Our lessons: Honey bees

We did a very fun lesson block about bees. This was an interdisciplinary lesson. Included was math, language, nature study, art, form drawing, painting, cooking,and others. The lessons were based around The Story Of Hildy Honeybee, an original story I wrote for the lessons. It is a 4 part story which tells of the life stages of a honey bee from a tiny egg to adult. I did a huge amount of reading on the subject so that I would have a thorough understanding of the facts, and it was good that I did because the questions were many. I have included links to many of the pages I gleaned the information from. This block took almost 3 weeks for us. I used the standard Waldorf 3 day rhythm: Day 1 Story, day 2 artistic realm, then on the 3rd day academic realm. We learned a few new bee verses, and a couple of funny bee riddles ( youcan find them in the info links). We had a honey tasting. You can really taste the difference between the different flowers. We  made a no bake cookie called Honey Crispies, a type of rice crispy snack. Both of these activities were met with great enthusiasm. We worked on the number 6 all throughout this unit since the comb is hexagonal, and the bee has six legs. We skip counted, and tossed the ball to the 6 times table. In form drawing we drew freehand hexagons, six sided stars, and a form that mimics the bee’s waggle dance that we learned about in part 4 (see pic below).  Our spelling words came from our lessons. We do a spelling list each week. Our words were

Bees: links to info for lessons

• Uses for beeswax http://www.texasdrone.com/Beeswax-Uses.htm#copper
• genereal info with math problems http://extension.usu.edu/AITC/teachers/pdf/fieldguide1/bees.pdf
• good, simple general info http://kindernature.storycounty.com/display.aspx?DocID=2005418942
• general info http://www.beeman.ca/id19.html
• general info http://www.main.org/cahbs/hive.htm
• crossword for older kids http://www.ncbeekeepers.org/bees.pdf
• bee riddles http://ag.arizona.edu/pubs/insects/ahb/act30.html
• songs & poems http://www.canteach.ca/elementary/songspoems53.html
• The Rose Elf, a story by Andersen http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=rhead&book=andersen&story=rose
• waggle dance info http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/entomology/apiculture/PDF%20files/1.11.pdf

Honey bee verse

Bee

BUZZ! goes the bee,
Hour after hour,
BUZZ! goes the bee
From flower to flower.

Sucking out the nectar
Flying it home.
Storing up the nectar
In the honeycomb

BUZZ! goes the bee,
Making honey so sweet.
Bee makes the honey
That I love to eat!

The Story of HIldy Honeybee part 1

I’m going to tell you a  story about a very hard working girl named Hildy. Hildy came from a large family.

The Story of Hildy Honeybee part 2

After Hildy had chewed her way through the wax that had protected her cell while she grew she entered into the busy, buzzing, bustling world that would be her home.

The Story of Hildy Honeybee part 3

Hildy’s time as a baby larva nurse in the brood comb were over. Her wax glands on her abdomen had finished growing, and that meant a new, very important hive job was waiting for her.

The Story of Hildy Honeybee part 4

Hildy was so happy when she saw the bright, warm, sun, beginning to peek up from the horizon. It cast it’s  soft red glow  over the world, and told Hildy that it was time to begin her day.

The story of the Flies & the Honeybees: a fable

THERE were once two tribes of little people who lived near together. They were not at all alike, for one of the tribes looked for food and carried it away to put it up safely for winter, while the other played and sang and danced all day long.

Honey boo boo salve

This recipe comes courtesy of the Magnificent Marsha Johnson of the Shining Star School in Portland. Marsha has an incredible yahoo group Waldorf Home Educators, and also has some hard to find resources for waldorf home schoolers.

 

Honey Salve:

Heat 1 cup oil, preferably good oil, we used Trader
Joe Canola Oil. Heat it carefully to avoid fires. Grate 2-3 ounces
of pure beeswax with a cheese grater big holes side.

Stir into the hot oil, beeswax and a few drops of essential oil. We
add 3-4 gel-caps of Vitamin E as well. Stir well until starting to
cool and thicken. Spoon into a small jar and use for an all purpose
salve for any injuries, bumps, rashes, etc. Be sure to use an oil
your skin can tolerate, we used lavender.