Teaching and Reading Guide

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Bee: Nature’s Tiny Miracleby Britta Teckentrup

SynopsisA beautiful, poetic story about the flight of a bumble bee. Travelling through beautiful countryside, through many types of flora and fauna, this beautifully illustrated tale relays the importance of the humble bee’s hard work and the wider impact it has on our world today.

•Format: HARDBACK•ISBN: 9781848692886•Size: 281 x 231mm•Price: £10.99

•Format: PAPERBACK•ISBN: 9781848691810•Size: 275 x 225mm•Price: £6.99

•Format: HARDBACK•ISBN: 9781848691285•Size: 275 x 225mm•Price: £10.99

About Britta TeckentrupBritta Teckentrup is an award-winning illustrator and author, having written and illustrated over 80 children’s picture books that have been published in over 20 different countries. After 17 years in the UK, Britta now lives and works in Berlin with her scottish husband, son Vincent and their old cat Oskar.

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Activity 1: Flight of the bumble bee

EYFS Link: Expressive arts and design.

Learning Objective: We are learning about bees and how they collect pollen from flowers.

First of all read ‘Bee: Nature’s Tiny Miracle’ by Britta Teckentrup. Talk about the story and ask the children if they have ever seen a bee, ask them if they know what special thing bees make. Explain to the children that you are going to play them a piece of music. Tell them you want them to think about what the music sounds like and what it reminds them of. Then play the children ‘Flight of the Bumblebee’ by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Ask the children what they imagined as they listened to the music. Hopefully the children will say bees, either buzzing individually or in swarms. Show the children a short clip of bees collecting nectar and pollen from the internet. Explain the process of the bee carrying pollen from flower to flower whilst collecting nectar so it can make honey.

Next, take the children into the hall. Explain to the children that some of them are going to be bees and some of them are going to be flowers. If a child is a flower they will have a yellow bean bag that represents pollen and a blue bean bag that represents nectar. Explain that if a child is a flower they need to stay in one place and hold up their pollen and nectar and sway in the breeze trying to attract the bees.

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If a child is a bee it is their job to try and collect the nectar and take it back to the hive whilst moving the pollen from flower to flower. The bees need to collect pollen from one flower then give it to the next flower they visit. The bees must ensure no flower is without pollen. You should have a large picture of a bee hive in one corner of the hall. Let the children be the bees and flowers and play ‘Flight of the Bumblebee’ at the same time. The game is over when all the nectar is collected from each flower and given to the hive. After the children have had a turn they could swap roles so all children have a turn at being flowers and bees. Take photos of the children to use in the display.

PlenaryAsk the children what they have learnt about bees today that they didn’t know before. Have they learnt any new words? Write new vocabulary on the large pieces of yellow card to use in the display.

Resources• A copy of ‘Bee: Nature’s Tiny Miracle’ by Britta Teckentrup• ‘Flight of the Bumblebee’ by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov• Internet clip of bumblebee collecting nectar and pollen, suitable for your children • Large A3 picture of a bee hive• 15 blue bean bags, 15 yellow bean bags• Large pieces of yellow card to write new vocabulary on.

Activity 1: Flight of the bumble bee

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Activity 2: Make your own bee paradise

EYFS Link: Expressive art and design

Learning Objective: We are learning to use our observational skills to help us with our painting.

Reread ‘Bee: Nature’s Tiny Miracle’ by Britta Teckentrup. Ask the children what they can remember from yesterday’s lesson. Ask the children what do bees do with pollen, what do they do with nectar?

Next look closely at some of the beautiful illustrations in the book. Can the children identify and name any of the flowers they can see? The teacher could bring some flowers into class or have some pictures on their whiteboard. Look at the shapes and the colours of the flowers. The teacher can model painting the shape of a bluebell, rose, daisy or some cherry blossom. Explain that the children can paint different types of flowers that the bees like to collect nectar from. Once the flowers are dry then the children can add the bees to their painting. The teacher then models painting their thumb yellow and doing thumb prints onto their pictures. Once the yellow is dry then the teacher can model painting the stripes and wings onto the yellow thumbprints to create the finished bee. Let the children go back to their paintings and add their thumbprint bees.

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PlenaryClass gallery. Have the children move around the class looking at each other’s paintings. Ask the children which painting they like and why. Encourage the children to talk about the flowers being good shapes or good use of colour etc. Put lots of the paintings up on the display board to create a wildflower meadow effect.

Resources• A copy of ‘Bee: Nature’s Tiny Miracle’ by Britta Teckentrup• 30 x A3 paper for the children to paint on• Variety of coloured paints and brushes• 12 water pots to clean brushes• Wet wipes to clean yellow thumbs

Activity 2: Make your own bee paradise

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EYFS Link: Literacy

Learning Objective: To use phonics to help us with our writing.

Ask the children what animal they have been learning about this week. Ask the children to share anything they have learnt, special things the bee can do or any new scientific words. Next explain to the children that bees all around the world are in danger and their numbers are going down very quickly. Explain why this is happening. The internet has lots of easy to understand information that can help explain this problem. It also has ideas of things we can do to help the bees.

One idea is to make your own wild flower meadow. Explain to the children that they are going to go in groups to plant seeds to make a wildflower meadow. Explain that this will help the bees by providing more flowers so there is more pollen and nectar for the bees. In small groups take the children to the designated area where you will plant the wild flower seeds. Plant the seeds.

Activity 3: Save the bees!

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Once all the children have had a turn planting the seeds, show the children their ‘Save the bees’ poster sheet. Model to the children how to write ‘Save the bees’ and a sentence for example ‘Stop using nasty sprays on plants’. Encourage the children to think of other sentences they could write, e.g. plant more wild flowers, don’t kill bees, we need bees, no bees means no fruit! etc. Model writing the sentences segmenting the words into their phonemes. Then explain to the children that they can draw a picture of bees and flowers in the blank box.

PlenaryTeacher to hold up the children’s work. Talk about great writing, good use of phonics, good punctuation and beautiful pictures. Mount on black or yellow and put on the display.

Resources• Poster sheet: 2 lines for writing, 1 large box for drawing a picture• Info about saving the bee in the UK• Pencils and colouring pencils • Yellow and black paper to mount the posters on

Activity 3: Save the bees!

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BEE

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BEE‘Back and forth, toing and froing,

The bee knows exactly where she’s going.Visiting flowers of every hue,She has a special job to do.’

Bees are very important as they bring life to our flowers. Connect the dots to discover the beautiful flower garden helped by Bee!

Illustration from Bee © Britta Teckentrup 2016. Published by Little Tiger Kids London.