Kindergarteners will watch an animated story to know why flowers need pollens and learn the first part of a song entitled ‘Here Is The Beehive’. Children will develop their mathematical and manual skills – they will collect ‘pollen’ from the flowers and help the bees find the correct flowers.

Materials:

a nursery rhyme entitled ‘Magic finger’, an animated story entitled ‘Save the bees’, classical music, flowers and bees emblems, a song entitled ‘Bizz Bizz Busy Bee’, big flower emblem, yellow egg tray/honeycomb emblems, cubes, tweezers, rainbow parachute, a piece of M. Rimsky Korsakow ‘Flight of the bumblebee’, pompoms/confetti, laminated honeycombs emblems with cut holes – the number of holes depends on the possibility of children, colorful laces, a song entitled ‘Here is the beehive’, janissary, triangle.

Activity description:

1. ‘Magic finger’ – greeting children with the nursery rhyme – children with their teacher sit in a circle. Teacher says the nursery rhyme and shows the correct movements. Children try to imitate them. Repeat it twice.

Magic finger in the air (move pointing finger in the air)
Magic finger everywhere
Magic finger on your hips (put pointing finger on our hips)
Magic finger on your lips! (put pointing finger on our lips)

2. ‘Pollination’ – watching the story – children sit on the carpet and teacher invites them to watch and listen to the part of an animated story entitled ‘Save the bees’ (0:22-2:48). After that, teacher talks with them about the movie.

• What is pollen?
• Why do flowers need pollen?
• What is a honey stomach?

3. ‘Bees to the flowers!’ – movement activity – teacher places ringos/sashes – ‘ flowers’ – in the kindergarten room. Children – ‘bees’ – run on the toes to the classical music. When teacher turns down the music and says: ‘Bees to the flowers’, they have to jump into the closest ringo/sash and do a squat. Repeat it 4-5 times.

4. ‘Shapely bees’ – mathematical activity based on the nursery rhyme – teacher places on the carpet the emblems of flowers and a bee. Next, teacher reads the nursery rhyme and shows the one emblem of a bee.

Would you like to be
A Bee Bee a busy busy bee
Buzzing round from flower to flower
In the sunshine and in the showers
Buzzing on for hours and hours
Wouldn’t you like to be a Bee?

Hello little flower
I am a busy busy Bee
May I take your nectar back
To the hive where I relax
It won’t be long before I’m back
Coz’ I am a busy busy Bee

Hello busy Bee
Yes you can have a drink
But there’s one thing that you should know
If you carry my pollen to and fro
That will help us grow and grow
Thank you busy Bee

After that, teacher asks children: which flowers should this bee sit on? Next, he/she places on the carpet other bees and asks children to choose the correct bees for the flowers.

5. ‘Bees on flowers’ – mathematical and physical activity – teacher distributes to children the emblems of bees and flowers. They have to move in the kindergarten room to the song ‘Bizz Bizz Busy Bee’. During a break in the music, they form pairs with the same shape of flower and bee. After checking it, children exchange the emblems – they can’t exchange them with the child from the pair. Repeat it 5-6 times.

6. ‘Pollen to the hive’ – mathematical and manual activity – teacher places on the carpet a big flower emblem, pompons – ‘pollen’, honeycomb emblems/yellow egg tray, cubes, tweezers. Next, teacher invites children and asks them about throwing the cubes and carrying by fingers or tweezers as many ‘pollen’ from the flower to the honeycomb, as many cube shows. Continue it with the participation of all volunteers. You can prepare more sets to play by more children at the same time.

7. ‘Collect the pollen’ – movement and manual activity with a rainbow parachute – children stand in a circle with a rainbow parachute – ‘colorful flower’. Teacher scatters around the rainbow parachute the colorful pompons/confetti – ‘pollen’ and plays a piece entitled ‘Flight of the bumblebee’. Children – ‘bees’ move in the circle once to the left side, once to the right side. When teacher stops the music, they have to put a rainbow parachute on the carpet and collect ‘pollen’ from ‘the colorful flower’. Continue it until all the pompons/confetti are collected.

8. ‘Busy bees’ – manual activity – teacher hands out to children the honeycomb emblems and laces. They have to thread them – ‘inserting nectar’ through all the holes in the honeycomb.

9. ’Bees and flowers’ – movement fun – teacher divides children into two groups, for example, by countdown. Children from one team are ‘flowers’ and sit on their knees in disarray. Children from the second team are ‘bees’ – they buzz and ‘fly’ around the ‘flowers’ to the sounds of janissaries. To the sound of a triangle, ‘bees’ squat next to the ‘flowers’, which are growing up – children stand up, drag out and put their hands up. Next, they switch roles. Repeat it 4-5 times.

10. ‘Here Is The Beehive’ – listening to the song – teacher sings the song and shows the correct movements (movements to the song are here). Children try to sing and imitate movements. After the song,teacher talks with kindergarteners about the lyrics of this song. Children listen to it again and repeat the teacher’s words of the first part of the song.

Here Is The Beehive

Here is the beehive. (clench a fist and point at it with the finger of the other hand)
But where are all the bees? (raise your hands)
Hiding away where nobody sees. (cover the fist with the other hand and nod head)
Here they come flying out of their hive.
One, two, three, four, five! (raise the fingers of a hand clenched into a fist in the right order)

Here is the beehive. (clench a fist and point at it with the finger of the other hand)
But where are all the bees? (raise your hands)
Hiding away where nobody sees. (cover the fist with the other hand and nod head)
Here they come flying out of their hive.
One, two, three, four, five! (raise the fingers of a hand clenched into a fist in the right order)

Buzz up high. Buzz down low. (wave fingers with the hand raised high, next low)
Buzzing fast. Buzzing slow. (wave fingers fast, next slow)
Buzz to the left. Buzz to the right. (wave fingers to the left, next to the right)
Buzz all day but sleep at night. (make a circle with fingers, clench a fist and touch the mouth by the finger with the sound: ‘szzzzzzz’)

Here is the beehive. (clench a fist and point at it with the finger of the other hand)
But where are all the bees? (raise your hands)
Hiding away where nobody sees. (cover the fist with the other hand and nod head)
Here they come flying out of their hive.
One, two, three, four, five! (raise the fingers of a hand clenched into a fist in the right order)

After that, they talk about the lyrics and repeat together the first part of them.

11. ‘How many bees can you see?’ – mathematical activity – teacher holds the picture cards with bees. Children should see only the beehive card. Next, teacher asks them: ‘How many bees can you see?’ and discovers the beehive card, showing the first card with bees. Children count and give the result. Continue it until all cards are shown.

Attachments:

Emblems for the ‘Shapely bees’ i ‘Bees on flowers’ activity

Emblems for the ‘Pollen to the hive’ activity

Emblems for the ‘Pollen to the hive’ i ‘Busy bees’ activity

Picture cards for the ‘How many bees can you see?’ activity

Pages used:

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k24UiJmEjKY – an animated story entitled ‘Save the bees’ for the ‘Pollination’ activity
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZ0NM_t5P0o&ab – classical music for the ‘Bees to the flowers!’ activity
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwnoLGkmglE&ab – a song entitled ‘Bizz Bizz Busy Bee’ for the ‘Bees on flowers’ activity
4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYAJopwEYv8&ab – a piece entitled ‘Flight of the bumblebee’ for the ‘Collect pollen’ fun
5. https://supersimple.com/song/here-is-the-beehive – a song entitled ‘Here Is The Beehive’
6. https://supersimple.com/how-to-teach-super-simple-songs/how-to-teach-here-is-the-beehive/ – show movement for the ‘Here Is The Beehive’ activity