I filled up a bowl with different types of beans. They were encouraged to sort the different bean "ant families."
Anthills are piles of soil, sand and sometimes pine needles. Anthills have many chambers which are used for nurseries, storing food and even as resting places for the worker ants. They created an anthill with torn paper in the shape of an A and added ants using their finger prints.
They also created an anthill experimenting with a 3D shape and discovered how to used it in their anthill artwork. Through this process, children manipulated the materials to create their representation of an anthill. As children use their own creative ideas and follow their instincts, they build confidence in their own ideas and decisions.
They sorted bug counters, the older kids rolled a dice and sorted the number they rolled and the younger kids sorted by color. They stamped numbers in their fine motor journals.