Hands on Fun & Learning with an Ant Egg Carton

We enjoy creating opportunities for learning that come from a child's idea.  After watching a few ants in the yard, my daughter decided she wanted to make an Ant for her Egg Carton Craft.  I gave her the supplies and she went to work.  She knew she wanted legs, antennae and eyes for her ant.  She needed a little bit of help to start a few holes for the pipe cleaners but that was about it.  She played with the ant all afternoon once she created it, and I found her singing the "Ants Go Marching" song as she was playing.  She asked how do you spell "Ant" and I saw this as a teachable moment! 

Here's where I want to give my little "Teacher's Spin On" Playtime. Sometimes play is just play and it's so important for children to have opportunities throughout their day for imaginary play.

There are sometimes that you can build upon your child's play and artwork to make it a teachable moment.  We took the opportunity to learn more about Ants and the letter A with the activity.  We found the song, The Ants Go Marching song online to print out.  While I was there I noticed a little math activity for Ants, so I just clicked print on that too.  Now we have environmental print added into our playtime and math added to our playtime.  I had her draw a picture of the ant she created and I wrote the text A is for Ant and then she wrote her own upper case and lower case A. 

The very next day we created a big letter A and added Ants marching up and down the A.  She thought it was so much fun.  I also noticed when we were outside the next day that there were a few ants on the front side walk, we took a moment to watch and observe had a science moment. I found a few more printable online that helped to encourage us to talk about the parts of an ant and the life cycle of an ant.   We took a little trip to the library and found a few Ant books to check out too. 

Here are The Educators' Spin On It we encourage you to take a simple art project and turn it into a learning opportunity.  You can incorporate fine motor skills, literacy, writing, math and science all into an art project and make it an overall hands on experience that is developmentally appropriate for your child.  

Ant Resources to Print
Activity Sheet for Ant Numbers
The Ants Go Marching Printable Song Sheet
Ant Observation Sheet
Ant Hat
Ant Life Cycle
Little Black Ant Song by Sharon McDonald 
Counting Ants" Itty Bitty Book & Lesson Plan
Anatomy of an Ant

We hope you've enjoyed Our Spin On how to extend Egg Carton Crafts into Learning fun! 

I've discovered that you can make almost anything from an egg carton. It's truly up to your child's imagination how many things they can discover and create with a few simple supplies:  paper, markers, feathers, pipe cleaners, or paint.   Animals, Modes of Transportation, Concepts in Nature all can be created with a recycled Egg Carton. 

Here's are some of my favorite Egg Carton Crafts that I discovered while searching for you.  Check all the creative bloggers that are linking up below too, get inspired!   

Animals
Bunny    Chick      Caterpillar      Butterfly      Ladybug      Bee      Crab      Lobster      Turtle      Fish      Jellyfish      Alligator      Pig      Elephant      Bird

Seasonal
Bat      Spider      Turkey      Christmas Tree      Snowman      Heart

Transportation
Boat      Bus      Firetruck    Train

Nature
Tree      Flowers      Tulips      Nest

I wonder what new species we can discover with the rest of our egg cartons?

Want to join the fun? Join us at the Tinkerlab Creative Challenge!

Come check out all these creative bloggers for inspiration!   

Tinkerlab  Glittering Muffins  Inspiration Laboratories  Kitchen Counter Chronicles  Living At The Whiteheads Zoo  Make, Do & Friend  Mama Mia's heart2heart  Messy Kids  NurtureStore  PlayDrMom  Rainy Day Mum  Red Ted Art  Sun Hats & Wellie Boots  Teach Preschool  The Chocolate Muffin Tree  The Educators' Spin On It   The Golden Gleam  The Imagination Tree  Toddler Approved  Reading Confetti  Kindergarten & Preschool for Parents & Teachers  The Outlaw Mom Blog  Happy Little Messes  Rainbows Within Reach  Mommy Labs  Child Central Station  Green Owl Art  Reuse crafts  Experimenting-Mom  Duck Duck Octopus  Paint Cut Paste  Train Up a Child  Growing A Jeweled Rose   Coffee Cups and Crayons  Ready. Set. Read!  Scribble Doodle and Draw  Carrots Are Orange  JDaniel4's Mom  Quirky Momma  A Mom With A Lesson Plan  Good Long Road  Two2Read