May 31, 2006: Pollination

The Mini Page is a syndicated, four-page tabloid written for young children found each Wednesday in the Rocky Mountain News. This issue of The Mini Page is available through the eEdition Archive to registered eEdition subscribers. Click here to learn about subscribing to the eEdition at no cost to you (for Colorado teachers).

Activities:

1. Create a poster with the title "Thanks to the Busy Bees." Cut out newspaper words and pictures of all the different foods that bees help to pollinate and paste them on your poster.

2. Use the weather map in your newspaper to trace the route migrating beekeepers would make as they follow crops. Start in Florida (January), then draw a line to Georgia, to South Carolina and so on.

3. Make a series of "Did You Know?" cards. Draw a beehive on the front of the card. Then write one fact about beekeepers on the back of each card. Share your cards with family members and friends. Have each person separate the cards into an "I knew that!" stack and an "I didn¹t know that" stack.

4. Which of the crops pollinated by bees are (a) fruits, (b) vegetables, and (c) other types of plants?

5. Use resource books and the Internet to learn more about the life of a beekeeper. Use these questions to guide your research:

• What different kinds of bees are kept by beekeepers?
• How many bees live in one hive?
• How do beekeepers protect themselves from stings?
• How much do beekeepers charge to "rent" their bees?
  
  

This week's standards:

• Students understand the characteristics and life cycles of organisms. (Science: Life Science)
• Students understand the interactions of animals and their environments. (Science: Life Science)
  
  

(standards by Dr. Sherrye D. Garrett, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi)