Bees: 1st Grade

In this lesson students listen to the book “Please Please the Bees” and have a class discussion
about community and respect. After this they are to create a honey bee but the bee has that
child's facial features. They are to make this using pencil for a rough sketch and watercolors to
paint it. Then they are to make a honeycomb and a flower using a stencil and oil pastels. They
cut each of these three items out and turn in the be as well as either the honeycomb or the
flower which is later put together into a “mural” format which represents the school as a
community of bees.
Lesson one begins with the book, discussion and sketching of the bees. I had to make
adjustments because I thought they would be able to both draw and paint the bee to completion
in one class period. This actually took two class periods, so I overestimated their abilities. A few
of the students also had issues applying too much water to their papers and having the colors
bleeding together. I would show these students how to take a paper towel to their paper to soak
up excess water.
In lesson two, I underestimated their abilities and believed that they would take the entire
period to create a flower or a honeycomb. The first class I taught this to finished up with about
half a period left. I was not prepared for this and so I knew I’d have to make adjustments. I
decided then that the students needed to create both a honeycomb and a flower, decorate, and
cut out both, then give me the one they would want to be hung in the hall. This adjustment
allowed the class to run much smoother, as it took the vast majority of students the entire period
to complete this task.