A garden for the crawling creatures

As a summative project for our "Crawling creatures" unit of inquiry, we made a miniature edible garden and some crawling creatures. Before choosing what crawling creatures the children want to present through their edible model, the children had to share their knowledge on the features of the crawling creatures, their importance to the ecosystem and different ways that people can help to take care of them. 
This was the final assessment for the end of this unit. 


 Matthew "I would like to make a honeybee. I want to share with everyone my appreciation towards bees. Honey is delicious."
 Bela "I like spiders." 
 Ryleigh "I want to make a dragonfly. They eat mosquitoes." 
 Allye "Butterflies are my favourite crawling creatures. I like their different patterns and colours on their wings."

The busy life of a bee

The children wanted to make 3D bees for art today. They wanted to have a chance to share their knowledge about bees with the others and to reenact the life of a bee by flying their little bee around, collecting nectar from the flowers, and turning it into honey. 

The children showed creativity and commitment while pretending to be bees. 

They also showed appreciation towards the bees by telling their friends at the playground how important the bees are for our eco system. 

"I love honey. Bees makes honey." Andrea

The children in the Fir group had a wide knowledge when it came to bees. They were eager to share:

"Bees make honey" Michael 

"They have two antennae" Alexia 

"Bees fly in my garden" Matthew 

"Some bees hurt" Elaine     "They sting", Matthew added. 

"Bees buzz around" Kesler 

 *** A bee's buzz is the sound of its wings flapping - up to 200 times a second.

"Bees are very fast" Matthew 

There are different types of bees (e.g Bumblebees, solitary mining bee, giant mason bee, etc.), but the Honeybee is the bee that all the children in the Fir group wanted to explore and learn more about. 

The features of a Honeybee: 

Like all the other insects, the Honeybee's body is composed of three parts:

1. The Head's got two antennae that help the bee touch, taste and smell; a long tongue called a proboscis that the bee uses to sip the nectar from the flowers and big eyes that are made out of many tiny parts. The compound eyes see all around. 

2. The Thorax - sturdy wings are attached to the thorax. These let the bee fly up to ten hours a day.

3. The Abdomen - the honey stomach stores nectar and turns it into honey. The bright stripes warn enemies away and the sharp stinger pokes out when the bee is about to sting.

"If it feels scared" Kesler. 

We looked into how bees live in big groups called colonies and what their responsibilities are. 

We ended group time by tasting some honey and all the children thanked the bees for their hard work. The honey was sweet and delicious! 

Matthew "Thank you bees for giving us honey."