An Inspired Idea

E and I have been learning about ants thanks to a fun new book we added to our library, The Wonderful Wisdom of Ants by Philip Bunting.

It’s a beautifully illustrated story book with humourous explanations of the life of ants. E has taken to it thanks to the inclusion of rainbow sprinkles and ant poop.

With ants a hot topic E stumbled on a trail of ants out the front of our house and of course our science adventure began. We tracked these busy little friends and discovered they were having dinner in our green waste bin, then traveling home to the council strip out front.

After his shower, E decided to feed them some popcorn but they were very full and were all heading home from their big dinner (plus it was getting cold and dark and the ants needed to get home for a warm sleep).

E decided we needed to read our special book to the ants before he told the ants to go home for bed.

“The sun’s gone to bed ants, so you have to go home to bed, because I have to go to bed. Good night ants, see you in the morning”

E

In the morning the first thing he said was not good morning, but

“We need to go see if my ants ate their popcorn”

E

The ants had eaten some popcorn!

E insisted on tracking them again and explaining to me what had happened. He then insisted on running inside, getting his book and reading it to them again.

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Later in the day we checked on the ants and found they’d eaten another bit of popcorn. We decided to feed them chicken for dinner.

It was brilliant seeing the ants slowly come together to cut the chicken up and carry it away. E lost his mind in excitement seeing them work and carrying big pieces along.

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I reminded E that he was gifted a magnifying glass with one of his books and that he could use it to make the ants appear larger, and easier for seeing. Learning how to use it properly took some practice.

We decided for fun to feed the ants some rainbow sprinkles just like the book referenced. E and I found this delightful, watching a tiny ant carry away a whole sprinkle ready for a sprinkle party!

I definitely recommend following some ants and perhaps feeding them small amounts of food outside of the home. They are absolutely fascinating and teach us so much about team work and community. Sometimes it’s just relaxing watching little critters work and being in a state of amazement with your child.

This adventure helped us build on our scientific processes of observing, inferring, researching and explaining, and fostered our developing attention span, as we paid close attention to the actions of the ants. We started to unpack how humans impact the world around them, in particular taking care of the environment so the animals can live safely and do their part in keeping the world healthy. E engaged meaningfully with his book and was able to relate and apply this to his immediate world. His actions were caring, considerate and he began to acknowledge how his actions may effect his ant friends, for instance stepping on them would make them sad. We explored what it means to be a family, ant or human, and how we work together for the greater good of our colony and the greater community on Earth.