Make a Bee
Materials Needed
- yellow tissue paper
- sandwich baggies
- clear tape
- black chenilles (pipe cleaners) cut in half (one half per child)
- yellow construction paper circles (trace around the top of an 8oz paper cup) & yellow triangles
- plastic (from clear report covers or left over lamination film) cut into wing shapes (2 per child)
- black permanent markers
Background Information
Bees wear bright warning colors. Birds know not to bother bees. So should children!
Preparation
Put yellow tissue paper squares out into a center and ask the children to tear it into smaller pieces. It takes quite a bit of torn tissue so tearing might be a several day center choice.
Doing the Activity
Give each child a baggie. Have the children stuff the baggies with the tissue. Really fill the bags. Then ask the children to fold down the baggies corners and tape them down. Use black marker to draw stripes on the bag. Use a yellow circle to add a head. Draw on a face. Fold black chenille in half and tape it to the back of the head. Now help the children to tape (or staple) the head to the baggie. Each child decorates two wings with the black marker and tapes or staples these to the bee. Add a triangle stinger.
They now have a festive bee to fly across the classroom windows. If your site has a garden, take the children out to observe the bees nectaring and collecting pollen
They collect pollen in sacks on their knees. The children can touch a flower with a q-tip and collect some pollen.
In fall there are aggressive wasps that are bee-like so avoid checking out bees during that time of the year.
Activities provided by:
Fontenelle Forest
1111 N. Bellevue Blvd.
Bellevue, NE 68005
www.fontenelleforest.org
_ 0-1
_ 1-2
_ 2-3
✓ 3-4
✓ 4-5
✓ 5-6
Category: Group Activities
Iowa Early Learning Standards:
8.2, 13.1, 13.3, 14.3
Related Kindernature Resources:
