🧀🐜The Ant Who Worked for a Grilled Cheese Preschool Lesson (non-religious)

🧀🐜 “The Ant Who Worked for a Grilled Cheese”

A silly story about saving, hard work, and cheesy dreams! 

By The Everyday Schoolhouse

 

📌 Snippet Description:

This lighthearted preschool lesson features a hard-working ant who dreams of a gooey grilled cheese sandwich. With a fun story, cut-and-paste craft, snack idea, silly song, and learning activity, this lesson brings laughter and learning together in The Everyday Schoolhouse!

 

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📖 STORY TIME:

“The Ant Who Worked for a Grilled Cheese”

Andy the Ant was teeny, tiny, and super determined.

He didn’t want crumbs or crackers. He didn’t want jellybeans or even cupcakes.
Andy wanted... a grilled cheese sandwich. A hot, melty, toasty grilled cheese sandwich from The Grilled Cheese Sandwich Shop on Main Street.

But grilled cheese sandwiches didn’t grow on trees—nope! They cost five bug bucks.

So Andy got a job at the tiniest shoe store in Bugtown.
He polished grasshopper boots. He stacked caterpillar slippers. He even tried loafers on beetles (that didn’t go well).

For five whole days, Andy worked. He put all his tiny coins in a jar and labeled it: “Grilled Cheese Fund.”

Finally—clink! clink!—his jar was full!
He marched right to the sandwich shop, climbed the counter, and shouted,
“One grilled cheese, please!”

The sandwich was taller than him. He had to climb it like a mountain. But bite by bite, he gobbled it down.

Andy smiled and said, “Worth. Every. Penny.”

From then on, Andy worked every week... for another grilled cheese.

Because saving up for something cheesy?
Was just his style.

The End.

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🎨 CRAFT:

Cut & Glue Andy the Ant Craft

Supplies:

• Printable cutout (Andy the Ant Template in our shop for sale)

• Blue construction paper
  

• Crayons or markers
  

Directions:

1. Color Andy the ant.

2. Cut out (or let a grown-up help).

3. Glue onto the construction paper.
   

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🍎 SNACK IDEA:

Mini Grilled Cheese Coins!
Use a small round cookie cutter to make “coin-sized” grilled cheese sandwiches  Serve with apple slices on the side for a fun reward after hard work!

Mini Cheese McMuffin Coins! Or you can make little cheese McMuffins if you want something a little easier. You can buy the English Mcmuffins ready to go from the store and add some cheese in the center and warm up in microwave. Easy and so delicious!

Mini Cheeseburger Sliders! These would even work to represent a coin too! They are available in the freezer section in many different stores.

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🎵 SONG:

“Grilled Cheese, If You Please!”
(Sing to the tune of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”)

Grilled cheese, grilled cheese, if you please,
Melted, golden, full of cheese!
Tiny ant with coins so bright,
Saved up every single night.
Grilled cheese, grilled cheese, what a treat,
Working made it extra sweet!

 

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🎲 GAME:

“Save the Coins!”
Scatter play coins or cutout circles around the room. Have kids collect five coins and bring them to the “Grilled Cheese Shop” (a chair or table) to pretend-buy a paper sandwich!

 

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✏️ LEARNING ACTIVITY:

Work & Save Sorting Tray
Use plastic bugs and coins. Let children pretend the bugs are doing tasks (stacking blocks, carrying pom-poms), and each task earns a coin. They can count and trade in 5 coins for a pretend grilled cheese printable.

 

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💬 LET’S TALK ABOUT IT (Teacher/Parent Prompts):

• Why did Andy have to work to buy the sandwich?

• What are things we save money or time for?

• How does it feel to work hard and then enjoy something?

 

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💡 What We’re Learning

This story helps children understand the value of effort and saving. Andy the Ant worked hard for something he really wanted—a grilled cheese sandwich! Kids learn that when we work toward a goal and wait patiently, the reward feels even more special. It also opens the door to early conversations about jobs, money, and making smart choices with our time and effort—even in silly, snack-sized ways!

📚 PARENT RESOURCE:

Encourage parents to introduce small "jobs" at home for toddlers — like putting away toys or wiping the table — and offer pretend coins or stickers as rewards. Teach the basics of effort, saving, and reward in a fun, age-appropriate way!