Play Dough Ant Life Cycle - No Stress Homeschooling

Has your child ever asked about ants and the ant life cycle? Courtesy of The Magic School Bus, my daughter has finally found a way to co-exist with ants and they no longer give her nightmares! I love using play dough to demonstrate things to my kids- its such a hands on and sensory experience. Today I will share with you our play dough ant life cycle activity.

What You Need for the Play Dough Ant Life Cycle

Before you can start all the fun you need a few things: (Please note that affiliate links are used below for your convenience):

Ant Life Cycle Toy – 4 Piece Set Shows Life Cycle Of An Ant Safari Life Cycle Of An Ant King International Life Cycle Puzzles (Set of 4) * ANT LIFE CYCLE STAGES Are You an Ant? (Backyard Books) Ants 4 You Illuminated Ant Farm The Lives of Ants

You will also need the printable found at the end of the post.

Start out by talking about the ant life cycle. Here are a few quick points:

The ant life cycle has 4 parts or stages. The egg, the larva, the pupa and then the ant. (There is a card included in the pack that has all the stages)
The queen lays all the eggs.
If an egg is fertilized, it becomes a female ant. If not, it becomes a male ant.
Ants live in a community called colonies.

First shape an egg from the play dough and say , “The queen lays all the eggs in the colony”

Next shape the larva. The larva comes out when the egg hatches. It has no eyes and it looks like a worm. It eats as much as it can so that it can get bigger.

When the larva is big enough, it becomes a pupa. This pupa’s job is to rest so it can be transformed into an ant.