🐜 Leafcutter ant report template
Three versions, one page each. Print the one for your child’s grade. The facts come from the leafcutter ant page, every number with its source.
Grades 1–2
My report: the leafcutter ant
Atta cephalotes · Grades 1–2
| Length | 0.079 to 0.47 in (2 mm to 1.2 cm) |
|---|---|
| Height at the shoulder | not checked yet: look it up! |
| Weight | not checked yet: look it up! |
| Top speed | not checked yet: look it up! |
| How long it lives | not checked yet: look it up! |
Read about it
Leafcutter ants cut leaves into small pieces. They carry the pieces over their heads like green umbrellas. In their nest, the leaves help them grow food.
It lives in:
It eats:
The coolest thing I learned:
Where my facts came from
- National Park Service, Park Science: leafcutter ant Atta mexicana at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, nps.gov/articles/parkscience34-1_32-42_mintzer_3876.htm, checked 2026-10-30
Grades 3–4
My report: the leafcutter ant
Atta cephalotes · Grades 3–4
| Length | 0.079 to 0.47 in (2 mm to 1.2 cm) |
|---|---|
| Height at the shoulder | not checked yet: look it up! |
| Weight | not checked yet: look it up! |
| Top speed | not checked yet: look it up! |
| How long it lives | not checked yet: look it up! |
Read about it
Leafcutter ants don't eat the leaves. They carry them underground and chew them into a paste that feeds a fungus the ants grow like a garden. The ants then eat the fungus, and tiny ants sometimes ride on the leaf pieces to guard the carriers.
Where it lives (its habitat):
What it eats:
How its body helps it live there:
My favorite fact:
A question I still have:
Where my facts came from
- National Park Service, Park Science: leafcutter ant Atta mexicana at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, nps.gov/articles/parkscience34-1_32-42_mintzer_3876.htm, checked 2026-10-30
Grades 5–6
My report: the leafcutter ant
Atta cephalotes · Grades 5–6
| Length | 0.079 to 0.47 in (2 mm to 1.2 cm) |
|---|---|
| Height at the shoulder | not checked yet: look it up! |
| Weight | not checked yet: look it up! |
| Top speed | not checked yet: look it up! |
| How long it lives | not checked yet: look it up! |
Read about it
A leafcutter nest is like a busy city. Ants of many sizes each have a job: the middle-sized ones cut and carry leaves, the tiny ones tend the fungus garden, and one queen lays all the eggs. The ants even keep their garden healthy by carrying helpful bacteria on their bodies that protect the fungus from harmful molds. Leafcutters farmed fungus long before people ever farmed crops.
Habitat and range: where on Earth, and what the place is like:
Diet: what it eats, and what might eat it:
Adaptations: two ways its body or habits help it survive:
Is it in danger? Why or why not?:
Compare it with another animal you know:
Bibliography: write each source below as site, page title, date checked:
Where my facts came from
- National Park Service, Park Science: leafcutter ant Atta mexicana at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, nps.gov/articles/parkscience34-1_32-42_mintzer_3876.htm, checked 2026-10-30