Honeybee and the Robber Lesson Plan

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Children love Eric Carle's colorful illustrations and animal characters. I do an author study with my class and my students love making painted paper like Eric Carle's. The pop-up format makes The Honeybee and the Robber especially appealing to students. Students love using the pop-up features to tell the story.

OBJECTIVE
Students will "recognize that people and other animals interact with the environment through their senses of sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste." --Massachusetts Science and Technology/Engineering Curriculum Framework

MATERIALS

• The Honeybee and the Robber by Eric Carle
• pencils (one per student)
• paper (one piece per student)
• Sharpie marker
• chart paper
• chart stand
• large paper plates (about 12)
  

SET UP AND PREPARE

Label the plates with the numbers 1 through 12. Place them on the floor, four in a row. (First Row: 1, 2, 3, 4 Second Row: 5, 6, 7, 8 Third Row: 9, 10, 11, 12)

On the chart paper, write "Flowers on the playground: 6, 7, 8, 4, 3, 2, 6, 7, 8, 4, 3, 2," "Flowers by the brook: 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 12, 11, 10, 9, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 12, 11, 10, 9, 5," and "Flowers in the field: 1, 6, 11, 8, 4, 8, 11, 6, 1."

If you plan on making this book available for students to read on their own, be certain to review how to use it, as the pop-up tabs tend to be fragile. 

DIRECTIONS
Turn to the page where the bee does the dance to show where the flowers were. Talk about how bees uses these dances to communicate.

Have a student use one of the patterns displayed on the chart paper to step on the corresponding plates. While the student is doing the "bee dance," have other students use the paper and pencils to record the pattern. When the dance is done, have students try to identify which dance it was.

LESSON EXTENSION

Try laying out more paper plates to give students the option of creating more intricate dances.

Related Resources
Buzzing a Hive by Jean C. Echols
www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/bees/
www.eric-carle.com
www.picturebookart.org

Jeremy Brunaccioni is a kindergarten teacher in Massachusetts.

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