What is Big Buzz About Bees?
Big Buzz About Bees (BBAB) is an engaging, in-class experience that your students will love! Our Nature Educators bring all the parts of a working beehive into the classroom, creating an exciting learning environment while reinforcing key learning objectives.
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Our BBAB curriculum is a modular series with up to four unique lessons. You can schedule just one, all four, or any combination of our lessons. These can be flexibly scheduled throughout the year to align with a particular unit, or just as a standalone activity.
How does this fit in with our learning goals?
The BBAB curriculum has been carefully designed to align with the CA Dept of Education "Desired Results for Children and Families", CA Common Core, Next Generation Science Standards and the CA Blueprint for Environmental Literacy. Above and beyond these standards, we also incorporate meta-lessons on social, mental, and nutritional issues.
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Our lessons are an excellent way to bring learning to life while helping students solidify concepts like: Seasons, Insect Body Parts, How Parents Help Offspring, Geometry & Shapes, and even Counting by Tens.
What are the modular topics?
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Big Buzz About Bees Overview: If you want one class that combines a little bit of each of the classes below, this is the one for you! We’ll discuss how insects collect pollen and nectar, how beekeepers care for bees, life inside the hive including discussion of the similarities and differences between workers, queens, and drones and their life cycle, and why bees sting.
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Insect Anatomy (Life Science Focus): Learn how bees use their specialized body parts to help them collect food, build their home, raise their young, and communicate with each other.
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Bee Brave (SEL & Language Arts Focus): Focus on overcoming fear and anxiety through the lens of beekeeping. We explore why we might be afraid of bees, what fear and anxiety feels like in our body, and discuss techniques to manage our fear and anxiety (both in terms of tools we use with bees, and general techniques). We'll examine all of the tools that beekeepers use to help keep themselves and the bees safe and calm. (Connects well with ELA goals of learning about characters, specifically we incorporate character traits, motives, actions, and consequences)
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Pollinator Plate (Nutrition Focus): Focus on how pollinators contribute to the food on our plate. Discuss the foods that bees do (and do not) help produce, and how to create a healthy balanced diet.
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Insect Engineers (Math, Geometry, Design Focus): Focus on the shapes found in the beehive, how the hive is specially created to suit the needs of the bees, and what things and our lives mimic the design of the hive.
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Please Contact Us if you would like to see our curriculum outlines or specific curriculum connections.
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What age range is the presentation for?
This four part series is specifically designed to meet first grade learning standards, but we are happy to adapt our lessons to any grade level - just reach out!
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What about class size?
This presentation works really well for up to 25 students so the class can stay hands-on and personal. We can accommodate larger groups if that works best for your classroom.
How long does it last?
Usually about 45 minutes fits best for first grade bell schedules. The time is adjustable between 30 and 60 minutes to best fit your schedule.​
Customized Classes
If this is not the perfect fit - I’m happy to customize something for you. We can focus on certain aspects of bees to fit in to your curriculum better, or I have a wide variety of other classes to choose from!
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What is the cost?
Please Contact Us for current pricing. We work with a number of public and private schools, we are happy to work with your PTA or district finance personnel to find a way to bring this great program to your school.