Bee Basics

Each week with Mother Goose Time is filled with fun,engaging activities that teach the girls basic math, literacy, science, and motor skills.  The first week of the bees and butterflies theme was bee basics. 

This week the girls made bee puppets, bee headbands, and a cute picture of a honeycomb with worker bees.  The crafts involved coloring, cutting, gluing, and tracing.  The girls are working on fine motor skills, while having fun making art.

Every monthly box comes with a my little journal that the girls work on completing all month.  There are prompts that tell what to do for the different pages, which include the numbers, letters, shape and color of the month.   

We used the hands on letters to work on identifying the letter B.  We also played a game that involved working with numbers and letters, the girls had to swat any letter that wasn't a B.  These games make letter recognition fun.  

This week also included the book of the month, a counting book called One Busy Bee.

 This week there were a lot of math activities.  The girls worked together to complete a bee puzzle. 

 They played a game called Fill the Honeycomb.  They each started with a set of flower cards filed with bingo chip pollen.  They would roll a dice and transfer the corresponding number of bingo chips to the bee hive.  They worked together and were able to fill the entire honeycomb. 

 

One of the numbers of the month, 15, was introduced.  The girls but 15 "baby bee" pom poms on the hands on number 15.  They also played a game where they would take a scoop of bingo chips and estimate if there were more or less than 15, and then use the counting card to check.  

We talked about Brazil and used the global friend to help locate it on the map.

 We talked about the life cycle of the bee.  There were photo cards included that the girls used to help understand the different stages.  They also used play dough to construct their own life cycle sets.

  We talked about how bees drink nectar from flowers and transfer it to the hive by using their second stomach.  The girls used eyedroppers to practice moving "nectar" and filling up a honeycomb ice cube tray.  They thought this was a lot of fun.

  Addie said her favorite part of the week was making a banana bee snack with pretzel wings. 

The girls made their own play dough honey combs and filled them with "eggs."  We talked some more about bee life cycles to reinforce what they learned earlier.

The color of the month is black.  The girls took turns painting things around the house black, including our dog.

We also played a game to work with colors.  I hid different colored blocks around the room.  I would call out a color and the girls would pretend to be worker bees, flying to the color and then bringing it back to the hive they made out of blankets.

One of the manipulatives included in this months box is a set of wooden beads with bees, butterflies, snails, flowers and grass painted on them.  They also come with a lace.  Elli used them to make a necklace for her bear while we were getting ready to play a game.  The girls pretended to be bears reaching in a hive.  They were trying to find the bee beads and fill a bowl with them.

Also used this week was the monthly theme poster and the look and find glasses.  The girls always love using these, and a new set comes every month.  Next week will be spent learning about bees and wasps.