Bees and Butterflies!!

The boys and I presented information about honey bees today at the local university.  We had so much fun sharing what we know with about 200 children (K-1).  There were actually about 600 children and about 100 adults in the large coliseum throughout the day.  We had schools from across the region!

These groups were sent to four stations by rotating shifts in the morning and then again in the afternoon. Our station covered bees and butterflies.

We gave our usual presentation that emphasizes the importance bees for pollination, the types of bees found in a hive, and the life cycle of a bee.  We always end with the chance for the group to look for the queen bee in our observation hive.  Not only do they observe the queen in action, but also view the workings of a bee hive.  Today it was rainy so the bees were a little difficult.  The queen remained hidden...surrounded by the worker bees.  However, a few of the groups were persistent in their hunt for the queen and found her!  Great job!

There was also a station about the life cycle of a tree (set up like a time machine...very cool!).  Another station was set up like a game to learn about the parts of a tree (heart wood and cambium, bark, roots...lateral and tap, branches and crown).  The children had to pretend to be a tree that was being attacked by the dreaded beetles.  I thought it was so cute because teh bark (children surrounding the heartwood) had to bark at the beetle to scare it away!  They also dressed up one of the adults to show the different parts of the tree.  The last station was about the needs of a tree...the children made bracelets to show the various needs (yellow-sunlight, brown-soil, green-nutrients, blue-water, clear-air).

We thought we would only be set up for the morning but ended up staying all day!  The younger boys and Zaira enjoyed the stations.  They also wore themselves out running up and down ...and around the coliseum!

We will not be able to go back tomorrow but maybe on Friday.  It is so great to share our love of bees with others!

While we were inside...the weather turned cold!  Henry had to get a picture of the pond that had a nice fog due to the drastic change in temperature!