Lesson 1.5

Songs And Stories About Bees

Grades: K-3

Essential Skills: Music, Social Studies, Language Arts

Duration: 2 class periods

OVERVIEW

Students learn to relate creative expression with an appreciation of nature. This activity will show that humans have long celebrated finds of honey with art and song.

Preparation

Teacher Preparation:

• Make copies of the Busy Bee song ( Activity Sheet 22) for distribution.
• Gather remaining materials and books (see Bibliography).

Other Materials:

1. Look for other songs, stories and poems about bees and insects.

Information Sheets:

• No. 13 Poems About Bees

Activity Sheets

• No. 22 Busy Bee Song

Lesson Plan

Introduction activity (30 minutes)

Explain to your students that honey bees have had a long association with humans. Evidence of beekeeping was present in the hieroglyphics of Egypt from 3500 B.C. Because honey was the only sweetening material for many centuries, a great deal of lore, customs, art and religious ceremonies surrounded honey bees and honey.

Read one or more of the books listed in the Bibliography to the students, as appropriate. Discuss the meaning of the story.

Activity 2 Busy bee song (15 minutes)

Distribute a copy of the Busy Bee song to each student. Relate to the students that people in other times and other cultures often celebrated finding honey with song. Read the words aloud and lead students in a discussion about their meaning.

Have students sing the song.

Activity 3 Bee poems (15 minutes)

Enlarge and print appropriate poems and proverbs from Information Sheet 13, and display them around the room. Read the poems or have the students read the poems. Discuss their meaning.

Additions

Extensions:

• Encourage students to make up their own songs, stories and poems about honey bees.
• Have students write new lyrics about honey bees for a favorite song.

Words with special meanings:

(for understanding only, not to be tested)

1. "Busy as a Bee"

Bibliography:

The Magic Honey Jar, by S. Bohdal. Published by North-South Books, 1987.

'The Selfish Bees' in Aesop's Fables, "retold" by A. Gatti, illustrated by S. Salter. Published by Gulliver Books, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, N.Y., 1992. p.44.

The Bee Sneeze, by B. Keller. Published by Putnam Publishing Group, N.Y., 1982.

The Rose in My Garden, by A. Lobel. Published by Greenwillow Books, N.Y., 1984.

The Honey Hunters, by F. Martin. Published by Candlewick Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1992.

Insects Are My Life, by Megan McDonald, illustrated by Paul Brett Johnson. Published by Orchard, N.Y., 1994.

Pooh and Some Bees, by A.A. Milne. Published by Dutton Children's Book, N.Y., 1987.

Mister Toad, by C. Watson. Published by MacMillan Publ. Co., N.Y., 1992.