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Discovering all about honey bees
It started off as a walk to go look at different plants but the tamariki noticed so many honey bees and bumble bees. They were unsure of the difference between the two and therefore when we got back to our room at BestStart, we researched all about bees. This sparked a huge interest in honey bees and where they live and how honey is made. The tamarki now have knowledge about how honey is made, where bees live, the life cycle of honey bees, how they collect nectar and pollen, how the stinger works and what happens when you get stung as well as other various facts.
The tamariki are absolutely fascinated by the process of honey making – especially the fact that honey bees vomit up the nectar and into another bees’ mouth and they keep regurgitating it until it’s ready to be put into their honeycomb and turned into honey! The tamariki were quite grossed out by this!
Just this week a tamaiti found a honey bee on the path outside. It was in a bad way. Teacher Ashley went and made some sugar water for her. We tried to feed her sugar water, but she only had a little bit. We watched her through the magnifying glass drink the sugar water. After a while it was time to go inside for lunch, after we came back to check on the honey-bee, we found she did not survive. But that’s okay because then we bought her inside and were able to have a closer look at her with our magnifying glasses. Using a picture from one of our books about bees, we were able to identify the anatomy of the bee and the tamariki were so excited to be able to see the different body parts up close with the magnifying glass – especially the tongue. They were all amazed at how long the tongue is!
Can’t wait to see what else we can learn about honey-bees!