Ants

Sometimes I plan a lesson or activity, and I think it will take a long time, but it ends up being over in five minutes. Today I planned a five-minute lesson on ants, and it went on for three hours!  I bought an ant farm several months ago and recently ordered the ants.  It's completely illogical that I paid four dollars for ants when I have a whole yard full of billions of free ants.  Yesterday the special non-mating Harvester ants arrived.  This morning I put them in the fridge so they would doze off and be easier to transfer to the farm.  While they were nodding off to sleep, I taught my lesson about the features and life cycles of ants.  Then we dumped the sleepy ants into the farm and spent a long time watching them wake up and start burrowing. 

Watching the ants inspired Sarah to draw them:

Then she donned some antennae, and they both wanted to play ants.

The learning was really cemented during playtime.  Here they are using their antennae to communicate:

The red ant and the black ant built a burrow and dove in:

The best part was that they wanted me to be the queen ant, whose only job is to eat and lay eggs.  Sarah put her tiara on me over my antennae, and I assumed my queenly English accent and attitude.  The worker ants covered me with a blanket and brought me food.  All I had to do was boss them around (which comes naturally) and say "plop plop plop" occasionally as I laid the eggs.