edHelper.com
 How Do Ants Build Colonies?

How Do Ants Build Colonies?
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 6 to 8
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   6.95

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    above-ground, multi-storied, persistent, discard, sawdust, saliva, maintain, opening, commonly, original, ready-made, lead, deposit, colony, defend, reinforce
     content words:    Allegheny Mountains, United States, San Francisco

Print How Do Ants Build Colonies?
     Print How Do Ants Build Colonies?  (font options, pick words for additional puzzles, and more)

Quickly Print - PDF format
     Quickly Print: PDF (2 columns per page)
     Quickly Print: PDF (full page)

Quickly Print - HTML format
     Quickly Print: HTML

Proofreading Activity
     Print a proofreading activity

Feedback on How Do Ants Build Colonies?
     Leave your feedback on How Do Ants Build Colonies?  (use this link if you found an error in the story)

How Do Ants Build Colonies?
By Sharon Fabian 		  
1     An ant hill in Argentina
 
2     The queen begins the new colony. When she is ready, a queen ant leaves her original colony and sets out to begin a colony of her own. She locates a good spot, maybe under a rock where it is safe and warm, and digs a small chamber. There her babies will hatch and be the beginning of a new colony.
 
3     Many types of ants build their colonies underground, but not all. Some build above-ground mounds, and some build colonies in trees. Some ant colonies are small and others are huge.
 
4     An ant colony can have anywhere from a few ants to millions. Most of the ants in the colony are workers, small female ants that do a variety of jobs to maintain the colony. Some of the workers will care for the baby ants, some will defend the nests, and some will provide and store food. Many of the workers will dig tunnels to build and expand the colony.

Paragraphs 5 to 15:
For the complete story with questions: click here for printable
Copyright © 2009 edHelper