An important element of teaching your students about pollination is the instruction component. A lecture about how pollination works may get the job done, but you can introduce a variety of visual aids and photographs to further illustrate the concept and get your students excited about learning more. Show your students pictures of pollen and photographs of bees pollinating different flowers and ask them to describe what they see. Pass around different kinds of flowers and have students study the pollen up close using magnifying glasses.
Give your students colored paper, scissors and glue, and ask them to make their own flowers. Glue glitter on the flower in the place where pollen would be. Allow the glitter to dry slightly. To illustrate how the wind blows pollen, take your students outside and have them blow on the glitter and watch pieces of it fly off the flower. To illustrate how bees transfer pollen, have each student make a bee out of colored paper. Attach pipe cleaners to the bee as legs. Have each student dip the pipe cleaners in glitter and "land" on several of the paper flowers. Discuss how the glitter is transferred among the flowers. Observe flowers and bees in their natural habitat and keep a journal to record findings as another way to teach your students more about pollination.
Games are an engaging and entertaining way to reinforce concepts, and playing a game that illustrates pollination may boost the retention rate of your students. Make eight large flower petals out of cardboard, and gather one woolly hat, eight woolly socks and 32 ping pong balls with Velcro attached -- 16 each of two different colors. First, make your flowers. Divide your students into groups of nine. Four students each hold a flower petal, four put a woolly sock on one hand to become anthers and one wears the woolly hat on his head to become the stigma. Stick the ping pong balls to the woolly socks and have the students hold their hands up in the air. Have one student act as the bee. Have him pull tall wool socks onto his arms. The bee visits the first flower, pretends to buzz around and gets a few of the ping pong balls stuck to his arms. He then visits the second flower and transfers them to the anthers of that flower, illustrating how pollen is moved. Repeat the game so several students have a chance to be the bee.
Take your students on a field trip to visit a botanic garden. This will provide them with an up-close view on how bees and flowers work together to pollinate. To assess your students, ask them to write songs, plays, poems or fictional stories that illustrate their understanding of pollination. Alternatively, ask your students to draw a series of pictures that illustrate the process of pollination.