Two Bad Ants, by Chris Van Allsburg

A colony of ants discover delicious crystals in a far off place. As they go to gather the crystals, two ants decide not to return with their fellow ants but to stay and eat crystals forever. The illustrations depict the story from an ants point of view which makes this a wonderful first mystery story for young children.

Materials

Several small pitchers or pouring containers and plastic cups with lines marked at various heights.
Large box of raisins.

Vocabulary

Mystery (something that you must figure out)
Deemed (thought or to consider something)
Dew (condensation or water that forms when the water meets cold air, like on a glass of water with ice or on the grass when it gets cold at night).
Battered (beaten up)
Garbage disposal (chews up food products in some people’s sinks)

Before Reading the Story

Hold up the cover of the book and ask the children what insect that is? Spend a few minutes talking about ants. Where have you seen ants? What color were the ants you saw? Do ants bite? Have you ever seen an anthill? Are ants dangerous?

Science/Scientific Knowledge; expands knowledge of and abilities to observe, describe, and discuss the natural world, materials, living things, and natural processes.

Reading the Story

All along the way stop and ask the children what is happening? Can they tell by the illustrations what is happening or where the ants are?

Read the text to the children and then ask them to guess where the ants are

Pg 4=what do you think that crystal might be?

Pg 7=they walked through the woods, what are they really walking through?

Pg 10= Do you think this is really a mountain? What else could it be?

Pg 18=what did the two bad ants fall into?

22=can you guess where the two bad ants are now?

24=What is the fountain really? Where would you find one of these in your home?

26=explain that this is called a garbage disposal. This is not a toy, very dangerous.

28=never stick anything in an electric socket. You can get very hurt!

Literacy/Book Knowledge & Appreciation; demonstrates growing abilities to retell and dictate stories from books and experiences; to act out stories in dramatic play; and to predict what will happen next in a story. AND Approaches to Learning/Initiative & Curiosity; grows in eagerness to learn about and discuss a growing range of topics, ideas, and tasks.

After Reading the Story

The two bad ants finally decide to go back home to their family of ants. What prompts their decision? What matters to them about their home community? What matters to you about your home community?

Talk about safety, especially plugs. What happened to the ants that went into the plug?

Physical Health & Development/Health Status & Practices; builds awareness and ability to follow basic health and safety rules and by responding appropriately to potentially harmful objects, substances, and activities.

Discovery

Print the close up cards for the children to look at and discuss. Are they able to name all the items? Make two sets of the close-up cards and use them to play Memory by turning all the cards upside down and the children take turns trying to find matched pairs.

Approaches to Learning/Engagement & Persistence; shows growing capacity to maintain concentration over time on a stask, question, set of directions or interactions, despite distractions and interruptions. AND Social & Emotional Development/Cooperation; develops increasing abilities to give and take in interactions; to take turns in games and using materials; and to interact without being overly submissive or directive.

If you are lucky enough to have a class camera, show the children how to use it and then allow them to take 2-4 pictures each of anything in the classroom that they choose. Print these and hang them on the wall for all the children to see. or make them into a classroom book.

Creative Arts/Art; begins to understand and share opinions about artistic products and experiences.

Music and Movement

Make an obstacle course for the children to follow. Include crawling under a table, over a chair, around the easel, along the wall, behind the bookshelf, etc..

Mathematics/Geometry & Spatial Sense; builds an increasing understanding of directionality, order, and positions of objects, and words such as up, down, over, under, on top, bottom, inside, outside, in front, and behind.

March in an ant line to various tempos of music.

Creative Arts/Movement; shows growth in moving in time to different patterns of beat and rhythm in music.

Blocks

Use the many cut out ants and the blocks. The children can build a structure and then put an ant line on.

Creative Arts/Dramatic Play; shows growing creativity and imagination in using materials and assuming different roles in dramatic play situations.

Art

Add salt to easel paint to make shiny-crystals

Creative Arts/Art; begins to understand and share opinions about artistic products and experiences.

Cut out many 1” circles. Show the children how they can put three together to make a simple ant shape. Encourage them to glue sets of circles all over their picture. When they are through gluing, show them how to add ant features (2 antenna, 6 legs, and big eyes)

Creative Arts/Art; progresses in abilities to create drawings, paintings, models, and other art creations that are more detailed, creative, or realistic.

Sand and Water

Let the children practice pouring from pitchers today. On plastic cups draw lines. Show the children how to pour stopping when they get to the line.

Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; grows in hand-eye coordination in building with blocks,putting puzzles together, reproducing shapes and patterns, stringing beads, and using scissors.

Library and Writing

Tell the children that you are going to make letters using ants today. Show them the raisins and explain that they are going to use the raisins for pretend ants. On a piece of construction paper write the first letter of the child’s name in large print. Give the child a bottle of glue to follow the lines and then use raisins to go over the glue.

Literacy/Alphabet Knowledge; knows that letters of the alphabet are a special category of visual graphics that can be individually named.

Dramatic Play

Explain to the children that ants come into kitchens looking for food and water. Suggest to the children that they clean the center today to make sure there is no food about. Let them use spray bottles with water and paper towels to wipe down the shelves and toys. Encourage them to put the toys away in their proper place and to show you any toy that might be broken or ripped.

Social & Emotional Development/Knowledge of Families & Communities; develops growing awareness of jobs and what is required to perform them. AND Approaches to Learning/Engagement & Curiosity; grows in abilities to persist in and complete various tasks, activities, projects, and experiences.

Math and Manipulatives

Use the close-ups and items pictures to match those that belong together.

Mathematics/Geometry & Spatial Sense; progresses in ability to put together and take shapes apart.

Make many copies of the ant page. Have the children roll a dice and add that many ants to their ant hill.

Mathematics/Number & Operations; begins to use one-to-one correspondence in counting objects and matching groups of objects.

Outdoor Play

Look around your playground for something heavy or awkward to lift (a small table, a wagon, a lounge chair). Tell the children that you would like to move the object to the otherside of the yard. Have the children work together to move the object from one side of the playground to another.

Social & Emotional Development/Cooperation; shows increasing abilities to use compromise and discussion in working, playing, and resolving conflicts with peers.

Bring out some food scraps and look for ants. When you find them, put the food down near their path. Come back later and see if there is any ant activitiy. Observe and talk about what you see happening.

Science/Scientific Knowledge;expands knowledge of and abilities to observe, describe, and discuss the natural world, materials, living things, and natural processes.

Transitions

Use the close-up cards and see if the children can guess what each item is. Later put the cards into the Math & Manipulative center for the children to use individually.

Mathematics/Geometry & Spatial Sense; progresses in ability to put together and take shapes apart.

Resources

you can make simple mazes for writing center

The Foot Book, by Dr. Seuss

Dr. Suess in all his rhyming glory discusses feet.

Materials

Footprint pattern, lots
Make footprints ahead of time for writing and transitions.
Show Store supplies- a ruler, some shoe boxes, lots of shoes, a cash register, play money and several gift bags.

Vocabulary

Before Reading the Story

Ask the children to take off their shoes and socks as they come to the group time. Take a few minutes and talk about feet. How many feet do you have, how many toes? See the toe nails; does anyone have polish on them? Show the children where the heel of the foot is and the big toe and the pinky.

Science/Scientific Knowledge; expands knowledge of and respect for their bodies and the environment.

Reading the Story

Practice beforehand so that you can read this Seuss book in a flowing voice. As you read, slow down occasionally and see if the children can find the rhyming words.

Literacy/Phonological Awareness; progresses in recognizing matching sounds and rhymes in familiar words, games, songs, stories, and poems.

After Reading the Story

Ask the children to help you make a list of all the things that we can do with our feet. (I can ride my bicycle, I can kick the ball, I can jump up and land on my feet).

Science/Scientific Knowledge; expands knowledge of and respect for their bodies and the environment.

Discovery

Explain to the children that all animals have their own special footprint/shape. Look at some of the foot prints and the animals that make them. How are they alike and different?

Science/Scientific Skills & Methods; develops increased ability to observe and discuss common properties, differences and comparisons among objects and materials.

Music and Movement

Teach the children the following chant, Left Foot Right Foot. As you do, hold up your left hand and then your right. Ask the children what other body parts that they have that one is left and one is right?

Left foot, right foot I am cool,

Left foot, right foot I learned at school.

Science/Scientific Knowledge;expands knowledge of and respect for their bodies and the environment. AND Language Development/Listening & Understanding; demonstrates increasing ability to attend to and understand conversations, stories, songs, andpoems.

Do the Mexican Hat Dance and teach the children to differentiate their left from their right foot. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvRRvMw9-fg

Left foot, right foot, left

Right foot, left foot, right

Left foot, right foot, left

Right foot, left foot, right

Dance round and round the circle

And then begin again./And now this is the end.

Creative Arts/Music; shows growth in moving in time to different patterns of beat and rhythm in music.

Make a set of 26 foot prints. Write an alphabet letter on each one and put them on the floor in a walking pattern. Put the feet in A-Z order and contact them to the floor. The children can then walk the letters as they sing or say the alphabet.

Literacy/Alphabet Knowledge; shows progress in associating the names if letters with their shapes and sound.

Blocks;

Cut out extra foot prints. Encourage the children to measure how many footprints long a block is. Can they make a line of blocks 5 foot prints long? 10 foot prints long?

Mathematics/Patterns & Measurement; shows progress in using standard and non-standard measures of length and area of objects.

Art;

Take off your shoes and socks and paint the children’s feet. Help them to make their foot prints on a piece of paper or get a long piece of paper that they can walk across. Have all the children contribute to the same sheet of paper to make a classroom footprint-collage.

Creative Arts/Art; begins to understand and share opinions about artistic products and experiences.

Library and Writing

Have each child trace around their foot (with their shoe off) and then take a pencil and label the toes 1-5. Encourage the children to cut out around their foot.

Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; progresses in abilities to use writing, drawing, and art tools, including pencils, markers, chalk, paint brushes, and various types of technology.

Sand and Water

Put your sand table down on the floor today and let the children take off their shoes and socks and put their feet into the sand. You could also add water. Ask the children to use their words to tell you how it feels on their feet.

Science/Scientific Skills & Methods; develops growing ability to collect, describe, and record information through a variety of means, including discussion, drawings, maps, and charts.

Dramatic Play

Play shoe store with the children. Add a ruler, some shoe boxes, lots of shoes, a cash register, play money and several gift bags. Show the children how to stand on the ruler and measure their foot. Help the children identify what number/size their foot is.

Creative Arts/Dramatic Play; participates in a variety of dramatic play activities that become more extended and complex. AND Mathematics/Patterns & Measurement; shows progress in using standard and non-standard measures of length and area of objects.

Math and Manipulatives

Put out any people puzzles that you have today. Can the children show you where the head is, name the parts of the head. Show you where the arm is and name parts of the arm? ETC..

Science/Scientific Knowledge;expands knowledge of and respect for their bodies and the environment.

Outdoor Play;

Find a balance beam to walk, or draw a line with chalk on the cement. Can the children walk forward, backward, slide side to side?

Physical Health & Development/Gross Motor Skills;shows increasing levels of proficiency, control, and balance in walking, climbing, running, jumping, hopping, skipping, marching, and galloping.

Transitions

Make another set of footprints for your room but this time make both a left and right foot per children in the room. Use these to make a line up chart by the door. The first sets of feet both have the number 1, or one can have the numeral and the other the word. Make 1-20 so that when the children line up, everyone has a number set to stand on.

Mathematics/Number & Operations; begins to associate number concepts, vocabulary, quantities, and written numerals in meaningful ways.

Resources

The Magic Fish, Winslow Pinney Pels adapted by Freya Littledale

A fisherman goes out to sea and catches a magic fish! The fish brings forth wishes. What will the man wish for? Will the wishes make he and his wife happy?

Materials

How to draw a fish rebus cards
Whole fish, keep on ice till ready to use! (See Discovery)

Vocabulary

Wish (something that someone really hopes they will get because they really want it)
Bossy (Someone who tells other people what to do all the time)
Sea ( another name for the ocean)
Castle ( a really huge house where a might princess lives)
Queen ( the princesses mother and the boss of the land)

Before reading the Story

Ask the children if they know the word bossy means. Talk about how lots of people do not like it when someone is always telling them what to do. Talk about how cooperation is better to help people get along.

Language Development/Speaking & Communicating; develops increasing abilities ti understand and use language to communicate information, experiences, ideas, feelings, opinions, needs, questions; and for other varied purposes.

Reading the Story

As the fisherman calls to the fish, encourage the children to help you call. When you speak from the fish, make sure to add some attitude to your voice each time the fisherman comes back and asks for another wish.

Literacy/Book Knowledge & Appreciation; shows growing interest and involvement in listening to and discussing a variety of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry.

After Reading the Story

Ask the children if they liked the fisherman in the story? Do you think he was nice? (yes cause he told the fish his wife wanted a castle). Did you like the wife in the story? Was she nice? (no cause she was bossy to the man). Did you like the fish in the story? (no cause he took all the stuff back). Accept all answers.

Literacy/Book Knowledge & Appreciation; shows growing interest and involvement in listening to and discussing a variety of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. AND Approaches to Learning/Reasoning & problem-Solving; develops increasing abilities to classify, compare, and contrast objects, events, and experiences.

Discovery

If you are so lucky to have a fisherperson in your classroom or life, I love doing this project with children. It really is very cool. I have brought in several small perch to a long gar fish. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yga-uaYEWHQ If not, you could ask your director if they could purchase several whole fish from the grocers. When you are finished, talk about the parts of the fish that they see on their finished product.

Science/Scientific Knowledge; expands knowledge of and abilities to observe, describe, and discuss the natural world, materials, living things, and natural processes.

Music and Movement

Teach the children the action poem Fishy, Fishy.

Fishy, fishy in the brook Put hands together and make a fish, wiggle back & forth

Daddy catch him with a hook. Pretend to throw line out

Mommy fry you in a pan, Hold hands palms up and rock back and forth

I can eat you, yes I can. Pretend to eat fish

Blocks

Challenge the children you make a boat out of the blocks so we can go fishing. Which blocks will we have to use? How will you make it big enough for the 3 of you?

Mathematics/Geometry & Spatial Sense; progresses in ability to put shapes together and take shapes apart.

Art

Teach the children how to draw a fish using basic shapes. Let them draw fish and decorate with crayons or markers. Use the fish drawing cards.

Literacy/Print Awareness; develops growing understanding of different functions of forms of print such as signs, letters, newspapers, lists, messages, and menus. AND Approaches to Learning/Engagement & Persistence; grows in abilities to persist in and complete a variety of tasks, activities, projects, and experiences.

Math & Manipulatives

Cut out fish shapes in several colors of paper. Write a letter on each side of the fish. Use letters that are from the childrens names. Attach a paperclip to each fish. Attach a magnet to a stick with a piece of yarn. Let the children fish for letter fish.

Literacy/Alphabet Knowledge; identifies at least 19 letters of the alphabet, especially those in their own name.

Library & Writing

Ask the children to draw a picture of something they wish for. Write their dictation on the bottom of the page. (I wish I could get a puppy. I wish my brother would not hit me).

Literacy/Early Writing; begins to represent stories and experiences through pictures, dictation, and in play.

Sand and Water;

Water play. Add any small boats or fish that you might have.

Dramatic play

Bring in pictures, silk flowers, or something different to spruce up the center and make it more beautiful.

Outdoor Play

Look for long sticks on the playground and attach yarn to one end and we use a pine cone at the other. The children can then pretend to go fishing. You could also have the children pretend to be fish and then get caught on a fishing pole.

Creative Arts/Dramatic Play; shows growing creativity and imagination in using materials and in assuming different roles in dramatic play situations.

Transitions

Ask the children to tell something they might wish for as they go off to the next activity.