Reading Resource

Every title in the Ranger Rick Zootles series is designed to be used for fun and learning, and as a reading resource as well. The pages are written simply and address various stages of emerging literacy, and they encourage new readers to

exercise their new skills at just the right level. Reading Ranger

Rick Zootles together will provide “together time” for you and your child—and reinforce vocabulary, comprehension, and early reading skills, too.

It’s a ZOO out there! The best place to find ants is in your own backyard. In some parts of the country, you might not see ants all the time, so you have to be prepared to don your naturalist’s hat at a moment’s notice. Silly as it seems, watching ants with a preschooler can be a delightful way to spend a summer afternoon. As you and your child watch the ants (making sure, of course, not to touch the ants), try:

• Putting a pebble or other obstacle in their path. How do the ants respond?

• Noticing whether the ants are running helter skelter or scurrying in a straight line.

• If the ants are in a line, take a piece of chalk and trace their path. Come back the

next day and see if the ants are following the exact same route.

• Take a peek just before bedtime. Are the ants still at work or have they called it quits for the night?

• AntsWhere in the WORLD?

The number 9 is featured throughout Ants. Counting to 9, finding 9s, identifying sets of 9, and learning to connect symbols with concepts is great practice for

children who are learning their numbers and mastering early math skills. How many 9s can you and your child locate together throughout Ants?

The concepts of above and below are first cousins to up and down, as well as over and under, since they’re all about vertical relationships. Children grasp these complex ideas through constant exposure and use. The more we talk about above and below in our everyday conversations, the quicker our kids will incorporate them into theirs. Ants are the perfect animals to help master these ideas since they constantly traverse the world, going above and below the earth’s surface.

Resource Corner

TMAnts March/April 2020

How many ants can you count in each box? Write the number you count next to the picture. Which box has 9 ants in it? Circle that box.Ready for some harder questions?Which box has the smallest number of ants?Which box has the greatest number of ants?

Ants live together in big groups called colonies, so when you see one ant, keep looking—you’ll usually see another one nearby!

Find the9!

Did you know that some colonies have over a million ants in them? That’s a lot more than 9!

Fun Pages

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Copyright © 2020 by The National Wildlife Federation®

Which animal is above the cat? Color it brown.Which animal is below the cat? Color it red.You can color the cat and stars any colors you’d like!

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Up Above,Down Below

Up Above,Down Below

Ants are very strong for their size, but not even the strongest ant could lift the animals this ant is carrying!

Fun Pages

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Copyright © 2020 by The National Wildlife Federation®

• Busy Ants . . . (p. 1) Counting to 9 on your fingers requires holding down a thumb. This little bit of fine-motor coordination can be tricky for some preschoolers, and when that thumb pops up, it can throw their counting off completely. If this sounds like your child, try counting things (pennies, spoons, whatever) rather than fingers.• ZOOTLES TO-DO: With a marker, label the

outside of small paper cups with the numbers 1–9. Put a few spoonfuls of graham cracker crumbs in each cup to make a sandy home for some “ants.” Give your child a handful of raisins and let her count the right number into each cup. When you’re done, dump it all into a bowl of yogurt for a snack of “anthills in the snow.”

• All About Ants (p. 2-3) allows you and your child to ponder the striking similarities and bizarre differences between ants and people. • ZOOTLES TO-DO: Master ant morphology by

cutting out a row of three egg cups from an egg carton to make an ant. Your child can assemble the rest of the ant like this:

• Poke six pipe cleaners into the center section for legs.• Poke two more pipe cleaners in the head for antennae.• Glue on two buttons for eyes.

• Ant Food (p. 4-5) An ant’s favorite foods may be old news to us, but for preschoolers, realizing that little ants even eat at all is a major scientific discovery. • ZOOTLES TO-DO: Figure out your local ants’

food preferences. The next time you find ants in the yard, put out a paper plate with a few things your child thinks an ant might like, such as cookie crumbs, lettuce, or a bit of cheese. Come back later to find out what the ants are eating.

• Amazing Ants (p. 6-7) delves into some of the unusual ways ants have adapted to their environments. With over 8,000 known species

scattered across countless ecosystems, ants have had plenty of opportunities to evolve in amazing ways.• ZOOTLES TO-DO: Stretch your child’s imagination

and awareness of ecosystems by asking him to imagine how he would adapt if he were an ant living in an extreme climate. If he were a snow ant, how would he stay warm? If he were a swamp ant, how would he stay dry? If he were a desert ant, how would he find water?

• Home Sweet Home (p. 8-9) Ants are called social insects, which means they live cooper-atively in large colonies and that each ant performs a special job that enables the entire group to thrive. In human societies, people take on special jobs, too.• ZOOTLES TO-DO: Give your child a large piece

of paper. On one side, your child can draw ants doing the different jobs the colony needs. On the other side, draw or glue on pictures of community workers that humans need, such as teachers, farmers, and police officers.

• Ant Watching (p.16-17) As a professional ant watcher, Deborah Gordon spends lots of time looking both above and below the earth’s surface to observe what ants are doing.• ZOOTLES TO-DO: Help your child discover

life below the ground by digging a spadeful of dirt from the yard and spreading it out on a piece of newspaper. Do you see any ants or worms? Any pebbles or plant roots? If you have a magnifying glass, you can look even more closely. Sort things into categories such as animals and plants or living and nonliving.

• Otto and Allie (back cover) The ever intrepid Otto and Allie make important discoveries about strength and weight. Preschoolers, however, might need a little help to understand these concepts. • ZOOTLES TO-DO: An ant can lift more than it

weighs, but what about your child? Put your child on the bathroom scale to see what she weighs. Then fill a wastebasket with some magazines. Can your child lift it, without straining? Weigh the wastebasket. Help your child figure out if the wastebasket weighs more than she does.

What ELSE can we DO?

Hey, if we got an ant farm, would that make

us ant farmers?

Otto:An adventure-loving otter

Allie:An intrepid

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