Learning everything about bees!

September 7th, 2023.
Happy Thursday everyone! Today was another super funny day in Flowers class!

MORNING ACTIVITIES
Today’s activities were focused on Free play! Our Flowers friends had the opportunity to let their imagination run free as they were playing with blocks and other construction toys.

As soon as she arrived, V. rushed onto the color blocks to build insects, or animals while following the patterns proposed by the table game. S. was imitating a dragon as he was designing his own, while T. was expressing his joy as he was building a “Kani-san” (a crab, in Japanese).

Our other friends were busy using the Kapla blocks to build towers, building and so! C. for example built an entire Zoo using dominoes and animal figures, Ri. followed his idea and built his own too. Re., R., B. and H. were playing a different game on their side. They were pretending to cook by using plastic food and Kapla blocks and turned them into beautiful cakes.

After a while, our teachers asked us to clean everything and get ready for Park time. Today was not such a hot day so it was really nice and to go outside and spend some energy running around, playing catch and looking for insects!

BOOK TIME
After coming back from Step Park, we had our snack and then it was already our book time! The library leaders of the day, A. and T., picked “Pete the cat: Pete at the beach” by James Dean for Axel to read for us! The book tells us the story of a Cat named Pete that goes to the beach for his summer holidays along with his Mommy and Brother. At first, Pete is scared to surf on the waves with his brother, but he decides to try and eventually enjoys the activity a lot. The moral of this story is: It’s OK to fear something, but you will never know if you like it or not unless you try!
S.: One time, I surf by myself.

Why was Pete so scared, Axel asked.
S.: Because of the waves!

CIRCLE TIME
Then, we formed a big circle while holding hands together before singing our Cookie Jar song! This one is really nice and helps us understand how to sit down properly while having fun!
What kind of cookie do you have in your jar, asked our teacher:
A.: Rainbow cookies with Strawberry!
C.: Chocolate.
S.: Raisin cookies.
B.: Strawberry!
Th.: Fruits.
V.: Apple.
M.: Raspberry.
Ty.: Banana.
K.: Melon.
Re.: Pineapple.
So many different tastes! Yummy!!

Then, we talked about our Question of the Day:
S. read the question for us: Do you know where bees live?
B. laughed at the question, as her name sounds like it!
E.: In a beehive!

But where to find a beehive, asked our teacher.
A.: In the trees.
Ty.: In Ohana.
C.: In a wood house.

Then we were asked: What is a beehive made of?
Th.: the honey?
A.: It’s really strong.

Axel explained to us that the beehive is actually made from bee wax. Bees produce wax from their own honey. But then, how do bees make honey?
B.: From the Flowers nectar.
That’s correct!
C.: They make blueberries.
A.: My mommy sometimes brings honey from Lithuania to Tokyo so we can eat it.

So, do you like honey?
H.: My daddy use in bread. I bring some honey from Singapore.
K.: I going home, I see beehive. I see honey, and I take it home.
To finish our circle time, our teacher asked us several other questions on bees:

- What do bees do?
Y.: They sting!
Th.: If you don’t bother the bee, they don’t sting you.
C.: They fly around.
B.: They fly to the flowers to get nectar. They come home to the beehive and make honey.

- Do you know that there are several types of bees?
C.: Some bees are nice.
B.: Some bees are queen bees.
Th.: Honeybee!
B.: The queen bee stays at the beehive and the other bees go to get the nectar and serve the queen bee. The queen bee has red on her.

- Amazing fact, how many eggs do you think the queen can lay in one day?

B.: 100!
More!!
H.: 1 million!
Less!!
Re.: 50!
More actually, 1000!

- What happens to bees in winter
K.: They cannot fly.
A.: Because they’ll get stuck in the snow.
Th.: Because it’s too cold for them.

- What about during spring? Do bees go out again?
C.: They get more honey!

It was soon time for lunch, so we ended our circle time with a question to ask our parents. Do you think that wasps make honey too?

Thank you for reading our journal and see you tomorrow for more adventures!
Lots of love,
Flowers class children.