Ant on Public Radio

Author, Phil Hoose and educator & long-time Hey, Little Ant advocate, Rita Rubin Long appeared on Maine Public Radio to discuss the history of the book and The Hey, Little Ant Essay Challenge.

Listen Here!

Challenge Taken in Georgia

From a 2nd Grader in the beautiful South:

"The boy should not sqishe the ant. If they switced the boy would not like to get killed. The boy is killing nature. ants are a part of nature. The ant's would not like it. Let the ant live."

Challenge Taken in Washington St.

All of these amazing thoughts keep coming in from kids across the country. This from a second grader in Washington--

"I think the kid should let it free because I care for the environment and when I grow up I will be a scientist and I will stop people from cutting down trees. I care for ants because they are part of the environment and without the environment we could not survive."

Ant Visits Friends School

The Maine Sunday Telegram wrote up a nice piece about the Hey, Little Ant Essay Challenge. The article by Ray Routhier featured Phil Hoose's visit with the swell kids at the Friends School of Portland.

Quoted from Article:

"When I was younger, when ants would come out of their house, I would squish them," said Darrah, 7, as her classmates listened. "It was a long time ago."

Asked why she squished, Darrah said she thought it was "cool" at the time. But now, older and wiser, she realizes ants aren't just tiny moving objects.

"They have homes, like we do," she said.

Full Article

(Photo by Jack Milton)

Challenge Taken in Iowa

From a thoughtful second grader:

"I think the boy shouldn't squish the ant because he should think about his actions. He should think about how it would feel to be like the ant. What if he was the ant and the ant was him? If the kid hurts the ant and the ant had a chance to be bigger, the giant ant would probably go around squishing us in return. The moral is we get what we deserve."

Challenge Taken in Maryland

Thanks to all the great work that Prof. Patricia Dean at Salisbury University has doing to promote the Challenge, entries have been pouring in from Maryland. This from a third grader --

"I think the kid should leave the ant alone because ants are like people too, except they are tiny, red or black, they have antennas, and they are insects, but it doesn't matter. Ants our just like us, they have homes, nature, water, air, friends, trees, and more. Anyway the kid shouldn't squish the ant just because his friends tell him to, besides ants are people meant to live like we are meant to live."

Challenge Taken in Virginia

This great second grader answered the challenge with:

"Hey little ant, The kid says, ""I didn't see you there!"" He cups his hands and the ant climbs in. The kid lowers the ant by the nearest anthill. Soon his friend asks him why didn't you squish it? Well, if you were a ant would you want to be squished? ""Wow, you're right"", his friend said, as they walked home from the park."

Challenge Taken in Florida

This advice came in from a third grader in Florida today--

"The ant should bite the boy and run away. He is a little tiny ant and he can run faster than the boy. Then he would alert his friends."