Tape Resist Ant Art!

Are you going buggy over spring?  Well, then today the preschool collaborators and I have 5 preschool bug activities that you'll absolutely love.  We've been digging ants lately, so I thought it would be fun to combine art and science to make some tape resist ant art!  

(And if you're looking for even more bug crafts, check out these egg carton bugs and my
fluttering butterfly craft!)

Tape Resist Ant Art!

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I came up with this idea because Chuck was infatuated with ant farms at our local natural history museum.  (Have you ever seen them? It's so cool seeing all the little ants scurrying around.)  By the way, have you checked out these casts of fire ant molds?  They are uber cool (and slightly icky when I imagine all those ants swarming around.   *Shivers.* )

Here's how we made our tape resist art.  

First we looked at photos of ant tunnels and drooled over ant farms.


Then, we placed pieces of masking tape onto watercolor paper to represent the ant tunnels.  (I find that masking tape often rips my paper when removed, so we first stuck and unstuck the tape against our clothes.  That helped to lessen the adhesion.)

Then, we painted over everything with tempera paint and let it dry.  (We don't own brown tempera paint, so we just mixed two complementary colors- red and green to make brown!)

Once everything dried, we peeled off the tape to reveal the tunnels!  It felt like magic!

Do you own ant stamps?  Well then it's time to pull them out.  We don't, so I just quickly made my own stamps from wine corks.

As you can see, I didn't include any legs.  They were too hard to cut out!

And then my son just stamped away, filling his tunnels with lots and lots of ants.  (I added in the legs and antenna.)

That's it!  You've got yourself a really fun science and art ant activity to do with the kids!  And while you're at it... why not do a whole ant study!  You can make this ant art, whip up these egg carton ants,  read any of these ant books , and then watch the Antz movie!  Ants up the wazoo.  Done.

And as promised, here are 4 other fun preschool bug activities!  

• Handmade Kids Art- Build a bug- Creative Play Dough Challenge
• I Heart Crafty Things- Ladybug Alphabet Matching Activity (with free printable)
• Arty Momma - Bug Themed Learning Activites
• A Little Pinch of Perfect - Learning About Bees- Activities and a free printable!

Let's keep in Contact!

You can always find  fun ideas on my Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter accounts!  (Or subscribe to my email mailing list by filling out the pink bar at the top of your screen.)

Happy making, friends!