A is for Ant

It's a pleasant coincidence that the theme of the class that Baby attended last week is on Ants. :) I thought that was a godsend as this topic was planned to be covered next week. :) I had the privilege of walking through the topic in a breeze, adding only some supplements to strengthen his idea of ants.

We started off with the letters...
Then, we flashed the words...
Followed by some pictures...
And, we did craftwork...
We did coloring...
We sang songs...
We played toy...
We had an imaginary taste of...
We read books... all on Ants!

--- Details ---
Language & Learning
Alphabets
Aa


Flash cards
ant
Ant
ANT
蚂蚁

Pictures
Picture cards and real ant! (actually I passed off some crawling bug as an ant. He tried to follow its movement and catch it!)

Bible Verses
Proverbs 30:24

Four things on earth are small, yet they are extremely wise:

Proverbs 30:25

Ants are creatures of little strength, yet they store up their food in the summer;

Proverbs 6:6

Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise!

Music & Action
The Ants Go Marching
I heard and seen most of the videos about this song on YouTube but none satisfied me. There were variations in the lyrics and the sound of the videos were no good, some too soft, others can make you sleep. I managed to pick this but still find this video too long to capture Baby's attention:


The lyrics:

The ants go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah, (march)
The ants go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah,
The ants go marching one by one,
The little one stops to suck his thumb, (pretend to suck thumb)
And they all go marching down to the ground, (stoop and march)
To get out of the rain. Boom, Boom, Boom!

Repeat with:
Two by two - tie his shoe
Three by three - climb a tree
Four by four - shut the door
Five by five - take a dive
Six by six - pick up sticks
Seven by seven - pray to heaven
Eight by eight - shut the gate
Nine by nine - check the time
Ten by ten - say the end.

小蚂蚁
A chinese song on ants. Somehow I like the chinese children songs. They are simple and meaningful.

一只蚂蚁在洞口，看见一粒豆，用力搬也搬不动，急得直摇头。
小小蚂蚁想一想，想个好办法，回洞请来好朋友，抬着一起走。


If the above cannot be viewed, try this link.

Karaoke

Managed to find this in our player. We played and sang this karaoke song to him.

Movement

There was an elastic band and he was supposed to wear the ant on the head, pretending that he is an ant. And, Baby was supposed to crawl and move around the room like an ant. That, however, didn't work out very well as he hates anything on his head but he wanted me to wear it on my head instead! So, in the end, I became the ant and he watched with amusement.

Arts & Craft
Coloring
He did coloring with red and black crayons.


Drawing
After the coloring, I took over the crayons and drew some ants on the newspaper that I used for the coloring session. Then, I asked him where he wants his ants to be. He pointed a spot and I drew the ants (red or black in random) on that very spot.


Craft 1: Ant Hill
You'll need the following materials:
- Plastic disposable bowl (or cup)
- Brown Paint
- Ants (Not real ants but ants drawn and cut out from cardboard or paper)
- Dried leaves
- Gold glitter (optional)
- Paint brush


First, paint the anthill (bowl) with the brown paint.


Then, paste the ants, still the leaves and sprinkle gold dust onto the hill while the paint is still wet.


The finished product. :)

Craft 2: 小蚂蚁搬豆
What you need:
- Paper with printed picture of ants
- Glue
- Few Black Beans
- A bowl of sand
- Paint brush


First, brush the glue on the bottom part of the paper and on the back of the ants.


Then, put the black beans on the back of the ants.


Next, grab a handful of sand and sprinkle it on the paper where the glue is.


The finished work.

Craft 3: Create an Ant from Egg Carton
This is yet another very commonly found craft on the Web.
What you'll need:
- Egg Carton
- Pipe cleaners
- Paint (Red or Black or any colours)
- Goggly Eyes or paper cut eyes for the ant

Just brush the egg carton with the paint, pipe in the legs and stick the eyes on and it's done. We didn't do this but I might want to try it for spider, i.e. when we get to the letter S. :P


Play Time
Hand Puppet
He saw a magnification of an ant close up and touched it. :)


Role Playing
A big Red Ant appeared from time to time to steal the apples one by one from the apple tree. Then, he fell down and hurt his elbow. All the kids helped the Ant pluck apples from the tree to bring back to his nest.


Sand Play
No ants found, we were just playing in the sand, one of the ants favorite hideouts!


Water Play
I placed the letters a, n, t and s in the bathtub and get Baby to pass me the letters one by one. And, he did it correctly! :)

Snack Time
This snack that I found from the Internet has a cute name. It's called the Ant in the Sand.

Here's how you prepare:
Place a Graham cracker or any biscuits in a ziploc bag or container. Crush the cracker into small pieces and lace some raisins or chocolate chips in the bag or container. Easy to make and i think it's yummy for Baby :)


School Time
Actually, most of the activities above were covered in school. I shall not elaborate further on this section. :)

Book & Story Time
The Ants Go Marching by Ann Owen and Sandra D'Antonio


The Ants Go Marching (Rookie Preschool)



Coming Up Next: A is for Aeroplane


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