into three groups and tell them to follow the scout’s trail to find the food. The ants find the food and bring it back to base.
Take photographs of the children (1) doing the storybook, (2) playing the game and(3) watching ants, for verification.
Aim
Action
For more information about Dinja Waħda check out our website www.birdlifemalta.org or email [email protected] or call 21347644/5/6 (office hours)
PointsDin
ja W
aħda
Act
ion
Gui
de •
25 F
-AN
TAST
IC •
01 •
2014
120 points
In Malta we have about 50 species of ants. Little is known about many of these. Most ants live in a colony with one queen and 100s or 1000s of worker ants, who are all female. A colony lives in holes and tunnels that they dig under the soil (often building a small hill of excavated earth around their main entrances), in plant debris, or in a dead tree.In a colony there are ants whose job is to defend the colony, others who forage for food and others who look after the young. When a scout finds food, she returns to the nest leaving a scent in her trail. Other worker ants ‘smell’ this trail with their antennae and follow it till they find the food.
Very ANTeresting!
Each ant adds her scent to the trail, so if an ant finds a heavily marked trail she knows there’s a large source of food. This ability to gather in numbers may seem like a miracle of cooperation to us but it’s all about the way ants produce and detect scent trails.The queen ant is larger than the workers. She too controls her colony with scent messages. In an emergency (like in the story) the queen produces a special scent which the others follow when escaping.
•••
•
•
•
•
Victor Falzon
Maybe you
can buy some
magnifying
loupes for your
class to watch
ants close-up.
To download the story and pictures click ACTIVITIES > F-ANT-ASTIC > ANT BOOK.pdfGo to www.birdlifemalta.org and click the Dinja Waħda logo
•
level
ForKindergarten
and Year 1ONLY
abbie.ferrar
Text Box
HINT: Why not hide food products around your house and have your children "scout" them out!
f-ANT-asticD
inja Waħda Action G
uide • 25 F-ANT-ASTIC
• 02 • 2014
Make an ANT MASK
1 Make copies of the ant face for everyone.2 Children colour them (brown, dark red or black)3 Stick to stiff card (used cereal boxes).4 Cut around the shape.5 Insert rubber bands for ear holds.6 Make holes for eyes.
