Unabridged: a Charlesbridge Children's Book Blog — Lola Meets the Bees
Build a Bee Home With Your Kids - Happy International Bee Day 0
Hello bee-lovers, time to build a bee home!
While May 20th marks International Bee Day, I think any day can be bee day. As the nicer weather rolls in, here is a fun craft you can do with children to help benefit the bees.
Bee Hotel Craft
Bee hotels are beneficial for solitary bees and wasps, both important for an ecosystem. Providing them a safe place to settle is important for your garden to help with pollination and also pest control (wasps can nom on spiders and other pests). The activity is also a great science project that allows for children to learn about pollinators up close.
This fun hands-on activity allows children to let their creativity buzz as they build a home for bees. A great DIY project to explore animal habitats and socio-environmental systems. This project utilizes materials you may already have around the home if you have children who love doing arts and crafts.
What You’ll Need:
- A can (like a soup or bean can) or a large water bottle
- Art supplies for decorating. Have fun!
- Sheets of color paper
- Scissors
- Pencil
- Tape
- Glue
- One toilet paper roll
- Twigs from outside
- Two pieces of string
Steps:
1. Carefully remove the top off a used can or bottle. Make sure there are no sharp edges on your can and it’s completely clean and dry.
2. Decorate the can how you’d like – stickers, paint, construction paper, etc. Let your creativity buzz. Just keep the decorations on the outside so it doesn't harm future guests.
3. Cut the paper in half. Each piece needs to be a bit shorter than the tin can when you hold them next to each other, with a minimum of six inches.
4. Use the pencil to roll the paper. It needs to be rolled five or six times to make the tube thick. Tape the roll so it stays and then remove pencil.
5. Rinse and repeat making the rolls until you have enough to fill the can/bottle.
6. Cover the bottom of the can with glue and then put the toilet paper roll inside. Put the thinner tubes in the roll and around outside. Make sure not to squish the rolls, you want the bees to fit inside.
7. Break the twigs to fit inside the can and use them to fill in the open spaces in the can, around the toilet paper roll.
8. Tie rope around the can, one near the top and another near the bottom. Each piece of string should be long enough to wrap around the can twice and you’ll want another 8 to 12 inches extra to hang from the tree branch.
9. Now to go to your garden! Find a tree in a sunny part outside and tie it to a branch.
10. Be sure to mention that it make take a while for a bee to use it as a shelter to help your child's expectations. You can plan to check the bee home occasionally to see if a guest has moved in.
Ta-da! You now have a bee hotel. Keep in mind, bee hotels are entirely for solitary bees and wasps. Each nest is owned by a single female, who lays her own eggs and gathers all the food needed for each offspring.
While bee hotels can be useful, if you’re able, the best option in your garden is to go as natural as you can, and you can do this by giving them access to a place where they can burrow underground with lightly covered soil. The bees who don’t burrow in the ground like to make use of dead wood cavities or hollow plant stems instead. The best areas for them are south or east-facing slopes. They love the sun and the slope ensures it’s well drained.
Building a bee hotel is a simple, creative way to support local pollinators and spark curiosity in young minds. Whether it's Bee Day or any sunny afternoon, this hands-on project helps kids connect with nature while giving solitary bees a safe space to thrive. Happy crafting and buzzing!
Looking for some bee-utiful picture books to read, be sure to check out:
Lola Meets the Bees
by Anna McQuinn, illustrated by Rosalind Beardshaw
HC: 9781623543839
TR: 9781623545949
Honeybee Rescue: A Backyard Drama
by Loree Griffin Burns, photographs by Ellen Harasimowicz
HC: 9781623542399
