Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Bee Project: Day 1

This past weekend I noticed two dead bees on my deck. I was thinking about all the recent news and information around the honey bee population and I thought it would be a great intentional invitation for my friends at school. And so, the Bee Project was born.

Today, the first day, I started off with a nature table set up with the bee specimens I had collected and brought to school. I printed out a few photos of the bees when I found them, photos of other bees, and wasps for comparing and contrasting, and a also two different bee diagrams. I shared my story of finding them with my students. They were hanging off every word I said.




When I asked them: "What do you think happened to these bees?" they were bursting with ideas:

There’s these plants that bite bees. Maybe a pinching bug pinched them and they died. I think someone hitted them with a stick.

Oh dear. Those bees must be died. Must be the legal baller- I don’t know- he does everything bad- He’s mean to everything

Someone stepped on them? Maybe we can make them come alive- but if we do, we have to stay still. 

Next, I asked: "What will we need to figure this out?"

 A hammer to smash those bees down. Maybe we can look inside their bodies. We should look to see if there are any broken parts. We will look at this picture. (*referring to one of the diagrams)

Then I asked them to tell me what they already knew about bees:

Bees carry honey in their legs and they carry them in legs because they carry it to the hive and they fly. Someone can smash them with hammers when they are trying to work on something. My friend Quincy got a big sting on his foot- He put it in the water.

Someone killed them. Bees like flowers. They drink honey from their hives. They don’t sleep in hives- they sleep in flowers. 

They eat honey. They drink honey out of buttercups. They can sting people. Jack got stinged- he had to have a lot of candy. It stinged his shoulder at inflatable world. 

Water makes stings better. One time I had bees at my house. So we didn’t have a hammer but my dad had a saw to cut it. The bees are still there.

At circle time we I read a short story called Speedy Bee. Here's an audio clip with some amazing thoughts going on:





I suggested that we go for a walk around the neighborhood to visit some flowers and see if we could observe living bees. One of my students suggested we take our journals so we could draw a picture! Proud teacher moment :) 


The first bee we found.



                                                                      A hungry slug.

                                                                  "It's raining petals!"

                                    "This is so beautiful and the bee thinks it's beautiful too!"

Can you find the bee in this photo?  

                                                      Dusting their hands with pollen.
Time to record some observations.


                                    On the walk back to school Allen spied another dead bee.

      When we got back to our classroom we sorted and inspected all the beautiful flowers we had collected. (Of course, we only picked up flowers off the ground, and not in our neighbors gardens.) 


                                  
                             I can't wait to see what direction this project takes tomorrow. Stay tuned. 

Monday, March 10, 2014

Little Artists

We recently held Aspen Leaf Preschool's first annual art show and it was a huge success. Not only did we raise money for supplies through the silent auction but more than that, our students felt amazingly proud of their work. They learned so much throughout the process of planning, creating and finalizing details for the show. They are artists!

Summer Time: A Book

Spin Art: Red and Blue

Rainbow, Red Explosion, Diamond is my Favorite Shape, Dots

String Art: Heart

String Art: Rectangle

 Functional Art: A Scooter


 Rain (created during a rain storm)


 California Love