The current buzz in the art room is all about the Honeybee! Students in Kindergarten through third grades have been watching nature videos and examining the honeybee.  They are drawing the honeybee in its habitat and are discovering when an object or design is the same on both sides of center, it is called SYMMETRY.  It is a mystery that the honeybee can fly at all because its body is so much larger than its wings, which are very delicate.  The bee can fly forward, backward and can hover.  The female does most of the work.  She collects nectar and pollen from the flowers and brings it back to the hive.  She makes hexagon shape cells from her wax glands where larvae can grow. This worker bee pollinates 33% of our food plants.  Students learned the shapes and names of the body parts and drew them first- the head, thorax and abdomen.  Next wings, legs and antenna were added.  3 grade drew 1/2 of the honeybee and used oil pastels to transfer it to the other 1/2 of the paper.  They used hexagon templates to show the bee in its habitat.  Art Smart words honeybee, pollen/pollinate, nectar, hexagon, hive, honeycomb, symmetry, pattern, and habitat.  Here are some photos from 3rd grade.  More will be uploaded soon.

3rd grade Honeybee drawings using the 1/2 transfer method and hexagons

1st grade Honeybee.  Focus was realistic color, pattern and symmetry