Many children are frightened of bees.It’s helpful for them to learn more about bees … how they’re beneficial and how to not hurt or be hurt by bees. I’m using my latest theme to help my 3½-year-old granddaughter, Zoey, be safe around bees while not being afraid of them. She’s having lots of fun starting to learn about bees, too!
Our latest subscriber freebie has a bee theme. In addition to our new Montessori-inspired bee pack, I have a special instant download from The Montessori Company and a list of free bee printables … lots of resources for a bee unit for preschoolers through early elementary!
Montessori-Inspired Bee Activities Using Free Printables
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links (at no cost to you).
Montessori Shelves with Bee-Themed Activities
Montessori Shelves with Bee-Themed Activities
My shelves with bee-themed activities include a free honeybee culture card here designed by The Montessori Company. You’ll also find Montessori-inspired bee numbers and letters (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber)
I have a number of bee books for our bee theme. We always enjoy the National Geographic Readers, such as this theme’s Bees. Are You a Bee? and From Flower to Honey are on our shelf, but I have quite a few bee books in our book basket as well. I’ll cover bee books more in another post.
You could mix your bee-themed activities among your shelves according to curriculum area. Or you could have a special bee area something like the one pictured. My shelves this month have a mixture of skill levels, although they’re mainly for 3-5 year old pre-readers. You’ll find a couple of more advanced activities below. If you’re a homeschooler, just choose the activities that work for your child’s interests and ability levels. If you don’t have room for all the activities you’d like to do, just rotate them.
Honeybee Culture Card (on Shelf with Bee Books)
I’m happy to share with you a lovely hand-painted honeybee culture card from The Montessori Company. You can use it on your shelves to introduce a bee theme. I’m hosting the free printable as an instant download at Living Montessori Now. You can always access the free honeybee culture card here.
The description says: “Honeybees live in a highly organized society collecting pollen and nectar from flowers. They make honey in hexagonal cells in their hive.”
Montessori Types of Bees 3-Part Cards
Free Printable: Montessori 3-Part Cards – Types of Bees from My Montessori Hub are no longer available. If you got the freebies with the Montessori Summer Mega Bundle in 2019, you’ll have the file.
I used a Montessori-Services medium-size tray and two small tabletop easels to hold the cards. There are many ways to display 3-part cards, but this is a super-simple one and works especially well in a homeschool.
The cards are gorgeous, and Zoey loves them. She was fascinated to learn the names of the different types of bees.
Parts of a Bee Activity
Free Printable: Parts of a Bee Labeling by Color or Word from A Little Pinch of Perfect
For this activity, I used a Multicraft tray and a Bambu condiment cup to hold the pieces.
There’s a version of the printable with just words and another with colors. I like that younger children can do the activity by matching the colors. Then you can discuss the parts of the bee together. Of course, traditional 3-part cards are great, too. You’ll find a link for those in the list below.
Bee Life Cycle Work
Tray with Life Cycle of a Bee Materials
Free Printable: Animal Life Cycle Cards from The Pinay Homeschooler
Free Printable: Bee Life Cycle from NASA Climate Kids (Unfortunately, the bee life cycle printable from NASA is no longer available. You’ll find a number of free bee life cycle printables at Teachers Pay Teachers.)
I put all the materials on a Multicraft tray. The Safari Ltd. Life Cycle of a Honey Bee set is perfect for this! I used both life cycle printables because I liked having a variety of materials, such as a handmade book and life cycle chart from The Pinay Homeschooler printable and the gorgeous drawing from NASA. They’re great with the 3-dimensional figures. There are some other wonderful life cycle materials in the list below, too.
Working with Life Cycle of a Bee Materials
Zoey really loves this activity.
Beehive and Bee Cards and Counters
Free Printable: Beehive Numbers (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber)
I used a Montessori Services basket, 55 little wooden bees, and a small bamboo condiment cup to hold the bees. I LOVE these little wooden bees! They’re inexpensive and come with so many in a package that they can be used for a number of activities. Zoey finds them very appealing, too.
I like to lay out my numbers and counters in the traditional Montessori way of rows of two counters with a left-over counter centered below the bottom row. This gives a visual impression of odd and even. For more about creating DIY numbers and counters and a link on how to present the lesson, check out my DIY Cards and Counters post.
I use a Montessori Services rug for the layout.
Bee Clothespin Count-and-Clip Cards
Free Printable: Bee Clothespin Number Work from The Helpful Garden
For this activity, I used a Multicraft tray and miniature clothespins with the little wooden bees glued on for interest. It was very easy to prepare and is great for fine-motor skills as well as counting and number recognition!
Bee is for Bumblebee Missing Number Activity
Free Printable: Bee is for Bumblebee Missing Number Activity (subscriber freebie) – from ABCs to ACTs
For this activity, I used a Multicraft tray and a small bamboo condiment cup for the numbers.
It was extremely easy to prepare, and it’s just a simple way to reinforce numbers 1-20.
Honeycomb and Honey Letters for Letter H Object Basket and Salt Writing Tray
Free Printables: Honeycomb and Honey Letters for Letter H Object Basket and Salt Writing Tray (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber)
As you can see on my shelves, I used a Montessori mystery bag and blindfold for the letter h basket. I got the basket, mystery bag, and blindfold from Montessori Services, and I used a variety of small objects that beginning with the /h/ sound.
If you’d like ideas for teaching phonics, check out my DIY Beginning Montessori Phonics post.
For the salt writing tray, I used the wooden tray from the Melissa & Doug Lace and Trace Shapes. You can use whatever tray or container work best for you, though. I simply colored salt by putting some Wilton gel food coloring in a plastic bag with the salt and shaking it until it was mixed thoroughly. I wanted it to look a bit like pollen! I added a bee from the Safari Ltd. Insect TOOB for interest.
Bee Themed Double E Word Slider
Free Printable: Bee Themed Double E Word Slider from Royal Baloo
This is simply a cute and fun bee-themed activity for children working on reading phonograms. It’s so easy to put together after you print it out on cardstock!
Free Bee Printables for Preschoolers-First Graders
Free Honeybee Do-a-Dot Printable (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download)
Free Honeybee Cutting Strips (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download)
Free Noisy Insect Printables and Montessori-Inspired Noisy Insect Activities
Free Noisy Insect Cutting Strips (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download)
Montessori-Inspired Bee Pack for DIY Cards and Counters, Number or Letter Matching, Number or Letter Basket, Bead Bar Work, Hands-on Math Operations, Number or Letter Salt/Sand Writing Tray, Letter Tracing, DIY Movable Alphabet, and Creative Writing (subscriber freebie, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password – or check your inbox if you’re already a subscriber)
Montessori-Inspired Noisy Insect Pack for DIY Cards and Counters, Number or Letter Matching, Number or Letter Basket, Bead Bar Work, Hands-on Math Operations, Number or Letter Salt/Sand Writing Tray, Letter Tracing, DIY Movable Alphabet, and Creative Writing (subscriber freebie, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password – or check your inbox if you’re already a subscriber).
The links below are for free bee printables for preschoolers through 1st graders. To keep my list manageable, I don’t share coloring pages unless a page has a specific educational purpose related to bees.
- Life Cycle of a Honey Bee (subscriber freebie) from Trillium Montessori
- Honey Bee Life Cycle Cards from Preschool Powol Packets
- Bee Life Cycle Printables from Mama’s Learning Corner
- Montessori Parts of a Honey Bee from Carrots Are Orange (also on Teachers Pay Teachers)
- Montessori Math Activities with Honeybees from Carrots Are Orange
- Learning about Bees Activities with Free Printables from A Little Pinch of Perfect
- Bumblebee Count-and-Clip Cards – from ABCs to ACTs
- “Here Is the Beehive” Rhyme with Finger Puppets from the Measured Mom
- Bee Do-a-Dot Printables from Gift of Curiosity
- Bee Sudoku Puzzles from Gift of Curiosity
- Busy Bees Counting Game from Education.com
- Counting Bees Math Printable from JDaniel4’s Mom
- Make a Clay Bee Activity from NASA Climate Kids
- Honeybee Lapbook by Ami Brainerd at Homeschool Share
- Bee PreK Pack from A Teaching Mommy
- Bee Facts for Kids from Itsy Bitsy Fun
- 8 Preschool and Kindergarten Honey Bee Math Activities (Subscriber Freebie) from Homeschool Preschool
- Honey Bee Emergent Readers from In All You Do
- Honey Bee Notebooking Pages from In All You Do
- Honey Bee Tot and Pre-K Pack from In All You Do
- Beehive Puzzles for Making 10 (Subscriber Freebie) from The Kindergarten Connection
- Counting Bee Missing Numbers 1-100 from Education.com
- Bee Printables from Teachers Pay Teachers
More Insect Posts and Resources
Free Insect Songs, Sounds, and Rhymes for Circle Time
- Montessori-Inspired Insect Unit
- Free Ladybug Printables and Montessori-Inspired Ladybug Activities
- Montessori-Inspired Caterpillar-Butterfly Unit
- Montessori-Inspired Life Cycle Activities
- Free Butterfly Printables and Montessori-Inspired Butterfly Activities
- Free Butterfly Cutting Strips (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download)
- Butterfly Sensory Bin with Scavenger Hunt and Life Cycle Activities {Free Printables}
- Montessori-Inspired Spring Activities with Spielgaben {Free Printables}
- Free Butterfly Do-a-Dot Printable (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download)
- Free Ant Printables and Montessori-Inspired Ant Activities
- Free Ant Do-a-Dot Printable (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download
- Free Ant Cutting Strips (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download)
- Ant Sensory Bin with Scavenger Hunt and Life Cycle Activities
- The Best Ant Books for Kids
- Ants on a Log Fun Food Preparation for Preschoolers
- Free Invertebrate Cards and Presentations, Including Bug Activities from KHT Montessori
- Free Bee Printables and Montessori-Inspired Bee Activities
- The Best Bee Books for Kids
- Free Honeybee Do-a-Dot Printable (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download)
- Free Honeybee Cutting Strips (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download)
- Montessori-Inspired Ladybug Unit with Free Printables and Activities
- The Best Ladybug Books for Kids
- Free Ladybug Do-a-Dot Printable (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download)
- Free Ladybug Cutting Strips (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download)
- Ladybug Life Cycle – The Joy of Growing Ladybugs
- Insect Unit Study Pinterest Board
Learn more about my eBook Montessori at Home or School: How to. Teach Grace and Courtesy!
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I have a daycare and the kids love this! We were running all over the yard doing different movements with our bumble bees while singing the song. Thank you!