Busy Bees at Preschool – 19.05.22

We are having a very exciting week in Preschool and wanted to share some of out learning with you so far...

To support our learning on the life cycle of a bean, this week we have explored pollination. After finding out how important bees are in the pollination process, we focused our learning on finding out about bees.

So this week, we have been pollinators, filled our honey tummy's with nectar and even performed the waggle dance!

To support out communication and language development, we have been introduced to some new vocabulary, including, pollen, pollination, nectar, hive, anthers, colony, pollen baskets, wax, honeycomb, waggle dance, honey, digestive enzymes, and foragers. We shared a variety of information books and watched clips on the interactive whiteboards to develop our understanding of the words. Then, building upon our new found knowledge, we have been asking and answering lots of questions. I think we can say, we are as clever as a bee!

In our understanding the world development, we found out that in order for bean pods to grow on our beanstalk the flowers need to be pollinated. This is where bees come in. As bees collect nectar from flowers and plants, pollen sticks to their fuzz and attaches to their pollen baskets on their back legs, then when they fly to the next flower they drop pollen this helps plants make seeds. We learned that scientists call this process pollination. More seeds means more fruits and vegetables. To help us understand this process, we took part in the ' Wotsits pollination experiment', using cheesy wotsits we explored how pollen is transferred from flower to flower. We then enjoyed time outside to hunt for pollen on strawberry plants, daisies and dandelions.We also found out that bees are an endangered species and we must do our part to save the bees otherwise we could find ourselves in a sticky situation! No bees means no fruits and vegetables. We planted flowers in our Preschool garden to attract bees.

During our well being time, we took part in yoga and joined Enzo the Bee on his quest to pollinate!

Within our physical development, we have moved round and round and wiggled and waggled to perform the honey bee waggle dance! What is the waggle dance I hear you ask? Well, when a bee comes across a big patch of flowers they fly back to their hive and perform the honey bee waggle dance to tell the other foragers where to find the best nectar. The nectar is stored inside the bees honey tummy then taken back to the hive to be made into honey. During our afternoon snack time we have enjoyed tasting honey and most of us thought honey was very yummy!

In our expressive arts and design development, we created bee hats, then wore them as we buzzed around the room rhythmically to the music 'Flight of the Bumblebee by Rimsky-Korsakov'. We have also been drawing pictures of bees and flowers and used watercolours to paint them.

With all our new found knowledge, we can't wait to do our part in helping to save the bees and take part in World Bee Day tomorrow. I can tell you that we have exciting visitors both in the morning and the afternoon tomorrow. So be sure to check in with our news!

Thank you for a buzzing week so far Preschool
Tara