That's Not My Bee is written by Fiona Watt, is illustrated by Rachel Wells and is published by Usborne. It is a fantastic book for toddlers as each page provides something sensory for the child to feel and see. This might be bumpy, smooth or bright and shiny along with many others. There are lots books in this series featuring different animals, vehicles, insects and there are other different ones so there is a book for everyone's interests. I chose to do this book as there has been lots of bees around this year and me and my son have enjoyed watching them whilst we have been in the garden. If you would like to get hold of this book or another one from the series you can purchase it from this link: The Book Barn (usborne.com)
Activities
Plant pot beehive
Bee (to go in plant pot beehive)
Bug hotel
Bug hunt
A look at plants bees like
Honey tasting
Oreo bumble bee biscuit
Honey inspired snacks: honey loops, honey apple nachos, yoghurt and honey
Watch a bee inspired movie
Create a movie poster
Make a bee
Make a beehive
Bee sorting game
Pingpong bees
Outdoor
As the book is set outside there are lots of lovely outdoor activities to do. If you can get hold of a plant pot and some paint then your child/children could make their own plant pot beehive. They can paint a beehive on the plant pot and then plant some seeds and tend to their own plant. It is best to use waterproof paint or cover the pot in clear varnish so that the paint doesn't rub off when the plant is watered. These pots will look good inside and outside or they would make really good gifts. Your child could make a bee to go in the pot on a stick or they could buy one from the garden centre. If they wanted to make one you could do this using a polymer clay (like Fimo) as you cook this and it won't change it's shape once cooked. Stick it on a long stick and then put it in the pot and it will look really effective. Another fun activity could be to make a bug hotel. These are very in at the moment and can be made really simply or if you are good with woodwork then they can be made more creative. You need an outside shell so this could be made with wood (there needs to be a gap in the middle to put things for the bugs to hide in) or you can use a stack of bricks. This works well if the bricks can be stacked like Jenga is stacked but not as tall as you don't want it falling like when playing Jenga. In the gaps or holes put wood, sticks, fir cones and leaves and the bugs will come and stay at the hotel. Your child/children will have fun looking at all the different ones their bug hotel attracts. You could also do a bug hunt in the garden or out and about (or both). Have a chat with your child/children about the different bugs they might find and then get them to write them or draw them on some paper and then they can go hunting. Younger children can just tick when they have found a particular bug whereas older children could keep a tally chart. You could maybe hunt for the same bugs in a different place and compare the results. You could also look at different plants. We seem to have a lot of plants that bees like in our garden.
Food/Cooking
If your child/children have never tasted honey then this could be a good time to do a honey tasting activity with them. Remember it is not advised to give honey to children under 1 years old. If you wanted to make a sweet treat with your child/children then you could make an Oreo bumble bee biscuit. Do the stripes using yellow icing ( an icing pen might be easier), put a white chocolate button either side for the wings and then do two little splodges of icing on top and put on two blueberries for the eyes. For some honey snacks you could have some honey loops, add honey to a yoghurt or make honey apple nachos. These can be made by chopping apple in to slices and then covering with honey. You could eat these while watching a bee related movie such as The Bee Movie and then your child/children could design an advertising poster to advertise the film for those who haven't seen it.
Indoor
If you have some egg boxes available then your child/children could make some bees using the boxes cut up. They could make a small bee just using one egg space or they could make a larger bee using 2 egg spaces. Turn the egg spaces upside down and paint black and yellow. Black pipe cleaners can be used for the feelers, silver pipe cleaners can be used for the wings and then googly eyes can be added. If your child/children would like to make a beehive then this could be made with card. Bubble wrap dipped in paint makes a really good beehive effect. An educational activity for younger children to improve co-ordination can be bee sorting. If you can get hold of some large pebbles and paint these like bees then you could make them into a sorting game. You could do the bees in different colours if you wanted a colour sorting activity, you could paint numbers on if you wanted a number sorting activity or you could just paint them all like regular bees. Egg boxes are a good container to sort into. You could colour the inside for the colour sorting activity or your child could just practice putting the bees in with a spoon or tweezers. For a large motor skill activity you could paint bees on pingpong balls and then your child/children could practice throwing them into a bucket (you could do the throwing part outside). They could move further away from the bucket the better they get.
Comments