Thumbprint bees
One of our volunteers made coffee filter butterflies with her granddaughter, and in exchange, her granddaughter showed her how to make thumbprint bees.
We thought they were so cute, we would try them ourselves. And just to make it more exciting, we did a variety of thumbprint invertebrates!
All you'll need is:
White paper
Washable markers
Thumbs!
Use a washable yellow marker to color your child's thumb and have him or her press the colored part of the thumb onto a piece of paper, without smearing it.
Use a black washable marker to add stripes, eyes, wings, antennae and a stinger.
Then use your imagination. Red is for a ladybug, orange for a monarch butterfly, green for a dragonfly. What can you come up with?
Thumbprint tree
The world has about 3 trillion trees and more than 60,000 different species. However, trees are very specific to their environments. More than half of the tree species in the world only grow in a certain country. Trees are positives for the environment for so many reasons, from absorbing excess carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen Read More »
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10 bee questions answered
How long does a honeybee live? How long does a queen live? A worker bee typically lives six weeks during the summer, and during that time it has a variety of different jobs — nurse, undertaker, architect, cleaner, attendant, guard, forager. (Read more about worker bee jobs here.) However, worker bees that live in Read More »
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Bee pencil topper
All kids use pencils at school, but many times those pencils are plain yellow and don’t allow for much inspiration. We took pencils to the next level with our bee pencil toppers at the 2019 Bee & Butterfly Festival, and now you can make your own. Simply click here to download a free PDF template Read More »
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Worker bee jobs
“It looked like two bees were dead and other bees were picking them up and dragging them away. Do they do that?” When you watch a honeybee hive, you’ll see the honeybees doing what might seem like odd activities. I mean, why would they be dragging around a dead bee? There’s a perfectly rational explanation Read More »
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Bees see in UV
Bees see the world much differently than humans. It’s not just because they are small but because they see different colors. On the color scale, humans can see the colors of the rainbow — red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet. On one end, there is infrared, which humans can’t see, and on the other Read More »
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Six ways native bees differ from honeybees
People often use the term bee when talking about any kind of buzzing creature outside — it could be a honeybee, a bumble bee, a mason bee, a sweat bee or even a wasp or yellowjacket. However, it’s important to differentiate between the different kinds of bees. That may be difficult since the U.S. has Read More »
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Five bee myths and truths
Myth: Bees are mean. Truth: Bee are nice. Honeybees only sting as a last resort, because they die after stinging. That means, unless they feel threatened or think you are going to hurt the hive, they will leave you alone. Myth: Bees will keep stinging you. Truth: As stated above, honeybees will die after stinging Read More »
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Craft of the week: Turtle Prints
For Nature Tots last week, the theme was Turtle Power! To celebrate our reptile friends, we decorated our own turtle shells using our thumbprints, and this is a great and easy activity you can do with your little ones at home. Start out by drawing a large turtle on your sheet of paper. (Watch: Read More »
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