Page 49 - kids ebook

1. Plant flowers: This is a positive and fun-filled task. Early blooming bee-friendly flowers, for late in the school year are phace-
lia, crocus, and hyacinth. Flowers that will boom at the beginning of the school year are buckwheat, cosmos, and sunflowers.
Observe bees on these for a citizen science project! (see below)

2. Write a skit, or a song, for your school’s talent show, or YouTube: Who doesn’t love a bunch of little kids dressed up as
bees and beekeepers!? No one, that’s who! Work with your kids to write a bee-themed skit, or a song. It could be: the day in a
life of a bee, the day in a life of a Varroa mite, the friendship between a flower and a bee, or even bee collapse. Find some inspi-
ration from Mrs. Sauchier’s first grade class at Saint Martin’s Episcopal School in Metarie, Louisiana, at:
https://youtu.be/gy_-Q_VUOUY

3. Organize an art and poetry contest and show: After using the “Bees in N. America” lesson on page 14, or observing bees in
your school garden, encourage students to express their feelings and knowledge about bees through art and poetry. Display
the work at a local library, a community center, or partner with a local shop for a “First Friday Art Walk”-type of event, and host
a show for the community to ooh and ahh at the students’ talents.

4. Buy local honey: Buying local honey to share in class, or bring with you if you are a “fly in” educator, is essential! It supports
local beekeepers, encourages kids to do the same, and does an amazing job creating a positive connection between bees and
kids. Make up a story about how the flowers’ essence from the whole landscape they can see from the classroom are in that
very jar!

5. Eat sustainably and regeneratively grown food: Supporting sustainable and regenerative (https://kisstheground.com) agri-
culture is essential in supporting our bees. Encouraging your students to participate in the sustainable farming movement by
joining a local Farm to School group (www.farmtoschool.org), or taking a field trip to the local farmer’s market will help to in-
spire them to support farmers who support our bees!

6. Keep bees! You can take up beekeeping at your school (see page 6), or encourage students to keep bees as part of a
4-H, FFA, or Boy or Girl Scouts project.

7. Have a kids’ corner at your booth at the State or County fair: Fairs are an awesome way to interface with thousands of peo-
ple to spread the work about the importance of bees. The vast majority of people at fairs have kids in tow, and it’s a great place
to engage them, too! Simple ideas are honey sticks, local variety honey tasting, beeswax candle rolling, foundation rubbing with
beeswax crayons, and an observation hive. But the sky is the limit – think total interactive experience! Make a life size hive for
people to walk through, or huge flowers to “pollinate” in a fuzzy bee costume!

8. Start a youth program in your beekeeping club/association: Texas Beekeeper Blake Shook has this down to a science!
Become a member of the American Beekeeping Federation, then access his “Conversations with a Beekeeper” webinar “Starting
a Youth Program” from June 12, 2014.

9. Participate in “Ag Days”: Regional 4-H clubs and state agricultural departments all over the country host “ag days.” This is an
event where students are bussed in to their local fairgrounds, or similar venue, to learn all about the agricultural industries in
their area. Setting up a booth with an observation hive, honey sticks, and a few quick honey bee facts is always a big hit!

10. Conduct citizen science: Citizen science is a practice where ordinary people collect data, and submit it to scientists. Citizen
science is important because it gives kids the opportunity to participate in the natural world around them, it gives them a
chance to have some hands-on experience with STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math), it helps them to feel em-
powered to make positive change, and it helps them to understand that good science is relevant and important. A few great
projects are Bumble Bee Watch, see page 31, (www.bumblebeewatch.org), The Great Sunflower Project
(www.greatsunflower.org), and Bee Germs (http://studentsdiscover.org/lesson/bee-germs).
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