Activity to accompany Fire Ant Physiques
Activity: Rolling for Parts of an Ant
- Overview
- Students will match the parts of an ant to a diagram, completing the diagram by rolling the appropriate numbers on a pair of dice.
- Objective
- Students will learn about the parts of insects and insect symmetry using the ant diagram.
- Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) (other states may have similar systems)
- Science
- 3rd grade: 3.1.b, 3.9.a
- 4th grade: 4.3.c, 4.6.c, 4.8.a, 4.8.b
- 5th grade: 5.3.c, 5.9.a, 5.9.b, 5.9.c
- Materials
- Pair of dice
- Worksheet: Rolling for Parts of an Ant, one for each student
- Colored pencils, markers or crayons for each student
- Activity
- Give each student a copy of the Parts of an Ant worksheet. The object of the activity is to be the first player to complete the diagram by rolling the dice.
- Here’s what they must roll to fill in each part of the diagram:
- 1 - head
- 2 - thorax
- 3 - head
- 4 - antenna
- 5 - antenna
- 6 - leg
- 7 - leg
- 8 - leg
- 9 - leg
- 10 - leg
- 11 - leg
- 12 - petiole
- Each player rolls both dice at the same time and colors in the parts indicated by the dice.
- Each player may get only one ant part per roll. For example: If a player rolls a “1” and a “5,” the player may color in the head (1) or one antenna (5) or one leg (1 + 6 = 7). Additional example: If a player rolls a”5” and a “6,” the player may fills in an antenna (5) or a leg (6) or a leg (5 + 6 = 11). The player who fills in all 12 pieces first wins.
- Wrap-up
- When the game is over, the students should be able to identify the main parts of an ant.
Note to teachers: You may want to refer to the KIDzANTS Teacher Manual, which is from the original release of KIDzANTS made by Texas AgriLife Extension.
PLEASE PROVIDE FEEDBACK
The fire ant eXtension youth team would love some feedback from your experience. Please contact Paul Nester (p-nester@tamu.edu) with questions, comments, testimonials, and particularly images of your students' accomplishments and the students engaging in this activity. If you send images that include students, please be sure that parental approval has been given to use the image. Most schools routinely have parents sign a photographic release form. If you are unsure whether a permission form has been completed, you can use this form and send it along with the image: Photography Release Form
