Sweet Smiles Preschool: Bees...

On Wednesday we learned about bees!

During circle time we sat in a circle. I called out different colors, and if a child was wearing that color they got up and buzzed around the outside of the circle like a bee.

Next, we sang "Buzz, Buzz, Bumblebee" to the tune of "Skip to My Lou."

"Buzz, buzz, bumblebee.

Buzz, buzz, bumblebee.

On a big red flower.

*I asked the kids to fly to something that is the color I named in each verse of the song...

For our first activity, I explained that bees are found all over the world, except in Antarctica, where it is too cold for them to live. I made these bumblebees with clothespins, yellow & black pipe cleaners, and wax paper wings. I gave each child their own bumblebee, then I spread out our new Spanish words on the floor. I gave directions of where the kids could buzz their bees to. For example, "Buzz to the conejo (rabbit)." The kids LOVED this activity! The bees made it extra fun and special!

I used a hot glue gun to attach the wax paper wings...

For our next activity, I asked the kids to tell me what types of flowers they think bees like best. Mother Goose provided us with the following supplies for our "Pollinate the Poppies" craft...

Mother Goose also provided us with copies of these paintings for inspiration. We looked closely at the paintings and discussed what we saw.

I wanted the children to have their own paint pallet, and be able to have enough paint brushes so they did not have to mix their colors if they didn't want to. To do this I made paint pallets on paper plates and provided q-tips for each color. Once the kids got to work, they also requested white, black, and brown paint. They said they need white for the clouds, brown for the soil, and black to mix with white for storm clouds. Aren't these kids amazing?!?!?

I encouraged the kids to paint a picture of a flower garden, but I also gave them the freedom to paint whatever they wanted. I kept telling the kids that they are true artists, and they definitely felt motivated to do their best work.

Mother Goose also provided the kids with red paper to cut and paste onto their painting for pops of red (just like in the paintings we saw). Some of the kids liked having this option, and a few did not want to use their red paper. N wanted to paint her red paper and make it a separate painting. I encouraged her creativity.

After the kids completed their painting, I set out a bowl of cornmeal and cotton balls. The kids dipped a cotton ball in the cornmeal and pretended it was a bumblebee getting stuck to the pollen of a flower. They shook their cotton ball over their painting to make the "pollen" fall off on their painting. They imagined they were pollinating the flowers!

The cotton balls only picked up a little bit of "pollen," so a few of the kids wanted to just sprinkle the cornmeal on their painting with their fingers.

Here are some completed works of art!

For our next activity, I asked the kids what they think it would look like inside of a beehive. I invited the kids to play with our new pattern blocks provided by Mother Goose Time this month. First I asked the kids to look at how many sides a hexagon has, then I asked them to build a honeycomb. After using most of the hexagons, I challenged them to build some of their own hexagons with other shapes.

I was so impressed with their ability to problem solve! They quickly figured out how to build hexagons using trapezoids, triangles, and rhombuses. Check out their BIG honeycomb!

The kids worked on the letter R page in their literacy workbook...

The kids also cut apart different sized bees from their math workbook...

...they were challenged to put their bees in order from smallest to biggest.

The kids also worked on a garden page in their journal.

This photo makes me laugh! I taught the kids that when a bee finds nectar, it does a special dance to tell the other bees where the nectar is. I asked the kids to close their eyes while I hid our flower Spanish card (flor) somewhere in the preschool. I played an instrumental song from our "Growing Gardens" Mother Goose CD. The kids flew around the room pretending to be bees while they looked for the flower card. When the first "bee" found the card, she did a funky bee dance to alert the other "bees" where the nectar was. B was doing a super silly dance! I love these kids!

These were our books for the day. After reading the "Winnie the Pooh" book, I played the "Little Black Storm Cloud" song on YouTube for the kids. They LOVED it! You can find the link to the video here.

Since the kids loved the Winnie the Pooh "Little Black Rain Cloud" song so much, I made them this special honey bear snack after nap time! It is a piece of toast with peanut butter & honey, topped with bananas, and blueberries for a bear face! They LOVED it! I loved that it was healthy!

In the afternoon I asked the kids to make me flowers using colored construction paper. I gave absolutely no directions. I simply said, "make me any flower you want." The kids got busy right away. They LOVE it when I give them the freedom to use as much colored paper as they want.

I was AMAZED at what they created. A lot of the kids made handprint flowers! How cute is that! I think they were inspired from our Mother's Day crafts!

Here are all the flowers they created...

I set the flowers out along with this tray of yellow tissue paper, yellow pom poms, and bumblebee clothespins. I gave the kids to the freedom to just play with the materials. They could rip the tissue paper to make bits of pollen, or pick up the pom poms with the bee clothespins. They could move pieces of pollen from flower to flower, or just play. The kids mostly pretended to pollinate the flowers with the bees and the pom poms, and then they just played with the bees. They loved the bees so much they asked if they could take them home.