Bees are wonderful creatures. As social insects, they have a very organized system to keep their colonies functioning well. Let’s dive into the bees’ world, and see what we can learn from them.
Books:
A bee’s life: Watch it grow by Nancy Dickman. All living things have a life cycle. Bees have a life cycle. This simple book briefly explains the life cycle of bees. Young children will find it easy to understand the science facts in the book.
The Honey Makers by Gail Gibbons. Have you ever wondered how bees live, communicate, and assign jobs? This book tells you all the details about honey bee’s lives. You will learn the structure of the bee hives, bee’s body parts, and the social structure of the colony. Children will have the opportunity to be exposed to a large scientific vocabulary.
Bee Dance by Rick Chrustowski. Do you know how bees tell their friends the news about food sources? They dance! This book tells you how bees communicate and why they dance. It’s a simple book for young readers to understand the complex scientific concept.
Flight of the Honeybee by Raymond Huber. This story is about a honey bee called Scout. Scout looks for food, survives from predators, and passes the food source information to her families. In addition to Scout’s story, the book explains scientific facts on each page as well.
Activity:
Music
Song ‘Head-Thorax-abdomen’ (sing to the tune of ‘Head-Shoulders-Knees- and Toes)
Lyrics: Head thorax abdomen abdomen,
Head thorax abdomen abdomen,
Eyes and Mouth and Antenna two,
Six legs and there’s an insect for you.
Children will be able to identify the parts of a bee's body through the song.
2. Dramatic play
Children and parents dramatized how honey bees gather nectar and communicate with others in the hive. Children will have the chance to experience the bee dance with parents.
3. Sensory project
Parents prepare Beeswax Candle Kits for children to feel and study the beeswax. Children will have the opportunity to make candles by using beeswax.
Parents take children to an outdoor place to look for bees and see how bees collect nectars.Listen to the sound the bees make. Also observe what colors of flowers bees choose.
Parents prepare variety kinds of honey for children to taste. While tasting the honey, parents can talk about how hard it is for bees to collect that one jar of honey. Parents and children can make a tasting chart to compare the color, aroma, texture and flavor of different kinds of honey.
4. Math project
Prepare some hexagons of a honeycomb for Children to observe, describe, and trace.
Look at pictures of insects’ patterns, and learn patterns like stripes, dots, and so on. (Most of these pictures are from the book ' Smithsonian Handbook of Interesting Insects' by Gavin R. Broad, Blanca Huertas, Ashley H. Kirk-Spriggs, and Dmitry Telnov)
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