I'm excited today to share a theme that's fun for summer and is especially helpful for children who are afraid of bees. With knowledge, children can learn to be safe around bees while still understanding the good things about bees.
At Living Montessori Now, I have a list of free bee printables. The free printables include my latest subscriber freebie (a Montessori-inspired bee pack). Here, I'm sharing ideas for using free bee printables to create Montessori-inspired activities.
You'll find many activities for preschoolers through first graders throughout the year along with presentation ideas in my previous posts at PreK + K Sharing. You'll also find ideas for using free printables to create activity trays here: How to Use Printables to Create Montessori-Inspired Activities.
At Living Montessori Now, I have a post with resource links of Free Printables for Montessori Homeschools and Preschools.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links at no cost to you.
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.
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 Max and Naoli 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
Free Printable: Animal Life Cycle Cards from The Pinay Homeschooler Free Printable: Bee Life Cycle from NASA Climate Kids
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.
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| 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 - 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!
More Free Bee Printables
Go to my post at Living Montessori Now for links to free bee printables from around the blogosphere: Free Bee Printables and Montessori-Inspired Bee Activities. And be sure to subscribe to my email list if you'd like to get an exclusive free printable each month (plus two more awesome freebies right away): Free Printables.
More Insect Posts and Resources
- 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
- Insect Unit Study Pinterest Board
Have fun this summer!
Deb Chitwood is a certified Montessori teacher with a master’s degree in Early Childhood Studies from Sheffield Hallam University in Sheffield, England. Deb taught in Montessori schools in Iowa and Arizona before becoming owner/director/teacher of her own Montessori school in South Dakota. Later, she homeschooled her two children through high school. Deb is now a Montessori writer who lives in San Diego with her husband of 42 years (and lives in the city where her kids, kids-in-law, and 3-year-old granddaughter live). She blogs at Living Montessori Now.
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