How Do Bees Pollinate Flowers: Science Activity for Kids.
Are you planning a unit on Bees or Pollinators? This is a must-try activity!
It’s easy to do and is a great visual for how bees pollinate flowers!
I recommend pairing this activity with a time outside to look for pollination in action! My kids and I love looking for bumblebees as they visit plants and we always take a close look to see if we can see the bee’s corbiculae, which we call “pollen pants” or “pollen baskets”.
I hope you can try it!
– stay inspired, ❤️Allison
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How Do Bees Pollinate Flowers: Instructions
Materials:
– Colorful cereal (we used Froot Loops)
– Bee (We made one out of pipe cleaners glued to a craft stick. Pipe cleaners work really well for this activity!)
– Flowers (We made ours from paper, but you could use plates or cupcake liners to act as flowers)
Steps:
1. Separate the cereal based on color and crush it. This will be the “pollen” in each flower.
2. Gently pour the crushed cereal “pollen” into your “flowers.” Each flower should have a different color pollen.
3. Have your bee travel from flower to flower gently picking up pollen along the way!
4. What do you notice as the bee moves between the flowers?
How Do Bees Pollinate Flowers: Learning Opportunities
– Ask your child to describe what they notice as the bee moves between flowers.
– Ask your child to think of other animals that may also act as pollinators.
– Read books on pollination (see below).
– In spring or summer, OBSERVE bees outside and watch as they visit flower after flower.
Books to pair with this activity:
– “My Pollinator Garden” by Jordan Zwetchkenbaum and Kate Cosgrove
– “Nature Explained: A family guide to 20 nature cycles” by Helen Brown and Claire Scully
– “5-Minute Nature Stories” by Gabby Dawnay and illustrated by Mona K
– “What’s inside a Flower?” by Rachel Ignotofsky
How this Activity Relates to Nature
Bees visit flowers in search of nectar. Honeybees turn this nectar into honey! When the bee lands on the flower to collect nectar, pollen sticks to the bee’s body. When the bee visits another flower, some of these pollen grains will fall onto the newly visited flower. This allows the plant to be pollinated and develop seeds that will eventually produce a new flower.
In our demonstration, as our bee moved from flower to flower we can see that the “pollen” from one flower was moved to different flowers!