Any time of year is the perfect time to learn about and use honey bee life cycle worksheets. I have a nice (and FREE) honey bee printable roundup for you, but first, I’d like to share some creative ways to teach about these precious insects in your homeschool. Don’t forget to pin this post and share it with your homeschooling (or teacher) friends!
Fun Ways to Teach the Honey Bee Life Cycle
The honey bee activities and suggestions are a great way to help your little learners learn about the wonderful world of honey bees!
Introduce the honey bee life cycle with books.
One of the best ways to introduce a scientific concept like a life cycle is to use books – especially those with lots of pictures. Depending on the reading level of your early learner, you can use picture books or printable books like my emergent readers. You can use books to not only teach each phase of the life cycle but also use them to teach important reading concepts.
National geographic readers are also good resources to use. And don’t forget your own favorite bee stories.
Use picture cards.
Picture cards can be used like flashcards or even used to play games. In addition to showing the different stages involved in the life cycle of a bee, you can also create some that show the variety of bees within a colony. There are many to learn about:
- worker bees
- adult bees
- queen bees
- bumble bees
- nurse bees
Each kind of bee has a special job to make the overall world of bees work. By learning this, your children may have extra respect for bees and how they help their colonies and our environment – not to mention, providing us with yummy honey!
Study bees in their natural world.
If you have your own bees, you’re already a step ahead. But for those of us who don’t, getting out into nature is a great way to study the life cycle of bees in real-time action. It may be hard to get close to an actual honey bee colony without getting a few bee stings, but perhaps your kids will enjoy simply seeing them pollinate flowers.
Set up an imaginative play area.
This is especially fun for toddlers and preschoolers. Provide them with a few things like plush bumblebee toys, a pretend honey comb, a bee life cycle playdough mat, and a few other hands-on supplies. This is also a good area for a sensory bin using little plastic honey bees from the Dollar Store, corn as the base, and other little toys that are honey bee-related.
Taste different types of honey.
Depending on the type of flowers the bees pollinated will depend on the kind of honey they produce. There are many kinds that may not be available at the grocery store. However, if you can visit a local bee farm and/or Amish (or Mennonite) store, you can certainly find some homemade honey. Consider getting a few jars and having a taste test.
Do a bee craft.
This can be anything from making a do-it-yourself honeycomb, coloring pages and turning them into a book, or having a go at making your own honey bee hive. Pinterest has a lot of good ideas for bee crafts.
FREE Honey Bee Life Cycle Worksheets for Elementary
As promised, I have several free bee printables for you to download, print, and use in your homeschool. Enjoy!
Honey Bee Emergent Readers
Learn more about Honey Bees while practicing your reading skills with these SUPER FUN Emergent Readers! These fun Emergent Readers are geared toward Preschool – Kindergarten readers. Includes 4 levels of readers in full color and/or black and white for fun, colorable pages.
Honey Bee Coloring Pages
Spring is the perfect time to learn all about Honey Bees! Grab these FREE Coloring Pages! This set includes 44 total pages in 4 different handwriting styles.
Honey Bee Tot & PreK-K Pack
Little ones will have fun learning about these fascinating creatures, the Honey Bee, through puzzles and activities just for them. This 29-page pack is geared toward children ages 2-5 years old. Included in this pack: wall word signs, prewriting practice, clip cards, beginning sounds, first letter coloring page and tracing word practice, Read, Trace, Build & Write mats and 3-part cards, What comes next, which one’s different, patterning practice and roll & graph game, 4-, 5- and 10-piece puzzles and dot marker pages.
Honey Bee Notebooking Pages
Studying Honey Bees this year? Use these themed Notebooking Pages to record all your knowledge and research! Over 84 pages included!! Notebooking pages are a GREAT way to help kids remember all they have learned about a particular person or subject.
Bee Writing Prompts with Gnomes, Too! Detailed Bee Writing Lesson
Have you ever wondered what a gnome would look like dressed up as a bee? If so, we have a treat for you! Get your students’ creative juices flowing with our bee writing prompts and use the printable pages with gnomes dressed up as bees to inspire writing.
Find even more bee worksheets and activities here!
Final Thoughts
Learning about the honey bee cycle and the many types of bees that are out there can be fun and exciting. Use my printables along with books, educational videos, and even the Bee Movie to make learning about these buzzing little insects interesting.
Annette lived many years as an exhausted wife of 1 and mother of 6. Grab your fuzzy blanket, pour your favorite drink, and browse through our encouraging tips, printables, and curriculum options. Read more about me and the ministry here at In All You Do