Ant Farm

Did you know that if you were as strong as an ant, you could lift a grown-up?! Get ready to learn how to create your very own Ant Farm and observe these mighty insects!

Sheet foam
Felt letters
Scissors
Glue
Utility knife
Tape
Black marker
6 blue pipe cleaners
Googly eyes
Silver pipe cleaner
Spoon
Dirt
Medium plastic bowl
Large plastic bowl with lid
Cotton ball
Sugar water

REMEMBER THAT IT'S IMPORTANT TO ALWAYS WORK UNDER ADULT SUPERVISION. SOMETIMES WE USE THINGS THAT CAN BE HARMFUL, LIKE SCISSORS, SO DON'T EVER ATTEMPT TO MAKE THESE CRAFT PROJECTS ALONE.

1. Start by making a decorative topper for your ant farm. Take your felt letters and stick them onto your sheet foam to spell out “ANTS.” You can always use paint or markers if you don’t have letters.
2. With a black marker, draw the body of an ant around your letters on your sheet foam and cut it out.
3. Take six blue pipe cleaners and bend them in half.
4. Poke each pipe cleaner through the bottom of your ant body to give it legs.
5. Bend the ends of each pipe cleaner into a circle to make feet.
6. Curve the legs out into u-shapes.
7. Time to make the antennas. Take a silver pipe cleaner and poke it through the top of your ant’s head. Thread it through half way and fold the ends upward. Make the ends into spirals.
8. Apply a googly eye to your ant’s head using glue. You can always draw or paint eyes on if you don’t have them.
9. Draw a smile on your ant using a black marker and set it aside to dry.
10. Time to make the ant farm itself. You’ll need two clear plastic bowls, one small enough to fit inside the other with a lid over them. Take the lid for the larger bowl and poke breathing holes into it with a utility knife. Make sure the holes aren’t too big or your ants will be able to escape!
11. Place the smaller bowl into the larger bowl and fill the space between them with dirt using a spoon. Now you’ll be able to see ants tunnel through the thin layers of dirt within the bowl.
12. Time to fill your farm with ants! You can order them online, or collect them in a cup from outside. Try to find the queen of a colony. Make sure you don’t keep ants for more then 2 or 3 days.
13. Once you have your ants you’ll need to feed them. Soak a cotton ball in some sugar water and place it inside the smaller bowl. The ants will crawl into the smaller bowl from the dirt and be able to eat the sugar water.
14. Place your lid tightly over the ant farm to keep the ants inside.
15. Stand your decorative ant topper onto the lid and secure it at the legs with tape.