Yesterday we hosted a bee themed playdate for a whole bunch of our little friends! I called it Why Do We Need Bees? because of this book with the same title!
I started off the playdate with a little education about bees. We talked about their life cycle, how they build hives, and how they make honey. We smelled beeswax and looked a a model of a cell from a beehive. We discussed the importance of bees in pollinating MUCH of the food we eat, and we did a little honeybee dance (to demonstrate how honey bees tell the other bees where to find flowers)!
I divided our large group into smaller groups so we could work through all the stations! The first station had TONS of awesome books to read (linked at the bottom of this post), some of which we own, and some of which I checked out from the library!
At station two, kids could look at the parts of a bee and label their own diagram, and study the model bee life cycle and label those stages on their paper too!
At station three, kids could do a fingerprint beehive painting, and paint a bee on blank paper as well! This station was super popular with our budding artists!
I loved decorating with some GORGEOUS bee printables from one of my favorite Etsy shops… linked at the bottom of the post!
At station four, we planted wildflower seeds! Kids took these home to plant in their own yard so the bees would have new flowers to visit!
Station five might have been the most popular… honey tasting!! We had three varieties to sample… clover honey, lime honey, and raspberry honey! The kids loved trying them all and making notes about them!
After everyone went through all the stations, we had snack time! I made a Honey Bear Mix with Teddy Grahams and Honeycomb cereal.
We also had veggies and Greek yogurt dip… because we have bees to thank for so much of our vegetable harvest!
I also made Honeycomb cereal bars (exactly like Rice Krispy treats except with Honeycomb cereal)!
So glad we could spend this fun time with our friends and learn so much at our bee themed playdate!
Sources – Books
The Life and Times of the Honeybee
Firefly Encyclopedia of Animals
Sources – Other
Parts of a Bee (printable poster)
Types of Bees (printable poster)
For more ideas for your bee and insect-loving kiddos, visit this post!
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Sounds like this was lot of fun! Enjoyed looking at all the pictures and learning about the playdate 🙂
Thanks so much, Olivia! We had a good time!