Free Ant Printables and Montessori-Inspired Ant Activities

Ants are an interesting topic for young children … children typically love ants or are scared of them. My 2½-year-old granddaughter, Zoey, has experienced both with ants. So I wanted to prepare some printables and activities to help make ants a happy experience for Zoey and other children.

I’m excited to share my latest subscriber freebie … a Montessori-inspired ant pack! I’m also sharing the links to free ant printables for preschoolers through 1st graders (and sometimes older). To keep my list manageable, I don’t share coloring pages unless a page has a specific educational purpose related to ants.

Montessori-Inspired Ant Activities Using Free Printables

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links (at no cost to you).

Ant Pin Poking Activity

Free Printable: Ant Pattern from Pattern Universe from Pattern Universe or Printable Ant Shape from Printable Treats

For this activity, I used a Multicraft Tray, colored construction paper, Wood-Handled Puncher from Montessori Services (Read the push pin warning and why I recommend using the wood-handled puncher.), and a Felt Pad from Montessori Services (Note: The Montessori Services felt pads are now black so they don’t get dirty as easily.)

This is similar to my snail pin poking activity last month. You can’t see the ant image in the photo, but it does show up. If you wanted it clearer, you could simply print out the template and trace around it with white ink.

Punching out the ant is a good way for young child to develop fine motor coordination and work on the pencil grip needed for writing. It’s also a wonderful activity for developing the ability to concentrate.

Ant Mazes

Free Printable: Ant Mazes from Gift of Curiosity, which I laminated to use with the erasable crayon.

For this activity, I used a Multicraft tray, miniature ant, erasable crayon, and chalk eraser. I love this for an early writing activity. It doesn’t take a lot of coordination but is a good way to practice holding a writing instrument. There are more difficult ant mazes in the pack for older children, too. And a child could “walk” the ant through the maze for a simple fine-motor activity.

Counting Ants Picnic Activity

Free Printable: Counting Ants Game from Glued to My Crafts

For this activity, I used a Multicraft tray, Montessori Services basket, napkin from our tea party picnic, 10 miniature ants, and a small bamboo condiment cup to hold the ants. I just used 10 ants. If you’d like to lay this out like Montessori cards and counters, you’ll have enough ants (55 are needed). There are supposed to be 50+ ants, although there were 73 in my package.

You could also take turns picking a piece of picnic food and counting out the appropriate number of ants.

Ant and Anteater Subtraction Activity

Free Printable: Ant Numbers (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber)

Free Printable: Mathematics Operations Buttons from Flaticon

Free Printable: Giant Anteater Photo from Flickr Creative Commons

For this activity, I used a a Multicraft tray, miniature ants (totally fun), tweezers (to add a fine-motor activity), and small bamboo condiment cups to hold the pieces.

Here’s a possible layout for the activity with the photo. For our floor layouts, I always use a Montessori Services hemmed work rug.

I added Ants the Anteater Beanie Baby to this tray for a fun home learning activity. (Yes, we still have lots of Beanie Babies from when my kids were young!)

You could introduce younger children to hands-on subtraction by counting out the ants for a number card. Then have the anteater eat however many ants you want to “take away.” You don’t need to use equations or focus specifically on subtraction other than the concept of taking away from a number. Zoey had lots of fun with this!

Letter A Basket and Writing Tray

Free Printables: Ant Letters for A Letter Basket and Writing Tray (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber)

For the letter a basket, I used a basket with small objects beginning with /ă/ sound (short a sound). I like introducing the cursive letter along with the manuscript one, so I included the cursive a card. I used a variety of objects starting with /ă/. You could just say the phonetic sound as you or your child removes an item from the basket: for example, “/ă/ anteater, /ă/ alligator…”

Some of the objects are ones I had at home (such as Antsy the Anteater Teenie Beanie), although most are from Montessori Services (they have individual phonetic objects or a whole set available).

Ant Life Cycle Activities

Free Printable: Animal Life Cycles from The Pinay Homeschooler

For this activity, I used a Multicraft tray, Montessori services basket, and Safari Ltd. Life Cycle of an Ant. There are a number of activities you can prepare with this printable. A simple one is for the child to match each stage of the ant life cycle.

Free Ant Printables for Preschoolers-First Graders (some printables for up to grade 3)

Montessori-Inspired Ant Pack for DIY Cards and Counters, Number or Letter Matching, Number or Letter Basket, Number or Letter Salt/Sand Writing Tray, Letter Tracing, and DIY Movable Alphabet (subscriber freebie, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password – or check your inbox if you’re already a subscriber)