My choice for this week’s Perfect Picture Book Friday is a National Geographic KIDS book called Ants by Melissa Stewart.
Publisher: Scholastic, 2010
Genre: Non-Fiction, Early Reader, Ants
Intended Audience: Ages 5 to 10
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4/5
Synopsis (from Amazon): Ants are everywhere. They creep, they crawl, they climb, and they fall. But they get up and they keep on working. Ants come in all different shapes, different sizes, and different colors. And they do a lot of different jobs. These hard-working little creatures thrive wherever they go, making whatever adaptations necessary in their ever-changing world.
Opening Lines: Do you know how many ants live in the world? More than 10,000,000,000,000,000. That’s a lot of ants!
Why I Like This Book: I read this book to my class yesterday and EVERYONE thought it was really cool. This book is jam-packed full of interesting facts about ants, along with some big, bright pictures. It ties in nicely with our writing unit on “All About” books. The large photographs and illustrations dominate each page so that visually it’s very appealing and easy to follow. There are lots of labels, text inserts and zoom-in images. The text itself can be read by a competent Grade 1 reader. It also has some attention-grabbing sections, i.e., “The Ant Man” and “Superhero Ants”. When we read the section on worker ants, the kids were amazed to learn that all the workers are females!
Classroom Connections:
- Learn how to draw ants cartoon-style.
- Make a cute egg carton ant following DLTK’s instructions.
- The Lily Foundation shows you how to make an ant farm in a jar. These are SO much fun to look at.
- Pest World for Kids has tons of info on ants. They have pictures and very detailed information on Argentine, Carpenter, Odorous House, Pavement, and Red Imported Fire Ants.
- Go ant hunting. Or more correctly, ant observing. Grab a magnifying glass and have a look outside. Ants are really fun to watch.
- Looking for a fictional companion book? Look no further. Hey, Little Ant is one of my favourites for a very close-up look at our little buggy friends. When a child is about to step on an ant and squish it, the ant looks up and starts talking.
Enjoy your long weekend, my fellow Canadians!
Any reason to pull out Hey, Little Ant and dust it off is good enough for me. One of my all-time faves. What fun ANT activities you compiled!EnJOY your long weekend,Barbara
SUch a great post Barb! THose are such great ideas and look like so much fun. I totally want to make my own ant farm now. I've never read Hey Little Ant but it looks adorable. I love those National Geographic Kids books. My students love those too!SarahSarah's First Grade Snippets
I have a few of the National Geographic KIDS books – all are excellent. We also love Hey Little Ant. Enjoy the long week end. sandirubberboots and elf shoes
Melissa Stewart is such a fabulous non fiction writer – I know I would find this fascinating. Cool choice.
Hey thanks, Barbara. It was fun looking for all the ant-tivities!
Thanks Sarah. NG books are always pretty good. I need to buy more:)
Thanks! You too. I started it off with an 18k run. I'm pooped:)
I agree. She's VERY good!
Lots of great ant ideas! Kids love National Geographic and it is so good for informational text. Thanks for all the ideas!LoriConversations in Literacy
Interesting book. Great for kids study. Thanks, Barbara!
Who woulda thought that ants could be so fun! Thanks for the good activities!!
I love those Nat'l Geo books. My first graders always got so much out of them. Kimberley
I am on the way to the library with ants in my antsy pants to find this book! It sounds so interesting! Love the cover. And, as always, you have great activities for kiddos.
You're welcome, Lori. I agree about NG's awesome books.
Thanks for stopping by, Patient Dreamer and Rhythm:)
They're one of the best out there!
Aw thanks, Penny. That's kind of you to say.