Science and Writing FUN! {Habitats, Life Cycles, Structures & Functions} Ants, Ants, Ants!!!

I have really enjoyed beginning the year with a rainforest theme!  This week, we began digging into our rainforest extravaganza!! It has been CRAZY busy! But... I did manage to get a few snapshots of our week!

Last week I introduced the rainforest habitat by reading The Umbrella by Jan Brett. We also read quite a few more rainforest books {fact & fiction} and created this rainforest layer craftivity. This activity is included in my rainforest extravaganza unit and can be found here.

This week we have been learning all about the forest floor and exploring ants!!! These books were awesome!!! Those Amazing Ants is a must have for an ant unit!!

We had to get "buggy" by making ant hats.  It was definitely a hit! My kiddos loved being ants for the week! {This pic is of my daughter!  She liked getting "buggy" too!!!}

We began with a KWL and discussed the structures and functions of ants.  We got a kick out of wearing our hats and using our ant "structures" to move around the room. Here are a few snapshots of our structures & functions worksheets.

We discussed an ants life cycle and created this life cycle wheel and wrote about it! 

We learned about ant habitats and had to use our detective skills to find an ant hill. Of course, we had to wear our hats!! This is what we found!!! The kiddos also got to draw and write about their observations. 

And last but not least, they wrote some interesting ant facts and made these cute ant colony craftivities!! 

I have to say, it has been a lot of fun learning about ants!  Life science can be so much fun when the kids get to really EXPERIENCE and ENGAGE in what they are learning about.  It also makes reading and writing so much more exciting!  Next week we are going to continue to explore the forest floor as we learn about worms. YUCK!!! Stay tuned!!!! All of the previous ant activities can be found here.