LibGuides: Educator Guide: What's the Buzz About? Gr. 2-3: Whats the Buzz About? Educator Guide

What's the Buzz About?

Tips to Come Prepared

Before you visit the Genovesi Environmental Study Center (GESC) with your class, review the Educator's Guide to prepare for your students.

Read the Essential Questions (p. 1) and Connections to Standards (p. 2) to decide how you want to link your curriculum with your field trip
Complete the Pre-Visit Lesson with your class activating student interest and engagement
Come to GESC ready to engage and learn with our experiential, hands-on field trip program, What's the Buzz About?

Library Finds

The Beeman by Laurie Krebs; Valeria Cis (Illustrator) Find out where honey comes from as Grandpa the Beeman teaches the basics of beekeeping to his young grandson. This rhyming story includes 7 pages of endnotes full of essential facts about bees, beekeeping, honey, and the vital part that bees play in the natural world.
What If There Were No Bees? by Suzanne Slade; Carol Schwartz (Illustrator) Grassland ecosystems can be found on nearly every continent. Countless animals and plants live in them. So what difference could the loss of one animal species make? Follow the chain reaction, and discover how important honey bees are.

Essential Questions

What is a bee?
How and why do people care for honey bees?
What is pollination, and why are pollinators important?
How do humans impact bees?

Our Educator Guide

Explore the What's the Buzz About? Guide! Click the "What's the Buzz About?" educator guide to access information regarding your trip to GESC, pre- and post- lessons, as well as tips on how to make your field trip successful.

Sora eBooks

Access these free ebooks by signing in to the Sora app with your NYC DOE credentials

Bees in the City by Andrea Cheng; Sarah McMenemy (Illustrator) The solution, he realizes, is in the rooftop gardens and window boxes of his apartment neighbors, representing a varied and continuously blooming array of flowers that the bees will love. Aunt Celine must bring her bees to Paris! But first he and his friends Alice and Samir must convince their skeptical neighbors and landlord, Mr. Dubi, that this is a good idea.   Adorned with Parisian skylines,Bees in the Cityis a love letter to the City of Light and a celebration of the can-do spirit of kids. Sarah McMenemy's illustrations recall the Parisian magic of Madeleine. The book's backmatter explores urban beekeeping and rooftop gardening in greater depth.  Fountas & Pinnell Level P
Honeybee by Candace Fleming; Eric Rohmann (Illustrator) Robert F. Sibert Medal Winner   Take to the sky with Apis, one honeybee, as she embarks on her journey through life! An Orbis Pictus Honor Book Selected for the Texas Bluebonnnet Master List Finalist for the AAAS/Subaru SB&F Prize for Excellence in Science Books A tiny honeybee emerges through the wax cap of her cell. Driven to protect and take care of her hive, she cleans the nursery and feeds the larvae and the queen. But is she strong enough to fly? Not yet! Apis builds wax comb to store honey, and transfers pollen from other bees into the storage. She defends the hive from invaders. And finally, she begins her new life as an adventurer. The confining walls of the hive fall away as Apis takes to the air, finally free, in a brilliant double-gatefold illustration where the clear blue sky is full of promise-- and the wings of dozens of honeybees, heading out in search of nectar to bring back to the hive. Eric Rohmann's exquisitely detailed illustrations bring the great outdoors into your hands in this poetically written tribute to the hardworking honeybee. Award-winning author Candace Fleming describes the life cycle of the honeybee in accessible, beautiful language. Similar in form and concept to the Sibert and Orbis Pictus award book Giant Squid, Honeybee also features a stunning gatefold and an essay on the plight of honeybees. Cook Prize Honor Book An American Library Association Notable Children's Book A New York Public Library Best Book of the Year Named a Best Book of the Year by Kirkus Reviews, NPR, Shelf Awareness, School Library Journal, Publishers Weekly and more! A Horn Book Fanfare Best Book of the Year A Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year! A Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books Blue Ribbon Book A Booklist Editor's Choice A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection
The Bee Book by Charlotte Milner Discover more about our fuzzy little insect friends with award-winning author and illustrator Charlotte Milner.  The perfect introduction to bee conservation for little ones. Learn all about the beautiful world of bees and their adventure from flower to flower. You'll find out just how much they matter, why they are declining, and what we can do to help in this adorable kids' book.  Bees are brilliant at building, super social creatures and along with other insects, are responsible for a third of every mouthful of food you eat! Children will be fascinated by the beautiful pictures and learn plenty of buzz-worthy fun facts in every chapter, covering types of bees, beehives, beekeeping, how they pollinate plants and make honey. A beautiful kid's educational book about bees with a crucial message: not only does it inform and educate about an issue that is a real threat, but it also delivers it in a way that is gripping for all ages.  A dazzling celebration of bees, packaged in a gorgeous hard-backed book made with high-quality paper and spectacular illustrations. What's The Buzz About Honey Bees? Meet the humble honeybee face-to-face - an animal that is considered nature's hardest worker, in this engaging, educational kids' book that you can treasure forever. What do they do all day? Why are bees important? Find out why they need our help and what you can do.  Bees are responsible for so much more than making honey. This book is an essential tool in encouraging the protection of our precious buzzing friends for generations to come. Learn all about these valuable creatures: - What happens in the hive - What pollination is - Who the queen is - How honeybees talk to each other - How we can help them and much, much more! This adorable book is one of three children's books on conservation by award-winning author Charlotte Milner and includes The Sea Book and The Bat Book for your little ones to enjoy.
Next Time You See a Bee by Emily R. Morgan This book will get young readers buzzing about bees! Next Time You See a Bee reveals the big impact these little insects have on the world. It shows how the physical features of bees make them pros at collecting and spreading pollen. It explains how bees pollinate flowers, allowing the plants to produce delicious foods such as apples, almonds, and peaches. It also introduces readers to the wide variety of North America's native bee species, discusses why bees are threatened, and shares what readers can do to help. After reading Next Time You See a Bee, curious kids can partner with adults to observe these remarkable creatures without fear--and take bee-friendly measures to protect the insects for the benefit of us all.
The Honeybee by Kirsten Hall; Isabelle Arsenault (Illustrator) Buzz from flower to flower with a sweet honeybee in this timely, clever, and breathtakingly gorgeous picture book from critically acclaimed author Kirsten Hall and award-winning illustrator Isabelle Arsenault. Bzzz... What's that? Do you hear it? You're near it. It's closer, it's coming, it's buzzing, it's humming... A BEE! With zooming, vibrant verse by Kirsten Hall and buzzy, beautiful illustrations by Isabelle Arsenault, this celebration of the critically important honeybee is a honey-sweet treasure of a picture book.
Flight of the Honey Bee by Raymond Huber; Brian Lovelock (Illustrator) Follow the flight of a honey bee as she searches for nectar to sustain her hive and, along the way, pollinates flowers to produce seeds and fruits. A tiny honey bee emerges from the hive for the first time. Using sunlight, landmarks, and scents to remember the path, she goes in search of pollen and nectar to share with the thousands of other bees in her hive. She uses her powerful sense of smell to locate the flowers that sustain her, avoids birds that might eat her, and returns home to share her finds with her many sisters. Nature lovers and scientists-to-be are invited to explore the fascinating life of a honey bee. Back matter includes information about protecting bees and an index.

What's the Buzz About?

Materials for Pre-Visit Lesson

Roles of Bees in a Colony

Materials for Post-Visit Lesson

Ways We can Help Honey Bees

Other eBooks

The Busiest Bugs I Know A book about the life of bees.

Brilliant Bee Facts

Bees are very important pollinators (honey bees pollinate over 75% of our cultivated crops), but they aren’t the only ones helping plants reproduce - beetles, moths, ants, butterflies, flies, wasps, bats, birds, and even small mammals are all pollinators! Wind and water also play a role in the pollination of plants.
Although honey bees sting, there are predators who eat them. Some birds, such as bee eaters, insects like dragonflies, mammals such as bears, skunks, and honey badgers, and even reptiles and amphibians like anoles and wood frogs all include honey bees in their diet!
On average, worker bees only make 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey in their lifetime. Next time you have honey, think how many bees it took to make what you eat!
Bees can beat their wings over 200 times per second!
When a queen bee dies, worker bees pick a larva to feed a special diet called royal jelly to. On this diet the worker bee will develop into a queen.

Educator Guide: What's the Buzz About? Gr. 2-3: Whats the Buzz About? Educator Guide

What's the Buzz About?

Tips to Come Prepared

Library Finds

Essential Questions

Our Educator Guide

Sora eBooks

What's the Buzz About?

Materials for Pre-Visit Lesson

Materials for Post-Visit Lesson

Other eBooks

Brilliant Bee Facts

Connections to Standards