All About Bumblebees!

Today was all about BEES!  We wanted the kids to know that bees are important to flowers.  There were a lot of facts to share about bees....other than the fact that they sting you!

The Touch and Feel was full of all kinds of bugs.  We talked about how the bugs were different...some have wings and some don't.....and how they were the same....all of them were pretty little in size.  We sorted and we categorized.  The kids really liked it.  Some of them even made a bug pattern!

Calendar was SO exciting....because it's a brand new month!  That means we started a new pattern....ABC this month.  And we took the first ring off our countdown chain.  14 days of school left!  The kids think that's a long time....but the teachers know that it will go super quick!

Ms. Abby came today and we practiced balance!  She had two balance beams set up.  The kids had to walk down the beam, pick up a bean bag, and carry it back to the start.  The second time was even more tricky.....they had to balance the bean bag on their head!  The tricky part was that the kids couldn't look down to see the beam without the bean bag falling off.  There was a lot of giggling during this activity!  The wet grass made the balance beam a little slippery....adding to the degree of difficulty!

Next we played a game called Over and Under.  As teachers, we knew that this game would highlight our weaknesses as a group.  Listening and following directions!  The kids stand in a line.  The first person in line passes the ball to the friend behind them in line by going OVER their head.  That kid takes the ball and passes it to the child behind them UNDER their legs.  And so on and so forth.  Well.....it took a lot of facilitation to get the ball from the beginning of the line to the end....but we did it!  TWICE!

The book for today was The Grumble Bee by Kyle Mewburn.  In this story, Winter is coming and every bee is busy gathering pollen. But poor Glib gets left behind with no bee to follow. When he finally catches up,all the other bees laugh at him. So Glib flies off on his own and finds a secret flower supply. He returns each day with his "socks" filled with pollen....but because he has to fly so far away, he can only make one trip a day.  When the frost comes, all the other flowers die and Glib has to save the day by feeding the hive with the pollen from his secret garden.



We made a chart for literacy circle with some important bee facts.  The kids recalled things from the story....and we gave them some new vocabulary.  We talked about how bees don't really wear "socks" to put the pollen in, but they do have pollen pouches.....and they look kinda like socks.  We discussed where bees live and learned some things about the Queen Bee and her job in the hive.  The kids loved our discussion....and had a new appreciation for bees.....I think!

For art, we made bees.  We put together all the parts and made our own bees.  Each child had to tell one fact that they learned about bees and then write the word "bee" at the bottom of their paper.  They were so excited about the writing part.....which is really exciting for us to see!

We had a wonderful day....the kids were great.....despite the cold and dreary day!  Our class was singing and learning all day long!