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This Honey Bee Unit Study has all you need to learn about Honey Bees with your students in a fun way with videos, crafts, printables, recipes and even an interactive quiz!
The most enjoyable way to learn about something is to explore it from every angle and in every way possible. With this Honey Bee Unit Study, your children AND you will enjoy learning about Bees as you watch videos, read books, do crafts and printables and even make food together. Have fun!
In the printables section there is no end to keep everyone busy; find word scrambles, word searches, I spy, how many words can you find, coloring pages, mazes and guess the phrase.
There are also educational videos to watch, new books to check out, jokes to enjoy together and songs to learn.
Follow my Honey Bees Pinterest Board for dozens of ideas from all around the web! I am constantly finding new things to add so there will be new things all the time!
When is National Honey Bee Day and World Honey Bee Day?
National Honey Bee Day and World Honey Bee Day are both the third Saturday in August. In 2022 it is August 20th. It is August 19th in 2023. In 2024 it is August 17th.
This Unit Study is the perfect thing to do leading up to that day. Of course, any time is a great time to learn about Honey Bees!
Other Unit Studies
Seasons and Holidays
Animals
Facts about Honey Bees
Bees live all over the world except Antarctica.
Honey bees are very important pollinators.
They pollinate flowers, fruits and vegetables. We count on them for our food!
Honey bees live in hives. Hives are also called colonies.
A bee hive may have 20,000 to 60,000 bees.
A honey bee is either a queen, a worker or a drone.
A queen is in charge of the hive. She lays all of the eggs that keep the hive going and makes chemicals that tell the other bees what to do.
A queen can lay up to 2,500 eggs a day! That is in the busy summer months.
A queen bee can live up to five years.
A worker is always a female. She goes out to get the food, builds and protects the hive, and keeps the air clean and cool by beating her wings. They live only 5-6 weeks.
We only ever see the worker bees.
Female bees are the only ones with stingers.
Drones are always male bees. There are several hundred in each hive in the spring and summer but in the winter they are kicked out. Their job is to mate with the queen.
Honey bees make. . . honey!
Honey can be different colors and taste different depending on what the bees made it from. Some types are clover honey, wildflower honey, alfalfa honey, buckwheat honey. There are many others too!
They make honey for food for their babies. They make 2-3 times more than they need so if humans take some, there is still plenty for them.
A bee’s wing flaps 200 times every second! That is what makes the buzzing sound you hear when they are flying. Cool!
When a bee returns to the hive after finding a good place with nectar and pollen, she does a dance called a waggle dance. That is how she tells the other bees where to find what she found. She is giving them directions! They gather around while she waggles and dances and then they know where to go.
A bee must visit a flower two million times to make one pound of honey. It is a good thing there are a lot of bees to work together! Two million visits can be shared by a lot of bees.
The average worker bee will make only 1/12 teaspoon of honey in their whole life! Remember, they live only 5-6 weeks!
A beekeeper is someone who raises honey bees to harvest the honey to sell. A beekeeper will also take care of the bees.
People have kept honey bees for their honey for at least 4,000 years.
A beekeeper may also sell beeswax from the bees. It is used to make candles.
Each bee has 170 odorant receptors. That just means that they smell REALLY well! That comes in very handy when they are looking for flowers.
There is SO much to learn about honey bees and we have just started here. If you are enjoying learning about honey bees and honey and want to learn more, head over to Master Beekeeper Charlotte’s site at CarolinaHoneyBees.com. She has loads of great information!
**When you think you know the facts, take the interactive quiz at the bottom of the post! 😊
Many Honey bees are in trouble!
There is something called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) that affects some honey bee colonies. Sometimes a colony dies because not enough healthy adults are inside the hive. The bees leave the hive and never return.
Researchers don’t know exactly why CCD happens but think it could be because of germs, parasites, stresses caused by beekeepers or environmental stresses like pesticides. It is likely that it is a combination of several of these.
Things we can do to help the Honey Bees.
Plant bee friendly flowers. Here is a great list of Flowers for Honey Bees.
Choose ones that are native to your area. That means that they are used to living there.
Plant different kinds that bloom at different times so bees have food all season long.
Don’t use chemical pesticides. These kill bees!
Leave some bare ground and dead wood for nesting places.
If you see a swarm of bees, don’t panic. Call a beekeeper to come and relocate the bees. They know how to handle them. If you Google “call a beekeeper” a list in your area should come up. I tried to get a list to link for you but only a list local to me came up. Hopefully one in your area would come up for you.
Put up a bee house. Here is How to Make a Bee Hotel
Provide water for them. Here is How to Build a Small Bee Waterer.
Here is a great article that tells that tells 5 Steps to Become a Beekeeper and Sell Honey for Extra Money if you are interested in that. It is interesting information!
Videos about Honey Bees
Honey Bees Make Honey … and Bread? | Deep Look 4:10
This is a great look at bees at work gathering pollen in flowers. Great video.
How do bees make honey? By Mystery Doug 5:49 Mystery Doug the Science teacher; mix of him narrating and video
How Do Bees Make Honey? | The Science of Food! | SciShow Kids 6:01
A mix of a man a Squeaks the robot, cartoon and real life video
Top 10 Bee Facts For Kids You Need To Know | Why Are Bees Important For Our Survival 7:37
Narrated by 2 little girls with good video about many bees, not just honey bees.
Inside the Bee Hive what honey bees do. See eggs, larvae, Queen Laying Eggs, pollen, Condensation 7:33
Narration and close up video of a bee hive; not especially geared toward children but very educational
Songs
Most of these are geared to younger children. The last one toward maybe older ones but has more of a beat to it if that is something you care about. Here Is The Beehive | Super Simple Songs 2:05
A counting song with bees and a beehive (very cute)
The Bees Go Buzzing | Kids Songs | Super Simple Songs 4:42
The Bee’s Party Song | Bee Song for Kids | The Kiboomers | Nursery Rhymes | Baby Songs | Bees 2:16
Fuzzy Buzzy Honeybees | Bug Songs | PINKFONG Songs for Children 1:38 (Has the waggle dance in it!)
Bee Song | Bizz Bizz Busy Bee | Save our bees | NurseryTracks 3:04
“Bumblebee (Buzz Buzz) Dance Remix” By Laurie Berkner | Best Kids Dance Remixes 4:20 Sing and dance with kids dressed in bee costumes.
Books
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Some Jokes
Kids love jokes so I had to include some good ones here for them!
Printables
Honey Bee I Spy Printables (2 levels plus 1 I Spy and Color)
Honey Bee Word Search Printables (2 levels)
Honey Bee Word Scramble Printables (2 levels)
Honey Bee Maze for younger kids
Crafts and Activities
How to Make an Easy and Fun Paper Bee Craft
Cardboard Tube Bumble Bee Craft
How to Make a 3D Life Cycle of a Bee Activity for Kids STEAM activity
Life Cycle Honey Bee Sensory Tray
Recipes
There are so many wonderful recipes that bees have made honey for that I made a whole post just for them! See 62 Honey Recipes.
Adorable Bumble Bee Oreos
How to Draw Honey Bees
Here is some instruction on how to draw bees. They are both a little bit different and the outcome of what the bee looks like is a bit different so you can choose which you like.
How to draw a Honey bee | Drawing for beginners | Step by step 6:44 This one is a very realistic looking bee
How to Draw a Bee Step by Step Drawing Tutorial 2:55 A cute bee for younger kids or beginners (like me 😊)
I found the facts for this post from the following sources
It is always good to cite your sources and if you would like to read more details, there is much more information at the links.
https://kids.britannica.com/kids/article/bee/352839
Test your knowledge on what you learned in this Honey Bee Unit Study!
Honey Bee Quiz
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Cindy
Welcome! I am a wife, mother, mother-in-law, Grammy, daughter, sister and retired homeschooler. I enjoy writing about things I have learned over the years, sharing recipes and tips with others and making free printables for parents and teachers.
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