To prepare for the next lesson I set the
flowers around the room with powdered
creamer on the petals to represent pollen.
To help the students understand the pol-
lination process, I wanted them to experi-
ence it rather than just hear about it.
I read The Magic School Bus: Insect
Invaders, by Joanna Cole, and transformed
the students into bees. With a bee puppet,
I showed how bees land on the pollen-
filled flower and fly away covered in the
powdery substance. Showing magnified
photos of a bee’s body, I pointed out the
furry texture. equipped with cotton balls
to represent the bee’s abdomen, the chil-
dren “flew” around the room collecting
pollen and recorded how many flowers
they visited.
At the end of the activity I asked a few
students, “How many flowers did you
visit?” The answers ranged from twelve to The interlocking
twenty-eight. When I asked the children to
hexagonal shapes
guess how many flowers a real bee would
of a honeycomb,
visit before returning to the hive, their
represented with
pattern blocks
guesses ranged from 5 to 150. They were
shocked to discover that a bee can visit up
to 10,000 flowers before returning to the and labeling), each bee job. Following the
hive. rotation of the students to each table we
For math, students visited a discovery matched the tools to jobs. We also dis-
station where they used straws and clay cussed the drone bee’s job of mating with
to construct a honeycomb cell. At first, the queen bee, one job not included in the
I did not tell them the shape of the cell, charts.
but let them discuss, explore, and build.
After about fifteen minutes of independent
building and discussion we gathered as
The real hive
a group and talked about the shape of a
honeycomb. Because many of the students
During our visit to a local garden my
had seen honeycombs, they were familiar
class dressed in beekeepers’ suits and
with the hexagonal shape, but they were
approached a working beehive. As they
unsure about the number of sides. As a
watched the bees they were able to iden-
demonstration we built triangles, squares,
tify the queen, observe the bees at work,
and hexagons to see which ones used the
and even watch some guard bees doing
fewest straws to cover a space without
their jobs.
leaving gaps. We then discussed how using
With wide-open eyes peeking through
hexagons provided the most space using
a beekeepers’ hood, Charlie proclaimed,
the least amount of wax and I brought out
“Look, there are the guard bees keeping
a honeycomb for students to see.
us away from the honey!” The beekeepers
Our final science class before our visit
also showed the children the waggle dance
to a beehive concerned the occupations of
the bees do to help other bees locate flow-
bees. To introduce the jobs, I listed and
ers with pollen and nectar.
gave a simple explanation of each job. At
When we arrived back at school, Char-
eight tables I put out the imaginary tools
lie enthusiastically drew a picture in his
needed for each bee to do her job. each
science journal of the guard bees doing
child used a chart to record (by drawing
their job.
© synergy learning • 800-769-6199 • March/april 2010 Connect • page 1
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