Children may create a bee collage that depicts a honeybee's four-stage life cycle. Provide construction paper, pencils, crayons, markers, glue sticks, posterboard, scissors and magazines. Show children pictures of a bee egg, larva, pupa and adult bee. Instruct the children to draw the bee in its different stages of life. The drawings may be cut out and glued to posterboard. Add magazine clippings of honey, honeycomb and other natural elements to create a bee collage.
Bees play an important part in the growing process of a variety of the foods we plant and eat. Explain to children that fruit begin as flowers but don't turn into fruit without the help of bees. Instruct children to draw a flower and label the different parts: the ovules, stem, petals, stamen, pistil and sepals. Explain that when a bee lands on a flower to drink nectar, it brushes against the flower's pollen; pollen is then distributed to each additional flower on which the bee lands. Children may draw a bee on a separate piece of paper, cut it out and glue it to a craft stick. Make a slit in the back of the flower artwork and poke the bee up from behind for a pop-up craft.
Bees live in colonies; each bee has its own role or job. Describe the roles of the queen, workers and drones. Tell children that the queen lays all of the eggs, the workers have glands that produce the wax that hold the honey, and the drones have big, strong wings for quick flight. Ask children to decide which role they'd like. Ask them to draw a picture of their chosen bee and explain their reasons for choosing it. Children may act out their roles in a short skit.
Grocery stores and produce stands often sell honeycombs filled with honey. Pass a honeycomb around for students to inspect. Explain how the queen bee stores flower nectar in her stomach to give to a worker bee, where it's then stored in the honeycomb. The water in the honey is evaporated by bees when they flap their wings over the honeycomb. Instruct children to turn the honeycomb over to see how thick the honey is after the water evaporation process. Break open the honeycomb and allow the children to spread it on crackers and eat it. Consult with parents beforehand, as children with bee or honey allergies shouldn't participate in this activity.