DLTK's Crafts for Kids
Egg Carton Ant

This is another faithful old craft idea that I've done with my daughters and, way back when, as a child myself.  Accompany it with a tasty snack of "ants on a log" (cheese whiz coated celery sticks sprinkled with raisins) and a rousing song of " The Ants Go Marching".

The ant craft is fairly correct from an anatomic standpoint -- three body parts (head, thorax and abdomen), 6 legs and 2 antennae.

Materials:

• cardboard egg carton - you need three cups attached
• scissors,
• yellow, brown, red or black tempra paint (or another color if you want to make a creative ant)
• paint brush
• 4 pipe cleaners (chenille) -- three for legs and one for the antenna
• sharp pencil
• wiggly eyes, 2 cheerios or 2 fruit loops
• black marker
• glue

Craft Instructions:

• Cut a strip of cups (3 cups) from the egg carton -- adults can do this before craft time.
• Paint the cups and let dry
• using a sharp pencil, poke two holes in the top of the first cup -- adults can do this step before craft time.
• from inside the cup, poke both ends of the pipe cleaner through the pencil holes (one end through each hole) to make antennae. 
  • You can twirl the ends around a pencil to make them curly.
• using a sharp pencil, poke one hole on each side of each cup (6 holes in total) -- again, adults can do this step.
• Push a pipecleaner through the holes in the first cup.
  • Make the same amount of pipecleaner stick out the sides -- these are two legs -- you can bend little feet into the ends of the pipecleaner if you like.
  • Repeat with the second cup and third cup
  • You should end up with 6 legs when you're through
• Glue the wiggly eyes onto the head (you could substitute 2 cheerios or 2 fruit loops).
• Optional:  draw on a mouth with black marker

Print friendly version of these instructions