Buzzzzy times in Forest School last week! Have you noticed, through the rain showers, a number of fluffy looking bees buzzing around, looking for nectar and pollen? Last week we started looking at bees, what they do and why they are so important to us. Kindy and Nursery learnt about two types of bee; the honey bee and the bumble bee. Bees drink nectar and collect pollen to make honey. The children learnt how bees communicate with each other and how they very cleverly tell the hive the best places to find pollen, through the medium of… dance! The waggle dance to give it its correct name!
I took my little ‘bees’ out in search of a patch of blue flowers, we made buzzing noises, flapped our wings, waggled our bottoms and when we found the ‘flowers’ (blue bubble bath in a large puddle) we collected the ‘pollen’ (bubbles) on our wellies and flew back to the hive to make honey!
Once back in the hive, we sang a little rhyme about five buzzy bees and then buzzed off into the woods for an adventure. Most little ‘bees’ reported back that they couldn’t find any honey in the woods anywhere!
Reception collected blossom flowers from the playground floor on their way to the woods so we could look at the pollen inside the flowers. We talked about honey and bumble bees having different jobs. The honey bee makes lots of yummy honey for everyone and the bumble bee’s very important job is pollination! We explored bee communication further, learning that the direction of the waggle dance depends on the position of the sun. We buzzed, waggled and collected leaves on our wellies to take back to our ‘hive’ to make honey. Mrs Reed explained how to revive a slow or drowsy bee with sugar water, should we find one!
Year 2 went deeper still into the facts, learning about bumble bees as pollinators, and about the different parts of the flower needed to complete the process – the stigma and the stamen. Male bees can’t sting, it’s a fact. Female bees can sting, but then they die.
We invented a game, where the girls chased the boys to sting them and once stung, they had to return to the fire circle and the girls played ‘dead’ on the floor having used their stinger! The game actually took longer than anticipated because the girls were very choosy as to who they were prepared to sting!
Exhausted from the chase, we stopped, lay on the floor, practised some yoga breathing exercises and did some stretching, to calm down. Some of the boys then went off on a penguin hunt. Great use of the imagination there boys!
During a lesson with Reception, I told the story of the bees that returned home to find their hives destroyed. Reception, very kindly, offered to rebuild the hive. Using their outstanding mathematical knowledge, that a hexagon has six sides, the children began collecting sticks of equal length, using a ruler as a guide. They quickly assembled an amazing hexagonal pattern to represent the cells in a hive and then made new ‘bees’ from pinecones and sycamore seeds. I’m sure the bees were thrilled to find such a lovingly made home, with new friends inside, when they returned from the flowers!
Friday was castle day for Year 1, so we left the bees and created our own motte and bailey castles, using things found in the woods. The children worked in pairs, demonstrating super teamwork and knowledge to create their masterpieces. Looking at the photos I’m sure you’ll agree that they did a fantastic job!
Mrs Wilson