Honeybees!

This was a unit that I taught during my take-over week while student teaching a first grade class in Spring 2009. This school was an arts-centric charter school that was really enthusiastic about project-based learning. I wanted to create an interesting science lesson that would blend in a few other content areas. This class had previously studied the life-cycle of darkling beetles, and I though that honeybees would be a great next step because:

• It was spring and the students would regularly see bees out pollinating (yes, even in the city)

• I wanted them to learn about the importance of honeybees since colonies are in danger.

• I saw Honeybees as a really good way to include movement in the lessons (read ahead for that)

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

This is not in the first grade standards (for California, at least), but since they had already been learning about insect life-cycles, I wanted to expand their learning.

Students will be able to identify the major body parts of a Honeybee.
Students will understand and be able to articulate their knowledge about a Honeybee’s Life Cycle, Hive, Jobs, Body Parts, or the Pollination.

WHAT WE DID:

This unit was taught over one week – I would have loved to have more time to really get into this, but a week ended up being just right. The central part of this unit was that groups of students would become experts in one aspect of the honeybee (Hive Life, Pollination, Bee Bodies, Life Cycle, and Communication). After a Bee-related read-aloud each day, each team went to work researching (thanks to all the amazing Honeybee books I got from the Main Library) and recording their learning on a series of (or course) hexagon-shaped worksheets. It was a little difficult for me to be monitoring 5 different groups and nudging their learning on, but in the end it was really worth it. We also worked on poems and jokes about Honeybees and recorded those as well.

At the end of the week, each group presented their research to their classmates. I was nervous about this, especially because there were a few students who were really quiet and shy and I didn’t want them to get passed over by the more vocal and outgoing students. I asked each group to make sure that each person had a turn to share, and these kids were amazing! They were so proud of their work and so excited about their area of expertise that they all wanted extra time to present! The other kids were asking really deep questions and relating things to their own area of expertise. One of the quietest students (who had never shared during our class meetings and who would often “pass” any time he had to speak) read his research loud and clear. I was surprised and elated, especially when I saw my cooperating teacher’s look of delight and shock at his self-confidence!

The culmination of the presentations was the “Honeybee Waggle Dance.” I had chosen two students to work on this: one who was very confident and kind, and one who was struggling in the class a bit, both academically and socially. When I told them that I had selected them specifically to teach their classmates how to “talk like bees” they got really invested. They read, watched films, and practiced their waggle dance, and on the day of their presentation, they hid paper flowers around the room, explained how bees communicate the location of nectar by dancing, and then challenged their classmates to find all the flowers by watching their dance!

After we finished the presentations, I posted their work on the bulletin board outside their classroom. They were really happy to share their learning with the rest of the school. They were so proud of their work that they spent their free time drawing extra honeybees, jokes, and poems to post there as well!