Last year we studied bees by doing age appropriate anatomical drawings. I found reference material on-line by googling “anatomical drawings of bees” and then pressing google images. Maya then scrolled through until she found something she liked. The text we source on-line and from books borrowed from the local library. I find on-line research great because it is instant, and you can easily compare facts, but I also like to have books to draw from on hand too. Google is really so handy, I might type in ‘Facts about Honeybees’ or more specifically ‘Facts about Drone Bees’ and see what comes up, and together we read a few websites and then summarize what we feel is important. I learn so much along the way too. I generally dictate a sentence to Maya, and she writes as I speak/read. For younger children learning to write and spell still, I would write the sentence out on paper first for them to copy into their book. Maya did this work when she was 7 and 8 (2nd and 3rd grade) and I would say it could be a fun and interesting assignment for any child able to read and write. We use Strathmore Kids Story Drawing books, that have half lines, half drawing space. Strathmore products are made in America and I particularly like Strathmore, they have a large environmentally friendly “greener” category. We also use their windpowered/recycled content art paper too.

We studied the Queen Bee, the Worker Bee, the Drone, the Life Cycle of The Bee (which was very interesting!) and Pollination. I recommend watching the film Queen of the Sun.