Busy Buzzy Bees!

At Morris & Simmons, May is our favourite month! The trees are full of blossom, the daffodils are out and we are even getting some sunny days!

May is also the month when World Bee Day is celebrated this year it is on Thursday 20th May. Why not use this as a great opportunity to get your children outdoors and teach them about the importance of these fascinating insects.

We have put together some simple facts that you can share with your children about bees and some simple, easy to use ideas to help you have fun and celebrate World Bee Day.

Bee Facts

Bees can fly; they have a hairy body, 6 legs, 2 pairs of wings and 5 eyes.
Bees have 2 stomachs, one for eating and one for storing nectar.
Bees live in a hive with 40,000 – 45,000 other bees.
A hive has a leader, the ‘Queen Bee’ who can be recognised by her larger size. She runs the hive and lays eggs.
Bees can beat their wings 200 times per second.
Bees are best known for producing sticky, sweet tasting honey.

Ideas & Activities

Busy Bee

Provide your children with pots of yellow or orange coloured water, pipettes, syringes and ice cube trays. Encourage them to be busy bees by transferring the yellow ‘nectar’ into the ice cube trays. A fab activity to develop wrist and finger strength.

Bee Slime

Make some Bee slime and let your children explore its texture and talk about what it feels like. All you need is half a cup of PVA glue, 1 cup of water, yellow colouring, washing up liquid and a few gold sequins. Why not put out the ingredients and a recipe and let your children make their own bee slime! Great for developing vocabulary, measuring and talk.

Bee Stripes

Encourage your children to find different ways to decorate a bee shape with stripes reminding them of the pattern on bees. They could use strips of paper, ribbon, pipe cleaners, wool etc. A perfect activity to encourage children to use their imagination and knowledge of materials.

Get Planting

There are certain plants that bees love so why not get your children planting up an area of your outdoors to create a haven for bees. A great idea is to make a herb garden as bees love these types of plants. Try planting mint, chives, rosemary, sage, thyme. Not only will these attract the bees but they will make brilliant sensory area outside too!

Seed Bombs

Another way to attract bees to your outdoors is to create a wildflower garden. An exciting way to do this is by making seed bombs with your children. You will need compost, clay powder, wild flower seeds, and water. Measure 5 tablespoons of compost, 2 tablespoons of clay, and 1 teaspoon of seeds and mix these together. Gradually add water until the consistency is like clay. Roll the mixture into balls and leave to dry for 24 hours. Mark out an area where you want your wildflower garden to be and get your children to scatter their seed bombs and then wait for your bees to arrive!

Make a Bee

Add a variety of resources to your malleable materials for children to add eyes and legs. bees have 5 eyes and 6 legs so this is a great way for children to practise their mathematical skills by making these amounts in different ways.

Describe a Bee

Encourage your children to build up their vocabulary and practise their phonic skills by setting up a vocabulary jar next to a display about bees. Encourage them to think about words that would describe bees particularly those beginning with’b’ e.g. big, beautiful, buzzy, brave, brilliant, bouncing etc. The children could write their own words to put in the jar or discuss them with an adult who can model the writing for them.

If you like these ideas then pop over to our resources page and check out our exciting range of ideas books.

Enhancing Provision Through Minibeasts has lots more creative and easy to use ideas about bees and other insects to help you set up an engaging and stimulating Continuous Provision.

Available for immediate download and so cost effective at £9.99… what are you waiting for!

Main photo by Boba Jaglicic on Unsplash