Sid and his friends see a bunch of ants walking in a tiny little line. Teacher Susie tells them that ants do a lot of things as a group, including living in a colony. Ants talk to each other by touching antennae, and each of them has a special job to help the colony survive. The “worker” ants collect food to feed the colony, the “soldier” ants protect the colony, and the “queen” ant lays eggs to grow the colony. Join Sid the Science Kid and his friends as they pretend to be a colony of their own. What ant job would you want to help your colony?
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Hey, you’re a scientist, like me! Come discover with Sid the Science Kid.
“Okay, scientists! Today, let’s learn about something really cool . . . ants!”
We’re gonna go find some ants!
“Hey, look! Here’s a whole bunch of little ants, and they’re walking in a tiny little line! Ooh!”
Hey, you gotta check this out!
The ants always walk in a line. Can you see?
“That’s because the ants all live together.
They do all kinds of things as a group, which is called a colony.”
“I’ll bet when the ants work together, they get more work done.”
“Oh. That’s true, but even when ants are alone, they’re really strong.
My mom said one ant can lift sixty ants!”
“Hey, come here! Check this out!”
“Huh? What is it?”
“Look what these ants are doing!
They’re carrying so much food back to their home! They must be really hungry!”
“Scientists, time for class!”
“Okay, we’re coming!”
“Can we learn more about ants?”
“We sure can, Sid!
Well, as we learned earlier, ants live together in a group called a colony. They all dig a house underground, which we call an anthill.
Outside the anthill, the ants are busy working since every ant has a special job.
They also have an interesting way of communicating with each other: they touch antennae.”
“I’m an ant!”
“Hi, Gabriela the ant. How are you?”
“Oh, it looks like my ant scientists have a lot to talk about!”
“I got lots of yummy food, so we should carry it back to the anthill together.”
“Okay! Let’s go!”
“Now let’s look at all the different jobs ants have.
The ‘soldier’ ants stand guard.
The ‘worker’ ants collect food, and at bottom of the anthill, lives the queen. She’s busy laying eggs that hatch into baby ants.”
“Let’s be ants. I’m the queen! You’re a baby.”
“Is someone trying to come in here? I hope they don’t try to take our food away.”
“Nope, I’m a soldier ant!”
“I’m glad my soldier ants are keeping watch!”
“Here I come. I’m a worker ant.
I’m bringing food to this little baby so it’ll grow up to be a nice strong ant.”
“Oh, eggs? I—I don’t like eggs. I want chicken. Gagoo!”
“What a picky baby ant!”
“And that’s our anthill!”
“Uh-huh. Thank you!”
“Wow, I’d love to live in your anthill!”
“Hey! An enemy is here!
Guys look out!”
“Protect the queen!”
“Hide the food!”
“Oh no, there are so many ants! Oh no! I need to fly away!”
“Go away! Get away from our anthill!”
“Look at these ants, Sid! I wonder where they’re going.”
“They must be worker ants bringing food home to the anthill.”
You can observe ants outdoors too.
“Hmm, I wonder what else I can find—ooh, a giant insect! What is it?”
“It’s Dad bug! Come on in for dinner, guys.”