As far as insects go, ants are incredibly smart and hardworking, among other characteristics worthy of learning about. They are also the most common household critters, so they are unlikely to go unnoticed by the observing eyes of children.
Spring and summer months – when ants are more active – are the perfect time to try out these fun and easy crafts that will help you introduce ants to your children or classroom. So grab your crafts bin and get ready for some fine motor fun!
Easy Ant Crafts for Preschool
As opposed to the other animal-themed crafts where we turn bigger creatures such as penguins and farm animals into smaller models to fit little hands, this time we’re enlarging ants using various materials for kids to learn about these fascinating insects better!
Using a three-section egg carton as the main material, this simple craft makes a great starting point for teaching preschoolers that ants, like any other insects, have only three main body parts: the head, thorax, and abdomen. This ant craft is also inexpensive to make as you only need one of those used egg cartons you’ve been saving and the following basic craft supplies:
- Egg carton
- Black pipe cleaners
- Paint
- Googly eyes
- Scissors
- Glue
- Paintbrush
Begin by cutting apart the egg carton into sets of three and have your kids paint it with whatever color they like. Once dry, poke three holes on either side of the body for the legs, and two holes at one end for the antennae. Then get those little hands involved again in pushing one pipe cleaner into each hole and gluing googly eyes below the antennae.
For precise instructions and helpful tips on securing the pipe cleaners, make sure to visit TotSchoolResources.
Kids who like to do and finish projects themselves will be happy to hear about this torn paper ant hills craft. Tearing paper, hand printing, and drawing basic lines — preschoolers can do everything that goes into this fine motor packed craft!
For this, you will only need the following:
- Brown or yellow, green, and blue construction papers
- Washable red ink pad
- Black marker
- Glue stick
Simply instruct kids to tear up brown or yellow construction paper and paste them on the blue paper to build the ant hill. Next, tear a long green strip to make some grass at the bottom of the hill. And for the most fun part, press down together three fingerprints rolled in red ink to form the body of each ant. Finish it off by drawing on the eyes, legs, and antennae with a black marker.
Over at 3Dinosaurs, they have photos of the entire process that you can show your kids for inspiration, so be sure to check them out!
If your preschooler is ready to learn their ABCs or has just started, you’d love this free printable letter craft by BethAnnAverill. Letter crafts are a quick and easy hands-on way to reinforce mastery of the alphabet and this one focuses on the first letter in its lowercase form.
Simple and straightforward, all you have to do is print out the template and have your kid color it in with crayons or any coloring utensils. The shapes in the template are a bit advanced so depending on your child’s scissors skills, they may or may not need help with the cutting. Once done, have them assemble and glue the parts onto another piece of paper, encouraging their muscle memory in making the lowercase letter A.
Looks fun? Here’s the complete materials list to help you get started:
- Printer
- Construction paper
- Scissors
- Glue
- Letter A Is for Ant template
You can never go wrong with finger puppets as they are such a versatile tool for play and learn activities. This ant finger puppet craft is fantastic for kids who love interacting with the things they make and pushing their imagination creating dialogues and storytelling.
SuperSimple made this project, well, super simple that kids will have lots of opportunities to help out. You can leave the tracing, threading of pipe cleaners, and gluing up to their little hands while you take care of cutting and punching holes. Once done, watch them have a blast playing with their finger ant puppet all while improving dexterity.
For this craft, you’ll need:
- Black thick card stock paper
- Black pipe cleaners
- Googly eyes
- Small round bowl
- Pencil
- Scissors
- Circle punch
- Hole punch
- Silver marker
- Glue
Hailing from the largest insect colony, what could be more interesting about ants than their life cycle? Working on this project is a perfect opportunity to discuss ant life cycle with preschoolers as it will help solidify their understanding of the topic.
To create this, you will need the following materials:
- Cardboard egg carton
- Small white pom poms
- White and pink yarn
- Brown paint
- Brown pipe cleaners
- Black marker
- Glue
You will be using egg carton sections to show all four stages of the cycle – egg, larva, pupa, and adult. To make the ant eggs, simply coat an upside-down egg carton section with glue and stick on small white pom poms to create a pile of eggs.
Next, build the larva and pupa by wrapping egg carton sections with yarn. Use a smaller carton and white yarn to represent the larva, while the pupa should be slightly bigger and wrapped with pink yarn. Finally, make your adult ant using a three-section egg carton and chenille craft stems, almost the same as with the first craft we’ve featured.
For precise instructions and helpful tips, click over to PreKPages!
We all love crafts that make use of materials easily grabbed at home! This ant craft is so simple and inexpensive to make as you will only need a few more basic supplies aside from plastic spoons probably left over from your kid’s birthday parties.
To get started, prepare the following:
- Plastic spoons (black, red, or any color of your choice)
- Pipe Cleaners
- Low temp mini glue gun
- Scissors
- Googly eyes (optional)
Begin by cutting the bowl or head of one spoon off its handle and gluing it onto the end of another spoon. But take note that you can skip this part and just glue the two spoons together if they’re quite straight anyway. Once the spoons are glued together, wind three pipe cleaners around the handles to make six legs. Then either glue on the googly eyes or have your child draw on the ant eyes with a black marker and that’s it! Easy to follow, this makes a great whole preschool class activity or simple home craft.
For tips and more ant craft inspiration, click over to Danielle’sPlace. They have lots of clever ideas!
Engage kids in another imaginative play with this paper ant craft that kids can play with. While this adorable loopy ant looks complicated, it is actually easy to put together and only involves rolling, bending, and gluing various sizes of paper strips. KidsCraftRoom even has a printable template that can help you save some time preparing.
For materials, you’ll need:
- Colored paper or cardstock
- Googly eyes
- Jumbo craft stick
- Marker pen
- Scissors
- Glue
Simply pick a cardstock or paper color you like your ant craft to be and either print the template or draw the shapes and strips yourself. For the ant’s body, you’ll need three rectangular parts: one medium sized for the head, a smaller one for the thorax, and the largest to make for the abdomen. You can have your child help out with cutting if they have developed enough hand control to cut straight lines. Once cut, roll and glue each part into a tube and then glue them in order onto a rectangle base.
Next, cut out two shorter strips for the antennae and six strips twice the length of the antennae for the legs. Glue them on, attach googly eyes and draw a smile onto your ant. Lastly, the magic happens when you glue a jumbo craft stick onto the bottom to serve as a handle at the back that kids hold to control their paper ant puppet.
What better way to make craft time extra fun than adding a mini game? The clever minds at iHeartCraftyThings incorporated a mini magazine picture hunt into their realistic ants at a picnic craft. If this sounds fantastic to you, go grab the following materials to get started:
- Red checkered scrapbook paper (12×12”)
- Old magazines
- Red paint
- Black marker
- Scissors
- Glue
Begin by asking your kids to look through old magazines to find pictures of food they think ants would be attracted to. Cut, arrange and glue them onto your picnic blanket-looking scrapbook paper. Then they can now add ants all over the blanket using their painted fingertips (similar to our featured craft #2), and wait for it to dry. Once ready, have them add the details to the ants using a marker.
Adding a quick picture hunt makes this project not only a good exercise for the kids’ small muscle groups but also for their minds.
Movement excites children a great deal so this ant craft should be a hit, especially for kids who love storytelling. The objective is to create a scene on a paper plate for the six-legged star of the show. To get started, gather the materials you’ll need:
- Paper plate
- Paint
- Black cardstock or regular paper
- Googly eyes
- Popsicle stick
- Black marker
- Glue stick
- Sticky tape
ArtyCraftyKids paper plate scene example features a sunny day, but you can use this opportunity to let kids’ imagination run wild and choose to create something different for their ant buddy. Once you’ve completed painting a scenery, you have an option to print the ant template the blog offers or draw the ant yourself onto the black cardstock/paper and cut it out. Then turn it into a puppet by securing a popsicle stick to its back and threading it through a slit in your paper plate.
Kids will certainly love watching their ant puppet move across the plate as they try to make fun dialogues, exercising their imagination and verbal skills.
No self-respecting list of preschool crafts could call itself complete without a toilet paper roll craft! This toilet paper roll ant craft takes only minutes to make. Also, you sure won’t have a problem preparing materials since everything you will need you probably already have at home and in your crafts bin.
For this, go and grab the following materials:
- Toilet paper roll
- Brown paint (or whichever color you like your ant to be)
- Pipe cleaners
- Tape or glue
Start by cutting your toilet paper roll into three parts to make up for the ant’s body. Have your child paint it brown or any color they desire. Cut six long pieces of pipe cleaners for the legs, and two shorter for the antennae. Tape or glue the legs onto the bottom of the middle tube and the antennae onto the head. Add the googly eyes and that’s it – quick and easy fine motor fun for ant-loving kids!
Check out PuppyDogTails for more ant craft inspiration.
Conclusion
Ants are fascinating critters. Besides the important role they play in the environment, kids and adults alike can learn a lot from them such as the value of hard work, preparedness, and teamwork. These preschool ant crafts are a great way to start teaching kids about these insects and impart some life lessons, all while helping them strengthen their fine motor skills.
What’s your favorite ant craft on the list? Let us know!
For more preschool crafts and activities, check these out.
