Honey Bee Unit
Timeline of the Unit
- Week 1: 1) Honeybee in the Quran and Hadith 2)History of Honey Bee 3) Honeybee Anatomy 4) Lifecycle of Honeybee
- Week 2: Pollination, Pollinating Flowers and Anatomy of the Honeycomb
- Week 3: Types of Honeybees and their Roles
- Week 4: Difference between Bees and Wasps
Book titles
The key to having a successful unit planned is having engaging books. Books that will spark the interest of the child and make him curious about the topic. I borrowed the books from the library, but I will list them here in case you would like to purchase them.
- The Bumblebee Queen by April Pulley Syre
- You Wouldn’t Want to Live Without Bees by Alex Woolf
- Unbeelievables by Douglas Florian (very cute poetry book)
- Flight of the Honey Bee by Raymond Huber
- The Magic School Bus Inside the Beehive by Joanna Cole
- The Honey Makers by Gail Gibbons
- The Bee tree by Patricia Polacco
- Bee and Me (a picture book) by Alison Jay
- The Honey Bee by Kristen Hall
- The Thing About Bees by Shabazz Larmi
- Insect Up Close – Honeybees
- The Big Honey Hunt by Stenley and Janice Berenstein
- Welcome to the Neighborwood by Shawn Sheehy (A beautiful pop up book)
Books that were too advanced for B who is 7 at the moment)
- The Bee Book by Charlotte Milner
- Bees – A Honeyed History by Piotr Socha
- The Life and Times of Honeybee by Charles Micucci
Display
I have found making a corner for our current unit and putting up displays to be very beneficial in our homeschooling journey. B refers to them a lot at her own time, giving her time to absorb and solidify information. When she has a specific question pertaining to the unit, I ask her to find the answer in the Unit Study Corner. Additionally, creating an inviting space makes children more excited about the topic.
Islamic Posters are free from Allamaheducation and the Honeybee posters were part of the nature bundle purchased from The Hidden Way last year.
Nature Journal Entry
We use watercolours for our nature journal entries. Using watercolours requires the coordination of small finger movements to produce a piece of art. This in turn aids in their long-term ability to write. Additionally, I find watercolours to be less messy and easy to cleanup 😀 I got the basic crayola pack.
Interactive Notebook
Hands-on activities
We decided to try the honeycomb, which we purchased from a local Arab store. We studied anatomy and discussed the different components that make a honeycomb. B was amazed at the different uses of beeswax, and to make it more interesting, we purchased a lip balm made from beeswax. We got ours from our local grocery store, but you always get one from amazon
Baking
We also decided to bake for this unit as it was Eid, giving us two reasons to make it :D. Unlike other times, we started our topic with baking to create hype and make B more excited. 😀 Below is the recipe we used.
Crafts/Activities
Crafts and hands-on activities are some of the best ways to create more interest in the topic for children. B is a very hands-on learner and loves the process of creating and playing with her crafts. This was a simple pollen transfer activity that we found on Pinterest and adapted to our learning needs. We reinforced the shape hexagon, and also the fact that the pollen that gets transferred to the comb is used to make bee bread that is fed to the larvae.
Games/Interactive Printables.
Pictured below are some hands-on printables by a nature bundle purchased from The Hidden Way. One is on the lifecycle of the bee and the other is a card game differentiating between wasps and bees. A plus side of playing games is that they can be played over and over throughout the month, and they reinforce a lot of concepts in a fun way.
I hope you found this post helpful. Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions. 🙂
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