Explain to the children that worker bees fly from one flower to the next, collecting nectar. The bees gather nectar with a long tube called a proboscis and store it in a honey sac on their body. As the bees are collecting the nectar, they also collect pollen from the flower. Pollen is a yellow-green, black or white powdery substance that gets stuck on the bees’ hairy legs, also known as pollen baskets.The bees take the nectar back to their home to feed immature bees called larvae. Any nectar they don’t use is stored as honey in a honeycomb and used for food. As you discuss this section, show pictures of bees and point to the specific body parts as you go.
Draw a picture of a flower on the chalkboard, label the parts and reference it throughout the lesson. Explain that pollen is created by a plant’s male reproductive system, referred to as an anther and stamen. As a bee moves about a flower, collecting pollen on its legs, it comes in contact with female reproductive parts of the flower, called the stigma and pistil. When the pollen-laden legs touch this area, some of the pollen is transferred from the legs to the flower, which fertilizes the plant's cells. This in turn will produce seeds, which, once released from the flower, can grow into new plants. Pollination is vital for plants to reproduce and create new plants. Without pollination, plants will die off without creating seeds and new baby plants.
Cross-pollination is a result from bees flying to several different flowers and spreading pollen from one plant to another. Cross-pollination can also result from pollen being spread from one flower to another by the wind or water. Various other creatures, such as butterflies, moths, hummingbirds, beetles, flies, bats and even some mammals, may also cross-pollinate, intentionally or unintentionally. Sometimes a plant hybrid results from cross-pollination. In other words, two individual plants make a unique baby plant with some characteristics from each plant.
Creating a flower and a bee for this lesson can give the students a visual to solidify what has been taught. Cut a gallon milk jug to look like a flower with open petals. Nothing fancy, just some rounded edges on top will suffice, as long as you can reach inside the jug. Glue a long, thin foam noodle in the middle of the bottom of the jug for the stigma and pistil. Working one by one, poke about six pipe cleaners through the bottom of the jug and spread them in a circle around the stigma and pistil. Fold the tips that you poked through and tape them to the bottom of the jug. Sprinkle glitter on the upper tips of the pipe cleaners. Use a thin-tipped paintbrush to carefully spread a layer of white glue around the female parts of the flower. Grab a yellow pipe cleaner and bunch up part of one end to look like a round bee. Demonstrate for the kids how the bee collects pollen by rubbing it on the glitter, or pollen, and then transferring the pollen to the female part of the flower, where it sticks to the glue.