Teach Primary Issue 18.6

www.teachwire.net | 77 instructions to help Norman navigate the obstacles on the grid (the woods, the classroom, Queen Bee, flower patch, etc.) and reach the secret honey store. This would be a fantastic activity to do on a programmable device. You could also challenge the children to create their own instructions to help Norman navigate a new map. Bee hotel Part of the KS1 science curriculum focuses on developing an understanding of how different habitats provide for the basic needs of different kinds of animals and plants, and how they depend upon each other. The Bumblebear would be a good starting point for looking at the ideal microhabitat needed for bees and for bears. Where have the children seen bees before? Create a list of places. What do all of these places have in common? Tease out that they are all likely to have been near to some flowers, for example in a garden, meadow, or orchard. Do the children know why this is? Can the children name the microhabitat bees live in? (A hive.) Look at pictures of the honeycomb structure of the hive and hives in general (manmade and naturally occurring.) As bee populations are ever-declining due to farming and habitat destruction, making a bee hotel could make a huge difference to the local bee population. What might the inside of a bee hotel look like? The bees will need tube-like structures inside to live in. What materials could we use for this? Suggest a sturdy cardboard box for the frame with straws, reeds, bamboo cane, or bee tubes inside. Bee hotels could be made individually, in pairs, or as classes. Think carefully about where they will be situated. I spy Lots of previously common everyday words linked to nature and wildlife are slowly disappearing from our vocabularies, because they are not being passed on to future generations. As teachers, we can help prevent this from happening by explicitly teaching these words to our pupils and using them in conversations. Part of the KS1 science curriculum is to name and identify a variety of plants and animals in their habitats. A game of ‘I spy’ (or a treasure hunt) would meet this need brilliantly. Give each child, or group, ‘I spy’ cards with a variety of plants and creatures to try and spot in the school grounds (include photos as well as their names for easier identification). These could include: robin, buttercup, butterfly, woodlouse, oak tree, conker, honeybee, daisy, bird’s nest. To make it more of a challenge, each item could be worth a different number of points, depending on how hard it is to spot. Rather than providing them with pictures of the items they need to find, you could ask children to take photos themselves, which they can label later, perhaps with some additional information about the plant or creature. Taking a rubbing of a leaf using a wax crayon and paper is also a fun way to help classify different species of trees. TP T E ACH RE AD I NG & WR I T I NG Loved this? Try these... v Barbara Throws a Wobbler by Nadia Shireen v Too Many Carrots by Katy Hudson v Otter vs Badgers by Anya Glazer v Nature’s Tiny Miracle Bee by Britta Teckentrup v I Saw a Bee by Rob Ramsden Jo Cummins is an experienced primary school teacher and English leader with a passion for children’s books and mental health awareness. As well as blogging about new children’s books and creating educational resources, she has been involved in long-listing and judging national books awards. She currently works for a specialist educational provision in Hampshire in a teaching and advisory role. librarygirlandbookboy.com Each child will need a corrugated card ‘body’ and some black and yellow wool. Show them how to wrap the wool around the body in a criss-cross fashion to create a striped pattern. It doesn’t matter if there are some gaps between the wool. Use pipe cleaners for antennae, white paper for wings, and a googly eye as a finishing touch. POLLEN TRANSFER This activity gives children time to develop their fine motor skills and strengthen their hand muscles. To set it up, you’ll need paper flowers with paper cups in the centres filled with pom-pom ‘pollen.’ You will also need some hexagonal shapes or frames to create a honeycomb (using a hexagonal pop-it would work well). The aim of the activity is to use tweezers to transfer the pom-pom ‘pollen’ from the flowers to the honeycomb. FILLING THE HONEYCOMB This is another fun fine motor skill activity. To set it up, you’ll need a pop-it for the honeycomb (an egg box is a good substitute), some water coloured yellow, and a pipette. To complete this task, the pupils need to use the pipette to carefully transfer the ‘honey’ from the jar to the honeycomb. HONEY PLAYDOUGH BEES Making playdough with children is a lovely sensory activity in itself, which includes maths and develops listening skills ( tinyurl. com/tp-Playdough ). Replacing some of the water with honey and adding yellow food colouring gives this play dough a special twist. Provide the children with pipe cleaners (for antennae), cotton buds (for wings), and googly eyes for a finishing touch. Use these with the playdough to create your own honeybees.