Bumblebee Science

To help develop children fine motor skills, math, and science skills, you can paint a cereal box yellow (to symbolize a bee hive, and cut to bottom of the box out, as well as cut a rectangle out of the front.

Have your children create thumbprint honey bees, and have them cut out their bees. From there, have your children takes turns feeding their bees into the rectangle of the honey hive.

Each time a child puts a bee in, everyone count aloud. This will help with their math skills. Explain to the children what honey is, and how it’s made. This will help with the science skills.

Read the story “The Honeybee and the Robber” by Eric Carle. It teaches kids all about bees in a cute story form, and there are facts for adults at the back. To reinforce the drinking of nectar and collection of pollen, I had my daycare kids take a turn putting on bee wings (from the dollar store at Halloween time). Then I had them fly to the “flower”. I gave them a straw, a clean one for each child, (for the bee’s tongue) and let them “suck” up nectar (sugar water). The I tied a ribbon on each leg, which had Velcro attached to it. Then they had to crawl around in a pile of pompoms (pollen). When they stood up, they had “pollen” sticking to their legs, just like a bee. They loved this. I also taught them that the pollen, mixed with honey, makes “bee bread” which the babies eat. The queen eats royal jelly and the workers eat the honey.

Take a look in your phonebook for people that sell raw honey. Give them a call and get some honeycomb for your classroom. Place the honeycomb in a plastic jar and leave it out for the children to observe.

