A free family activity · Read, notice, draw
Draw a guess, then a discovery
About ten minutes · Paper and crayons · A grown-up to read with. Make a two-picture record of how a question can change your mind. You can do the whole activity indoors with the story.
Wonder
Before rereading the reveal, ask: Why might ants carry pieces of leaves? Draw or tell your first idea. A guess is a starting point.
Investigate
Revisit pages 2–6 together. What could the children see for themselves? What did the nature book help them learn? Point to one clue for each. If you already have a safe place to watch local ants with a grown-up, observe quietly from beside their route. Record only what you actually see; most ants are not leafcutters.
Learn
Leafcutter ants use cut plant material to grow fungus in their nests. They tend the fungus, and food from the fungus helps feed the colony. Seeing a leaf disappear into a hole does not by itself show what happens underground; that part needs reliable research.
Do
Do: Beside your first picture, draw what you learned. Add an arrow from the first picture to the second. Draw a parade of ants carrying green triangles toward a separate underground fungus garden. Count your leaf pieces together. Ask a grown-up to label the underground view “A diagram of what we learned.” Keep both pictures on your Wonder Wall. What would you like to find out next?
Keep wondering
What might be happening somewhere you cannot see?
For grown-ups: This is a drawing and optional hands-off observation activity. Choose a safe viewing place and keep children and pets back from ants and their route. Do not handle, feed, bait, block, move, or follow ants into unsafe places. Do not dig, lift roots or stones, open nests, or collect ants or fungus. Keep food put away. Follow local wildlife guidance; choose the indoor version whenever safe observation is not possible.
Revisit the clues in the story →
Curious Wild Ones · The Great Leaf Parade · curiouswildones.com