The Buzz About Bees



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Buzz about Bees: Teacher’s Guide

Buzz About Bees written by Kari-Lynn Winters (Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 2013)

Buzz About Bees Teacher’s Guide written by Sonja Sweet (Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 2013)

Table of Contents

How to Use this Guide..................................................................................................... 2

Overview of Lessons........................................................................................................ 3

Lessons & Follow-up Activities....................................................................................... 4

Ontario Apiaries............................................................................................................... 20

Additional Resources........................................................................................................ 21

Sources.............................................................................................................................. 21

Appendix........................................................................................................................... 22

How to Use this Guide

This companion guide to Buzz about Bees is meant to assist teachers, librarians, and parents in extending children’s learning beyond the pages of the book to engage them in critical thinking and creative problem-solving. Buzz about Bees is an informational book written for Grade 3-6 students. As such, it can specifically aid in teaching the “Understanding Life Systems” strand of the Science curriculum. A book such as this helps students to focus on one animal or plant and to see the profound impact that one species can have on the world.

If you wish to design a thematic unit on bees, Buzz about Bees provides all of the scientific knowledge that you need as a teacher. This includes their habitats, anatomy, products, importance to human society, and much more! This Teacher’s Guide supports learning in Science, but also provides teachers with many lessons and activities to extend learning and create cross-curricular connections.

All of the follow-up lessons and activities are independent of each other and do not need to be taught in sequence. In this way, teachers can choose the lessons that best fit the strengths, interests, and curriculum needs within their classroom. The “Overview” provides an outline of the lessons in the Guide, including the curriculum areas covered in each lesson.

Lastly, the “Additional Resources” section includes recommended websites, teachers’ kits, and interactive games which can further extend children’s learning on the subject of bees, apiaries, and agricultural production. The Appendices include printable handouts, role cards, and posters for use in the classroom.

Overview of Lessons & Activities

|Lesson/Activity |Page |Curriculum Areas |

|“Don’t Eat Me!” |4 |Science (Growth & Change in Plants) |

| | |Science (Habitats & Communities) |

|Choices, Choices |5 |Science (Growth & Change in Plants) |

| | |Language (Letter-writing) |

|Hivetown City Council |6 |Science (Habitats & Communities) |

| | |Language (Oral Communication) |

| | |Research Skills |

| | |Mathematics (Data Management, Money) |

| | |Drama |

|What’s on the Menu? |7 |Science (Growth & Change in Plants) |

| | |Language (Writing) |

| | |Visual Arts |

|Exclusive Interview: The Inner Life of Bees |8-9 |Language (Writing) |

| | |Drama |

| | |Research Skills |

|The Newest Superhero |10-11 |Language (Reading, Summarizing, Comparing) |

| | |Visual Arts |

|“BEE” a Salesperson |12 |Language (Media Literacy, Oral Communication) |

| | |Research Skills |

|“BEE”-autiful Home for Sale! |13 |Language (Media Literacy, Writing) |

| | |Research Skills |

| | |Creative thinking |

|Reconstruct a Beehive |14 |Mathematics (Geometry) |

| | |Problem-solving Skills |

|Design a Bee Dance |15 |Health & Physical Education (Dance) |

| | |Language (Reading Poetry) |

|Walk the Talk |16 |Drama (Movement) |

| | |Language (Multimodality, Building Vocabulary) |

|Honey Bee Relay |17 |Health & Physical Education (Active Living) |

|How Sweet It Is! |18 |Health & Physical Education (Healthy Eating) |

|“Busy as Bees” Learning Centre |19 |Science |

| | |Language (Reading, Writing) |

| | |Visual Arts |

“Don’t Eat Me!”

✓ Science (Growth & Change in Plants)

✓ Science (Habitats & Communities)

How do bees fit into the energy chain? Carry out this simple activity with your students to help them appreciate the importance of bees to other species, including humans! You will need the following materials:

▪ Food chain cards (Appendix A), threaded with string to create medallions

▪ Ball of yarn

1. Review with students that every energy chain begins with the sun. Use the visuals below to discuss with students the order of events in an energy chain involving a bee. (First, energy from the sun enables plants, such as clover, to grow. Next, a bee collects nectar from the clover flower and pollinates it. A skunk breaks the bee’s nest and eats the bee. An owl eats the skunk. Finally, the owl is decomposed by an earthworm, and the nutrients go back into the soil, where they can be absorbed by the clover.)

2. Thread string through a hole in the top of each card to make medallions. Ask six students to wear the medallions and have the class decide the order of the cards in this food chain.

3. Once students have come to the correct conclusion, demonstrate using a ball of yarn how different plants and animals depend upon each other. The student wearing the “SUN” medallion will hold one end of the yarn and throw the ball to the student wearing the “CLOVER FLOWER” medallion, who will hold onto the yarn and throw the ball on to the “BEE” medallion, and so forth. Once all six students are holding onto the yarn (so that there is a web of yarn stretched tight between them), the teacher will cut the yarn at the “BEE” medallion.

4. Ask students: What happened when the bee was taken out of the food chain? How is this similar to what would happen if a species of bee were to become extinct? What other plants and animals would a bee species’ extinction affect? How would it affect us as humans?

Choices, Choices

✓ Science (Growth & Change in Plants)

✓ Language (Writing a Letter)

When humans make choices that are good for plants (e.g., planting trees, growing a garden), it benefits the whole habitat. This means that it also benefits bees. On the other hand, when humans make choices that hurt plants and habitats (e.g. filling in wetlands to build houses, littering), they also often hurt bees. In fact, bees will often leave an area that is overdeveloped and ecologically unfriendly.

1. With students, write a list of things that bees need in their habitat (clean air and soil, flowering trees and plants nearby, no pesticides, few predators, etc.).

2. Write a second list of personal choices that we can make to benefit bee habitats.

3. Have students write a letter to the mayor recommending the construction of a bee-friendly park in the middle of the city. In their letter, students must:

a. Provide three reasons why bees are important to humans and the environment.

b. Use proper letter format.

c. Develop a persuasive style of writing which has the potential to convince the mayor to invest in the project.

Writing A Persuasive Argument

Problem:

The main problem is__________________________________________.

Goal:

I want to persuade ________________ to _________________________.

Benefits of the Goal:

(Rank in order of importance)

|Benefits for The Reader |Benefits for Others |

|1. |1. |

|2. |2. |

|3. |3. |

Concluding Statement:

To summarize, __________________________ is important to ____________________ because__________________________________.

Hivetown City Council

✓ Science (Habitats & Communities)

✓ Language (Oral Communication)

✓ Research Skills

✓ Drama

✓ Math

1. Distribute one of the following role sheets (see Appendix B) to each student, so that there are an equal number of students with each role: housing developers, families in need of housing, and ecologists. Allow students to read their role sheets, then write a 1-2 sentence response to the following dilemma:

A large plot of forested land on the boundaries of Hivetown was recently donated to the city.

What should be done with this land?

2. After each student has written an individual response, allow students to meet in three groups to discuss their ideas. Each group will have a piece of chart paper and markers, and must write a brief proposal and accompanying budget (e.g., up to $10, 000) to explain how they would use the land. Each group should include three supporting reasons for their proposals (e.g., supporting the local economy, providing ecological urban space, etc.).

(Option: Give students “jobs” in their larger role groups – for example, chairperson, reader, highlighter, timer, recorder, presenter, etc.)

3. Hold a “Hivetown City Council Meeting.” The teacher can act as the mayor to introduce the reason for the meeting (the dilemma). Invite each group time to present their proposal.

4. After each proposal, ask the class: What possible negative impacts could this decision have on people? On animals? On plants? Record/chart students’ answers on a whiteboard.

5. Place students into groups of three, so that each group has one person from each role. Explain that, as representatives, students must work together to discuss each others’ perspectives and come to a decision that minimizes negative impacts.

What’s on the Menu?

✓ Science (Growth & Change in Plants)

✓ Language (Writing Information Texts)

✓ Visual Arts

1. Ask: What kinds of trees and flowers do you think bees love best? Use the “Creating a Bee-Friendly Garden” poster (Appendix F) to help students think it through. Bees are attracted most to:

a. Trees and flowers that produce pollen and nectar

b. Bright colours, such as purple, yellow, blue, and white

c. Open-face flowers that are easy for a bee to get into

2. Design a “menu” for bees. In groups of three, students must research plants that produce plenty of pollen and nectar. (Note: Appendix F also provides a list of flowers and trees to attract bees.)

3. Each group will choose three plants—for the appetizer, main course, and dessert. Given the availability of this plant, determine a price for each item.

4. Using elements of design from the visual arts (e.g., line, shape, texture), they will then design the menu including: a restaurant title, a restaurant logo, a slogan, and a realistic drawing and appetizing description for each plant.

Exclusive Interview: The Inner Life of Bees!

✓ Language (Writing)

✓ Drama

✓ Research Skills

In Buzz about Bees, we learn that there are about 19,500 species of bees in the world. These species are grouped into “families,” and each family includes many different types of bees. For example, honeybees, carpenter bees, and bumblebees all belong to the same family!

Provide students with a list of bees to research, such as the following:

• Mining bees

• Squash bees

• Honeybees

• Carpenter bees

• Bumblebees

• Stingless bees

• Digger bees

• Masked bees

• Plasterer bees

• Sweat bees

• Alkali bees

• Leafcutter bees

• Orchard mason bees

• Carder bees

• Melittid bees

1. In pairs, students choose one type of bee to research.

2. To guide their research, students can create a list of interview questions to ask the bee they have chosen, or teachers can provide students with the questions below.

Sample Interview Questions:

o What is the first thing you do in the morning?

o Where do you live? With how many others?

o Where do you work? How do you get to work?

o How much time do you spend working every day?

o What is the most difficult aspect of your job?

o What do you love the most about your job?

o Are you proud to be a ________ bee? Why or why not?

3. With their partners, students write an interview script using proper interview format. For example, the interviewer begins by introducing the “interviewee bee” and the location, and all of the speaking is preceded by the person’s name.

E.g. Interviewer: I am reporting live from Farmer Ben’s fields, where I am joined by a honeybee named Burty Bee. Burty, where do you live?

Burty Bee: I live in a hive with thousands of other bees!

4. Students can present their interview in pairs to the class. One student will act as the interviewer, while the other student will act as the bee.

Drama Connection: Encourage students to convey the personality of the bee through voice, expression, and body language. Have students bring in props and costumes on the day they present their interviews.

Consolidate: Instead of working in pairs, teachers can also have students write individual journal entries from the perspective of one type of bee. The same questions can be used to structure a one-paragraph entry.

The Newest Superhero!

✓ Language (Reading, Summarizing, Comparing)

✓ Visual Arts

PART I: COMPARE

1. After learning about “Un-BEE-lievable” body parts in Buzz about Bees, divide the class into 8 groups. Assign each group a different bee body part, based on 8 excerpts from the book (see Appendix C). Each group must answer 4 questions, as seen in the example below.

Body Part: Antenna

|Bees |Humans |

|How many does a bee have? |How many do we have? |

| | |

|two |zero |

|What does the bee use it to do? |If we have it... what do we use it to do? |

| | |

|- feel changes in weather |If we don’t have it... what do we have instead? |

|- smell pheromones | |

|- identify hive intruders |- we use our noses to smell |

|- find food sources | |

2. Ask one presenter from each group to summarize what they have learned from their paragraph, using the 4 questions above. As each group presents, write the information into a large Venn diagram on the whiteboard. Hand out individual copies of this Venn diagram to students (see Appendix D), so that students can copy down key points.

3. After discussing the parts of a “Bee Body,” ask students to add more body parts that bees do not have to the “Human Body” side of the Venn diagram. Finally, ask students to fill in the “Both” section of the diagram to include the body parts which bees and humans share.

PART II: CREATE

4. Ask students: What would a cross between a bee and a human look like? Tell students it is their job to create a new superhero—a superhero who is half human, half bee!

5. Tell students to refer to their copy of the Venn diagram created in class, so they can choose at least 4 bee body parts and 4 human body parts to include in their superhero. Students must give their new superhero a name, and may choose to create a model or a painting of their superhero.

“Bee” a Salesperson!

✓ Language (Media Literacy, Oral Communication)

✓ Research Skills

1. View TV commercials or magazine advertisements for bee-related products (e.g. see examples below). Brainstorm a list of these products with students.

2. Explain to students that bees help to create many different products which are important to humans. Show students a list of products that use honey, beeswax or other bee-related products:

▪ Honey

▪ Candles

▪ Royal jelly

▪ Lip balm/lipstick

▪ Lotions

▪ Cough syrup/drops

▪ Soap

▪ Polish for cars, furniture, floors, shoes

▪ Dental floss

▪ Crayons

3.

4. In pairs, have students choose one bee-related product. Students will research and develop a short script for a TV commercial advertising their product. Ensure that students include:

a. Product name

b. Company name

c. Three reasons to persuade viewers to buy the product (e.g. quality, taste/scent, ingredients, effectiveness, popularity)

5. Allow students to present their scripts creatively, with the use of props and costumes.

“BEE”-autiful

Home for Sale!

✓ Language (Media Literacy, Persuasive Writing)

✓ Research Skills

1. In Buzz about Bees, we learn that bees’ homes are very important, since this is the place where they raise larvae (babies) and store food. Ask students to talk with a partner about the following question: “If you were a bee, how would you choose where to live?”

2. Ask a few students to share their thoughts. Answers may include:

a. Bees choose their home depending on whether they are solitary bees (who live alone), or social bees (who live in small or large colonies).

b. Bees choose their homes depending on whether they live near humans (e.g., apiaries, fence posts) or in the wild (e.g., old logs).

3. Tell students that it is their job to become “bee realtors.” What features do you think bees would want in a home? What kind of a neighbourhood or habitat would they like to live in?

4. Individually, students must choose one type of bee (see list in “Exclusive Interview” lesson) and research an ideal home for that bee. Use the printable Appendix E to structure students’ findings. Encourage students to think about the following home “features”:

a. How big is the home?

b. Where is the home located (e.g., in the ground, on a tree branch,

in a hollow log or fence post)?

c. Is it old or new?

d. How many “doors” (entrances) are there?

e. Is it sheltered from harsh weather?

f. Is it low on the ground or high up out of the reach of predators?

g. Is it in open sight or hidden from human view?

h. Is it near water and possible food sources (flowers, trees, gardens)?

5. If students are stuck, suggest the following possible bee homes from Buzz about Bees:

a. Human-made: wooden boxes, pottery, straw baskets, fence posts, wooden furniture

b. Natural: trees, old logs, rock crevices, dirt holes, flower-petal cocoons, plant stems

Reconstruct a Beehive

✓ Mathematics (Geometry)

✓ Problem-solving Skills

1. Review with students that honeybees store honey in six-sided honeycomb cells made from beeswax. Demonstrate how to construct a six-sided shape, and ask students for the name of the shape. A hexagon!

2. Introduce a problem: The bees in Bryan’s hive were so busy making honey that they forgot to finish a section of the honeycomb! Help them out by completing the frame of hexagonal cells below. How many hexagons are needed to finish the hive? (Answer: 27)

3. Before students begin, ask them if the hexagon cells in the honeycomb are a regular or irregular geometric shape. (Tip: Since it is a regular shape, all side lengths and angles should be identical to each other. Using a ruler and/or protractor will help students in reconstructing the hive!)

Design a Bee Dance

✓ Health & Physical Education (Dance)

✓ Language (Reading Poetry)

1. As a class, read “The Waggle Dance” poem from Buzz about Bees. Choreograph simple movements, such as those in the example below (see italics).

The Waggle Dance

My sister is a worker bee. (Cross arms over a friend.)

We come from the same hive.

She leads us in the waggle dance (Crouch down, shaking hips.)

that keeps us all alive. (Jump up!)

The way she moves her body (Point arm to the left, center.)

lets us know where we must go (Point arm to the center, right.)

to find the fields and gardens (“Grow” from the ground up.)

where the finest flowers grow. (Lift arms into “petals.”)

Her dancing is symmetrical— (Draw an 8 in the air with one finger.)

A figure eight, I’d say.

The more wiggly she waggles, (Crouch down, shaking hips.)

the farther the bouquet. (Place flat hand above eyebrow to “search.”)

Across a line of symmetry, (Stand straight as a line, with arms at sides.)

she dances equal sections— (Hop from one foot to the other.)

making a map, whose two parts (Turn to a partner and clap opposite hands.)

are identical reflections.

She waggles in this mirrored way (Pretend to be a musical conductor.)

to act as our director.

Now we know the route to fly (Twirl around in a circle.)

to bring home tasty nectar. (Kiss hand to mouth, like a chef!)

Walk the Talk

✓ Drama (Movement)

✓ Language (Multimodality, Building Vocabulary)

1. Ask students: What are some different ways people communicate? (Speaking, writing, gestures, body language, facial expressions, drawing, etc.) Imagine if you had to waggle, fly, and dance to communicate with others. This is what a honeybee does every day! Worker honeybees dance to tell each other the location of nectar and pollen. This includes the direction and the distance of the flowers. Bees also communicate through pheromones—natural chemicals produced by the bees, which are unique to each beehive.

2. Play a brief game of “Charades” using new vocabulary from Buzz about Bees. Tell children that they can only use their facial expressions and body language to communicate.

3. Place children in groups of 3-4. Allow each group to randomly choose 3 action words from a bag (e.g., crouch, sway, twirl, shimmy, flap, hop, float, climb, tap, crawl, roll, etc.).

4. Explain to students that they must use these 3 actions to design a “bee dance” to communicate where the flowers are, with the following criteria:

a. Include direction and distance of flowers

b. No use of pointing motions or counting on fingers

c. Write a “legend” (e.g., on a small whiteboard) so that other students can try to decipher their dance. For example, 1 wing flap = 1 kilometre away

The Honeybee Relay

✓ Health & Physical Education (Active Living)

Note: This game should be played outdoors or in a gymnasium. The following materials are required:

▪ 2 teaspoons/eye droppers

▪ 4 containers, 2 containing 1 cup of water each

▪ Starting line

1. Ask: How many flowers do you think a honeybee has to visit to make one pound of honey? Allow students to guess before providing the answer: About one million flowers!

2. Explain that honeybees can only gather a tiny amount of pollen and nectar at one time, so they work very hard to gather enough to make honey. This is why it is so important that bees in the colony work together.

3. Divide the class into 2 teams. Each team must stand behind a starting line.

4. Using one teaspoon or eye dropper, each team must transfer one cup of water from one container (at the starting line) to another container ten metres away.

▪ Optional: Play Rimski-Korsakov’s “Flight of the Bumblebee” as the students race.

5. After racing, ask students: How long did it take? Why?

How Sweet It Is!

✓ Health & Physical Education (Healthy Eating)

1. With students, write a list of different ways we eat or drink honey—in drinks like tea, smoothies, and in foods such as yoghurt, granola, cereal, muffins, and bread. Explain that honey can be used instead of sugar for a healthier sweetener.

2. Choose a simple recipe using honey, such as a Fruit Honey Smoothie:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of soft fruit

• ½ cup yoghurt

• 1 cup ice-cold milk

• 2 tablespoons honey

Directions:

• Put fruit and honey in a blender and mix on high for 30 seconds.

• Add milk and yoghurt and blend for 30 more seconds.

• Pour into a tall glass and drink while cold.

3. Optional: Compile a “Honey Cookbook” for parents or for Mother’s Day by asking students to bring in recipes using honey.

“Busy as Bees” Learning Centre

✓ Science

✓ Language

✓ Visual Arts

Set up a station in the classroom for students to explore over time. Activities may include:

▪ Read books about bees and beekeeping.

▪ Use a magnifying glass to observe preserved bees and hives (or plastic models).

▪ Have you been bee-watching in the garden? Record your observations! What did the bee look like? What kind of flower was it visiting?

▪ Match photos of bees to their names in a “Guess Who?” game.

▪ Create a bee collage by cutting pictures from magazines.

▪ Post anything related to bees on a graffiti board (e.g., photos/drawings, jokes, sayings, trivia, stories, etc.).

▪ Create a model bee using egg cartons, paint, pipe cleaners, paper, felt, tissue paper, plastic, etc. (See example above.)

Ontario Apiaries

A field trip to a beekeeping farm (also known as an apiary) can provide an excellent learning experience for students of any grade level. The following is a list of centres in Ontario which offer school workshops, tours, and/or other programs for children.

|Name of Apiary |Location |Website/E-mail |

|Ackroyd's Honey |Tara, ON |ackroyd.apiaries@sympatico.ca |

|B & L Honey Farm |Uxbridge, ON |bshanksy2k@ |

|Clovermead Apiaries |Aylmer, Ontario | |

|Coneybeare Honey |Fergus, ON |coneybearehoneyj@ |

|Dickey Bee Honey / S & P Apiaries |Innisfil, ON | |

|Everdale Organic Farm & Environmental Learning|Guelph, ON | |

|Centre | | |

|Georgian Bay Honey |Owen Sound, ON |bergers.apiaries@gbtel.ca |

|Harem Hill Honey |Kerwood, ON |taziar@xcelco.on.ca |

|Hills Honey |Tara, ON |hillshoney@ |

|Leitch’s Honey |Orangeville, ON | |

|Levac Apiaries |Green Valley, ON |levacapiaries@xplornet.ca |

|Little Wolf Apiaries |Caistor Centre, ON | |

Additional Resources

Resources on Solitary Bees







Ontario Beekeepers’ Association



• Kids’ Zone includes puzzles, trivia, and activities (including “Bee” a Detective Scavenger Hunt)

The British Beekeepers’ Association



• Crosswords, poems, crafts, recipes, games, stories, and more!

Recipes with Honey





Creating a Bee-Friendly Garden (Printable Poster)



Royal Agricultural Winter Fair at the Exhibition Centre in Toronto



Ontario Agri-Food Education, Inc.



• “Teacher’s Resources” include an “Agri-Trekking” unit plan and a “Let’s Explore Ontario!” interactive online game for children to explore the agricultural industries of Ontario.

Sources

The Ontario Beekeepers’ Association – Educational Resources

The British Beekeepers’ Association – Bees for Kids



Appendices Index

A. Energy Chain Cards (p. 23)

B. Hivetown City Council Role Cards (p. 24)

C. The Newest Superhero Cards (p. 25-26)

D. Bee vs. Human Venn Diagram (p. 27)

E. “BEE”-autiful Home for Sale” Worksheet (p. 28-29)

F. “Creating a Bee-Friendly Garden” Posters:

Annuals That Attract Bees (p. 30-31)

Trees Known to Attract Bees

the sun clover flower

honeybee skunk

Appendix B:

Hivetown City Council Role Cards

Ecologists:

You are very concerned, because you have heard reports from all over the world that many species of bees are becoming extinct. This is serious, because bumblebees are the prime pollinators of blueberries, cranberries, and tomatoes, as well as other native plants. You know that it is especially the bees who live in the wild that are in danger. What can you do to help them survive? How can you get support from other people to help the bees?

Housing Developers:

You have your dream job—transforming plain old farmer’s fields to beautiful, paved, suburbs filled with expensive houses! You have been searching for new land to develop more housing. In your opinion, the city of Hivetown can never have too many people. The more people that move here, the more you will move the suburbs into the rural areas outside of the city. Many of those fields, meadows, and marshes are not even being used for anything, anyway!

People In Need of Housing:

You are living in an old apartment building with your parents in Hivetown. The owners have just told you that your apartment building is too old and needs to be torn down. Where will you live now? All of the houses and apartments in Hivetown are very expensive and they are all full. You cannot move out of the city, because your parents work here. If only there were more apartment buildings in Hivetown!

Appendix C: Superhero Cards

1. Eyes

Bees have five eyes. Two are hairy compound eyes that perceive airflow, detect colours, and spot movement. Under a microscope one can see that these compound eyes are made up of approximately 6,900 hexagons, which help the bee see all around its body. Three smaller eyes called ocelli are found between the bee’s compound eyes. Scientists believe these more primitive eyes detect light intensity.

2. Antennae

Two antennae set into sockets below the eyes help bees detect and adapt to their surroundings. With these antennae they can feel changes in the weather, smell pheromones (chemical signals sent by other bees), identify hive intruders, and find food sources. Under a microscope these antennae look like segmented worms covered with craters and bristly hairs.

3. Mouths

In order to shape their nests, eat pollen, and manipulate wood, plant resins, and wax, bees need large jaws, called mandibles. Bees also have a long, straw-like tongue called a proboscis. They use it to sip nectar from flowers and some also use it to feed their larvae.

Some bees have long tongues (e.g., leafcutter bees) and others have short tongues (plasterer bees). The types of tongues they have determine what types of pollen they gather. For example, long-tongued bees typically like deeper flowers and short-tongued bees prefer flowers that are shallower.

4. Wings

Powered by nectar, bees use their powerful wing muscles for flight. On their thoraces are two pairs of wings that can be hooked together. The average bee flaps its wings 200 cycles per second, allowing it to fly up to 14 miles/hour (24 km/hour)—that’s as fast as most dogs can run!

5. Legs

Bees, like all insects, have six legs. They use their legs to claw and scrape trees and flowers, dig out and build their nests or hives, clean themselves and their queens, and carry pollen. Some bees, such as bumblebees, have concave regions on their broad hind legs called pollen baskets.

At the tips of their legs, bees have suction cups and sensitive hairs. The suction cups help them to climb vertical surfaces such as walls or fences. The sensitive hairs help them “taste” their environments.

6. Stingers

Most bees are not aggressive. However, if you block a nest, trap or hurt a bee, or move too fast, you may receive a painful, venomous sting from a female bee—since only females have stingers. Bees with barbed or hooked stingers are usually cautious about who or what they sting; when a bee with this type of stinger stings its victim, the bee will most likely die. The stinger can’t be removed without rupturing the bee’s abdomen.

7. Thorax

The thorax’s main purpose is for transportation—both of pollen and for the bee itself. It is also considered the muscle centre of the bee because it is where the muscles used for flight and locomotion are found. The bee’s six legs and four wings are attached to its thorax. Some bees have a furry thorax. The dense hairs on these bees help them trap and transport pollen.

8. Abdomen

The honeybee’s abdomen houses most of its digestive and reproductive internal organs including its honey crop (also called its honey stomach), intestine, and ovaries. On the outside, six or seven hardened plates, connected by membranes, protect the abdomen. For some bees—those that build wax structures—these plates expand when the stomach is full of nectar or when the bee secretes flakes of beeswax.

Appendix D: Bee vs. Human Venn Diagram

Appendix E: “Bee-autiful” Home for Sale!

Address: ___________________________ Contact: ____________ ,

___________________________ Home Realtor

Type of Home: _______________________

Ideal for a _______________________ Bee

Neighbourhood: ______________________

Best Features:

___________________________

___________________________

___________________________

______________________________________________________

___________________________

[pic]

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Appendix A: Food Chain Cards

earthworm

barred owl

Appendix F: Creating a Bee-Friendly Garden

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