Sweet nectar, yummy honey–bees have a pretty nice life full of little sweet treats! Let’s pretend to be bees and have a bee inspired picnic!
We highly encourage children to wear antennae if they have them (see our Strong as an Ant! activity for a simple antenna design). Maybe you all can talk about bees during your picnic or maybe you can make your own bee-language by buzzing!
Set up Time: 10 minutes
Directions
Gather together bee inspired foods and drinks and place them out picnic style.
Suggestions for food:
We used honeycomb cereal, honey crackers with honey peanut butter on top, and honey crackers and cheese with honey drizzled on top. Delicious! Other suggestions include: real honeycomb, honey graham crackers, honey bunches of oats, or different types of honey from different flowers (i.e. dandelion, orange blossom, etc.).
Suggestions for a drink:
For our drink we made non-caffeinated fruit tea to represent nectar from flowers. What a treat!
Materials
- Bee inspired foods (cereal, crackers)
- Tea
- Honey
Safety warning: Beware of allergies, such as peanut butter and substitute where necessary. Also do not give honey to children under 1 year old.
Learning Through Play
Cognitive: Connections – Talk to children about the flavors they are tasting. Are the items similar or different? What is the sweetest? What combinations taste good together? Which don’t? This is a great way to not only empower children, but also invite them to reflect on the way things fit together.
Language: Conversation – Picnics are a great way to practice using the language of etiquette by modeling it for children. For example, if a child passes you a plate of honeycomb cereal, you can say “Oh thank you my sweet bee! May I please have some nectar too?” Sometimes by exaggerating things with a bit of pomp and silliness, we can actually use it as a chance to model a concept.
School Readiness: Shapes – We love picnics as a way to practice shapes, as often our food comes in an array of geometric and non-geometric forms! Talk about the shapes of your square crackers, rectangle cheese, hexagon honeycomb cereal, and any other shapes you might find in your picnic.
See this activity in the Rayz Kidz app along with other fun activities. Rayz Kidz is your trusted source for play-based activities featuring over 100 themes and 500+ hands-on activities and clear descriptions of the beautiful learning that is happening through play.
