Ant farms are the perfect centerpiece for any classroom studying ants. Although kids can find ant colonies in just a few minutes searching outdoors, ants build their homes beneath the ground, tucked safely away from predators and observers. Ant farms are designed with transparent walls so that the children can see the way that ants organize the various chambers in their colonies based on the needs of the collective. An ant farm can be purchased cheaply from toy stores or online science supply stores and stocked with ants harvested from the wild or provided through mail order services.
Have your kids design their own ant colonies. The designs should include all the necessary rooms, such as the egg room, the queen's chamber and the food storage chamber. Or have them create their own interpretations of what each room would look like if it was built for humans. This exercise will teach the children to think critically about what needs the ants have versus what needs they have as human beings.
Have your kids make their own three-dimensional model of an ant. This activity has lots of room for customization in regard to materials. The ants can be made from clay, papier-mache or marshmallows and pipe cleaners. This exercise will require the children to know the anatomy of an ant well enough to name and label each part, such as thorax, feelers and mandibles.
Have the children make guesses about what types of food ants like best. Do they like sweet food? Candy? Meat? Pick three or four of their suggestions and place small samples of them into a shoe box or onto a plate. Place the samples outdoors in an area that won't be disturbed during play or by wild animals. If there are any ants around, they will find the food and begin to feed. Take pictures or video of the ants eating so the children can see which of the foods the ants swarm over most. This is a simple science experiment with a hypothesis, test and replicable results.