Bee Engaged
Storytelling coding with Scratch Junior
Nnenna Okore - hive weaving - with Jim
B-line
Hive zoom visit
Poetry
Science
Raspberry Pi - Storytelling project
In technology we have been working with Raspberry Pi to learn coding through storytelling.
Year 2 have now created their own stories using Scratch to code and sequence their characters.
Visiting a hive!
We had a very exciting zoom call with a bee keeper! He was able to show us how he uses smoke to calm the bees. He then took out sections of the hive to show us the bees busy at work! We even saw a baby bee being born and crawling out of the wax. They asked some insightful questions to stay informed about the activities of bees and their important role in our community.
Science
The children have been learning about animals and their habitats. We looked at how most living things live in a habitat to which they are suited.
We planted our own bean and pea plants! The children investigated what they needed to grow.
Year 2 then began identifying the plants and animals that live in our school playground. We looked at whether our school is a suitable habitat. The children quickly began to identify the areas which were well suited to a whole range of plants and wildlife, like our pond area. We discovered that pollinators like bees are essential to allow for a wide variety of plants. We looked at how bees are an integral part of the food chain.
Our next challenge was to work with the wildlife Trust to see how we could make our playground a more suitable habitat for pollinators and in particular bees.
Poetry
Year 2 wrote couplets after being inspired by the nature all around our school.
The children used their senses to capture the sight, sounds and movements in the playground. They presented these beautifully on strips of paper and weaved them onto a backdrop of their bee illustrations.
Some of the children even used their oracy skills to read out their poems.
Joining the B-line
Year 2 have worked with the Wildlife Trust to identify pollinator friendly plants in our playground. We have worked to maintain and monitor 2 wildflower meadows in the infant playground.
We found out that pollinators like bees need lots of habitats within flying distance. These act like stepping stones to allow the bees to move between larger areas of habitats.
After surveying our playground area we collected data on our two wildflower meadows and registered our school on the B-line! Our school is helping pollinators to be connected across the country.
We worked with Jim to build our own beehive inspired structures.
Year 2 decided to use recycled computer parts, fabric and natural materials collected from our playground. We looked at making our project sustainable.
You can see our structures in the KS1 playground!
Nnenna Okore
We have studied the nature inspired artist Nnenna Okore. Year 2 looked at her methods of weaving manufactured and natural materials to create art structured inspired by nature.
Seed paper
As part of our investigation and findings, we looked at different ways to promote and turn our local area into more pollinator friendly green spaces. We came up with an idea to help by spreading wildflower seeds into our local environment. This encompassed mixing wildflower seeds into our recycled paper mix as a way to promote and publicise the important role of bees.
Our paper making process started off by shredding recycled paper and blending it into a pulp. The children carefully extracted this using a sieve and transferred this onto a drying rack. Some of the seeds have even started to grow!
This is a bee guide to help you identify some of the bees in your area!
The Wildlife Trust
Year 2 were lucky enough to have a special visit from a specialist from The Wildlife Trust. We discussed how seeds can be dispersed by animals, humans and the wind! They discussed and looked around our playground areas to look for pollinators to see how many different types we could find!
How many different minibeasts can you find around your home? Do you know which ones are pollinators?
Maths
The children collected important data about the number of pollinators in different parts of our playground. This data informed us of which areas had the most and least number of bees and other pollinators. They analysed the data and discovered what makes these areas most popular and used this information to help create more similar areas for our lovely bees!
They looked at sophisticated ways to represent this information by using data visualisation. Many children were inspired by the natural hexgaonal shapes produced by bees.
