This week we are learning about bees. For a fun art project and to learn the parts of the bee, we made this bumble bee craft.
- 1 paper plate
- yellow and black paint (and paint brushes)
- 4 black pipe cleaners
- 2 googly eyes
- contact paper
The first step is to paint the paper plate yellow. My son added some glitter to his, but I think it looks cleaner without glitter.
Next, you will need to make wings using contact paper. Draw a wing shape on the back of the contact paper and then made a duplicate. Peel off the paper and stick the two pieces together to make 1 wing. Repeat those steps to make the second wing.
Then glue the wings onto the center of the bee. Next, glue on the googly eyes.
On the back of the paper plate, make a hole to stick a small piece of black pipe cleaner in. This will be the stinger. Either glue the stinger or bend the pipe cleaner so it won’t slip out of the hole.
Since a bee is an insect, they have 6 legs. Poke three holes on each side of the bee for the legs. Then stick a small piece of black pipe cleaner in each hole and wrap one end of the pipe cleaner to the other to keep it in place.
There are a lot of steps in this craft. I would recommend this craft for older prechoolers or young elementary kids. If you make these with several kids, I would recommend setting up parts of the craft for them (such as poking holes in the paper plate for the stinger, legs, and antennae). I also think this would be a great craft to make for teachers to hang up in their classrooms.
If you make this craft, I would love to hear how you used it!