Framework
"I'm Bringing Home a Baby Bumblebee" is a favorite song in many early childhood settings. Yet the lyrics promote a lack of awareness of the importance of insects to human existence and little respect for life. According to John Roach of National Geographic News, "Bees, via pollination, are responsible for 15 to 30 percent of the food U.S. consumers eat. But in the last 50 years the domesticated honeybee population—which most farmers depend on for pollination—has declined by about 50 percent, scientists say. Bee population is dramatically declining and scientists are puzzled by what is causing the bees to perish. Large-scale use of genetically modified plants, diminishing habitats and wide use of pesticides in the US could be a factor."
In Nina Frenkel's "One World" poster, the bee is also a metaphor for the role of the individual in a diverse society. This lesson uses Frenkel's poster to explore both the importance of bees and the importance of our own actions in an interdependent world.
Objectives:
Students will:
1. Understand the concept of pollination
2. Explore how species depend on one another and the environment for survival
3. Increase personal responsibility for caring for one another and the environment
Grade level: K-5
Time and Materials:
1. One to two class periods
2. One World poster
3. "We Are All Children of Earth" music sheet
4. Access to the Internet and related resources
5. Access to reference books on bees and pollination
Procedures:
Several days prior to sharing the One World poster, provide books and resources for read-aloud time and independent reading to generate interest and develop background knowledge about bees.
Share the "One World" poster without revealing the quote. Ask students to predict the meaning of the poster. Read the quote and ask students to interpret the meaning.
Discuss the poster
1. Discuss the images and invite students to share observations about the illustration.
2. Imagine that you are the illustrator, Nina Frenkel, and discuss what the images mean and why they were chosen.
3. Why do the flowers have faces?
4. What do you notice about the faces?
5. Why did the illustrator choose a bee as the focus of the poster?
6. What is the significance of the basket of fruit?
Ask students what they know about bumblebees. Build on student knowledge by discussing the concept of pollination and its importance to plant and animal life. Offer opportunities for students to investigate and share the contributions that bumblebees and other bees make to our environment. Invite students to brainstorm ways that they can help improve the environment for bees.
Introduce, sing and discuss "We Are All Children of Earth," one of the songs included in Teaching Tolerance's free music anthology for the early grades. The song encourages listeners to examine their relationship to the environment and to their fellow inhabitants of the Earth.
Ask students if they ever learned the song, "I'm Bringing Home a Baby Bumblebee." Read and discuss the lyrics of "I'm Bringing Home a Baby Bumblebee." How did the child in the song treat the bee? How do you personally react to bumblebees?
Ask students to compare the message of "We Are All Children of the Earth" and "I'm Bringing Home a Baby Bumblebee." Invite students to share reflections of what they have learned and how their understanding about the interconnectedness of life has changed. Ask students to share ways they are like the bumblebee in the picture. Who depends on them? (Answers will vary, but may include family, fellow students, friends, a sports team or pets.) Ask students to make a list of the actions they can take, as a group, to make the world a better place.
Extensions:
• Write a brief reflective essay to share with friends or family members explaining why bumblebees and other insects are so important to humans.
• Write the quote from the "One World" poster on the board. Provide art materials and encourage students to create their own illustration for the quote or write their own quote to illustrate. Share the creations with the class and display the illustrations in a public area of the school.
• Either as a class activity for younger students or in small groups with older students, rewrite the lyrics to "I'm Bringing Home a Baby Bumblebee" demonstrating knowledge of bumblebees and appreciation for how species depend on one another and the environment for survival. Present the lyrics as a rap or choral reading.
* Activities can be integrated into a unit on insects and adapted to include other insects.
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