Bees are vital to our ecosystem and play a crucial role in pollinating many of the plants and crops that we rely on for food. By creating a bee house craft, you can help provide a safe and comfortable home for these important pollinators in your own backyard.
Not only is this activity a fun and creative way to teach kids about the importance of bees, but it also promotes sustainability and eco-friendliness by repurposing a tin can that would otherwise be thrown away. By providing a safe space for bees, you’ll be helping to maintain a healthy and diverse garden ecosystem.
We’ll provide detailed instructions on how to create a bee house using a tin can, yellow paint, construction paper, and other simple materials. This project is easy to complete and perfect for kids of all ages. So, let’s get started and create a beautiful and functional bee house for your garden!
What is a Bee Hotel?
Bee hotels are man-made structures designed to provide nesting sites for solitary bees. Unlike honeybees, which live in large colonies and produce honey, solitary bees are non-aggressive, do not produce honey, and prefer to nest alone. These bees are important pollinators and play a crucial role in maintaining the health and diversity of ecosystems.
Bee hotels are typically made from natural materials such as bamboo, wood, or reeds, and are designed to mimic the natural nesting sites that solitary bees seek out in the wild, such as hollow plant stems or holes in trees. The hotels provide a safe and secure space for the bees to lay their eggs and raise their young.
How are Bee Hotels Good for Bees?
Bee hotels have become increasingly popular in recent years as people have become more aware of the importance of pollinators and the threats they face from habitat loss and other environmental factors. By creating bee-friendly habitats in our gardens and urban spaces, we can help support the vital work that solitary bees and other pollinators do to keep our ecosystems healthy and thriving.
WANT TO TRY MAKING A BEE HOTEL WITH YOUR KIDS LATER? PIN IT NOW, SO YOU CAN FIND IT EASILY WHEN YOU NEED IT!
Materials
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- Tin can
- Acrylic paint and paint brush
- Pencil
- Construction paper
- Twigs
- Yarn, string or twine
- Scissors
- Tape
- Glue
How to Make a Bee Hotel
- Start by cleaning and drying the tin can thoroughly. Remove any labels or residue.
- Using the yellow paint, cover the entire surface of the tin can. You can use a foam brush or regular brush to apply the paint. Set it aside to dry.
- My daughter wanted to paint her own design on her bee hotel. So let your child get created with it or you can cut strips of black construction paper to create the “stripes” on the bee hotel. Glue or tape the strips onto the yellow-painted tin can, leaving a small gap between each stripe.
- Once the stripes are in place, create the “rooms” for the bees to nest in. Take a piece of construction paper and roll it up tightly around a pencil, then secure it with glue or tape. Repeat this process to create several paper rolls.
- Cut the paper rolls to size so that they fit inside the tin can, leaving a little space between each roll.
- Stack the paper rolls inside the tin can to create the bee hotel.
- Go outside and add some twigs to fill in the smaller spaces.
- Using a small drill or nail, create a hole in the top of the can for the string to be threaded through. Thread the string or twine through the hole and tie it securely. Ir you can wrap the string mourned the outside of the can and tie it into a secure know.
- Hang the bee hotel in a tree or other suitable location such as in a garden.
Age Suitability
This craft is good for toddlers aged children 2 years old and up.
Mess Level
The mess level for this craft is low.
Difficulty to Create
Low.
Skills Developed
Language development, shape recognition, color recognition, hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, imaginative play, creativity.
Toddler and Preschooler Curriculums, Books & TV Show!
Play2Learn Toddler & Preschool Programs for Curious Toddlers
There is no limit to your toddler’s energy and curiosity. That energy and curiosity although a joy can be challenging at times. Their interest in just about everything around them is what makes them great learners. One and two year olds can soak up so much just from their senses!
But as a teacher or parent that thirst for learning can be exhausting. That is why I created this toddler and preschooler program. To help you get the most out of this time with your curious toddler without having to come up with creative ways to play and interact with them.
Play2Learn for Toddlers includes 20 Units for toddlers. Each 2-week toddler unit has 20 super easy to set up and engaging activities for toddlers 18 months to 3 years.
Play2Learn Preschool which includes 20 Units for preschoolers. Each 2-week preschoolers unit has 20 unique and easy to set up and engaging activities for preschoolers 3 years to 5 years. That’s over 800 learning activities for your toddler and preschooler at your fingertips! So many ideas you and your child will never be bored again!
These toddler and preschool lesson plans and activities will definitely keep you and your toddler and preschooler busy playing and learning!
Click here for more information: Play2Learn
Designed for toddlers 18 months and up.
Book: Exciting Sensory Bins for Curious Kids
Did you know I wrote a book of sensory bins? Click here for more information Exciting Sensory Bin for Curious Kids. Or grab your copy at Amazon.
Boring afternoons are made exciting with awesome animal-based bins, like Salty Shark Bay or Yarn Farm. Pretend play bins like Birthday Cake Sensory Play or Bubble Tea Party encourage creativity and imagination. And your kids will have so much fun they won’t even know they’re getting smarter with STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) activities like Sink or Float Soup, Magnetic Letter Hunt or Ice Cream Scoop and Count.
Designed for toddlers 18 months and up.
Book: Super STEAM Activity Book for Kids
Learning all about science, technology, engineering, art, and math sets kids up for scholastic success―and it can be so much fun! Watch kids enjoy building STEAM skills as they color friendly fish, help water find its way to tree roots, solve math problems with mazes, and more.
Find out more and grab your copy here.
Designed for preschoolers 3 years old and up.
Book: Big Book of Riddles for Kids
Riddle me this: What’s an exciting way to practice critical thinking while having a blast? The Big Riddle Book for Kids, of course! From hilarious puns to tough brain teasers, kids can build problem-solving skills with hundreds of riddles that show them how to think outside the box.
- 350 riddles for kids—Have hours of fun with riddles, puns and jokes, and math and logic puzzles that’ll get their wheels turning!
- Level up their skills—Riddles get trickier as kids progress through the book, challenging them as they get better at solving puzzles!
- Double-check their work—Kids can check their answers in the back of the book with a handy answer key.
Help children expand their minds while having fun with this puzzle book for kids!
Designed for kids ages 6 years old and up.
TV Show: Curious Crafting
I’m so excited to share my crafting TV show Curious Crafting which launched in July 2022 on TVOkids and TVOkids YouTube! Season 2 airs in the summer of 2023! We were also nominated in 2023 for Best Live Action Preschool Series by the Youth Media Alliance Awards of Excellence.
Set in the ultimate crafting space, Curious Crafting is a short form pre-school age series about the joy of making crafts. I lead a rotating cast of adorable little preschoolers (including my own) making magic out of common household objects.
In each episode we transform recycled items into magical crafts like a milk carton school bus, paper bag puppet or cotton pad turtle. The crafters learn and laugh their way through each activity while demonstrating what their young imaginations can create.
Curious Crafting shares the adventure and joy of making art with takeaway lessons for creating crafts at home.
This show designed for toddlers and preschoolers 2.5 years old and up.
WANT TO TRY MAKING A BEE HOTEL WITH YOUR KIDS LATER? PIN IT NOW, SO YOU CAN FIND IT EASILY WHEN YOU NEED IT!
