(bright music) - Hello, little learners.

Hello, it's me, Mrs. Lara.

And today is the last day we're going to be learning about insects.

Let's see, we learned about butterfly life cycles.

We studied what an insect is.

We read a couple of books about insect characters, and today we're going to be looking at one of my favorite insects besides the butterfly.

It's a bee.

And bees love to buzz around.

And if you get too close, they might sting you, right?

But they make some of my favorite food: honey.

I love to add that to my tea.

Have you ever seen bees anywhere wherever you are?

I love to look around, and I have some big, beautiful lavender outside of my house and lots of bees swarm around there.

So I love to sing, so let's start our day off with a song before we get into our study of bees.

Okay, our song's tune is to "Mary Had a Little Lamb," and it's about a ladybug.

Now, you can make a ladybug with your hand like this, and you can make it move up your arm, and you can make it land.

But my favorite part is at the end where it's going to crawl everywhere, and I'll tell you what body parts are gonna crawl to.

All right, here we go.

Get your ladybugs ready.

You got 'em ready?

Let me check.

Okay, here they are.

♪ I have a little ladybug, ladybug, ladybug ♪ ♪ I have a little ladybug ♪ ♪ Its wings are black and red ♪ Now we're gonna see the ladybug.

Get your binoculars or tentascopes out.

♪ I see the little ladybug, ladybug, ladybug ♪ ♪ I see the little ladybug ♪ ♪ It's flying here and there ♪ All right, last one.

It's gonna land on you.

Where's it gonna land?

For me, it's gonna land on my stomach.

Okay.

Or hmm, yeah, on my stomach.

♪ Now it's landing on my stomach, on my stomach ♪ ♪ On my stomach ♪ ♪ Now it's landing on my stomach and crawling everywhere ♪ Okay, make it crawl on your knees.

Is it crawling on your knees?

Make it crawl to your ankles.

How about to your elbows and your fingers and your ears?

Oh, that ladybug loves to tickle.

That's why I was scared to make it land on my stomach.

I thought I'm gonna burst out laughing in front of the boys and girls.

Right, you ready to learn about some bees?

Now there are three things that we need to learn about bees before we get to our text or book.

They're behind this door.

Here we go.

Doo doo doo.

The honey bee.

The first word or thing we need to learn is pollination.

Special letter P. And that that's what bees are known for.

They're known for pollination.

That means to move or carry pollen to a plant, fertilizing the plant.

It's how other plants grow.

So bees buzz on a flower, and they carry the pollen, sometimes in little pollen sacs on their legs, and they move it to other flowers.

And then those flowers use the pollen to make other flowers.

So they're very useful.

The next word is hive.

H, hive.

Something built by bees to live in.

Now, a hive, if you ever see one, kind of has an unusual shape.

It's kind of rounded like this, but actually we'll learn bees can live anywhere, in hollowed-out trees.

I've even seen some make a hive inside of a shoe.

Ooh, that would be hard to step in.

You'd get stung.

Okay, the last one is nectar.

Special letter N for nectar.

It's a liquid made by the flower of plants.

And then sometimes bees take that nectar and suck it up.

So let's see what else we learn about bees here.

This is our book, and it's called "A Colony of Bees."

So one thing that I love about bees, just like I love about ants, is they work together.

They're a team.

And each bee has its own special role to play as part of the hive.

So we're gonna learn about what different bees do and how they build their hive.

So this one is by Lucia Raatma.

She is the author of the text, and it has big, beautiful pictures that I hope you'll enjoy.

So the first section is called, what is a colony?

And it says bzz.

Can you make that bee noise?

Bzz.

A bee zooms by.

It is taking food to its colony.

A colony is a group of bees that live together.

Remember, we learned about a hive.

So there's the bee.

And I don't know if you can tell, see its legs right here?

They're full of pollen.

So it's taking that pollen back to its hive with its colony.

Let's go to the second page here.

A colony lives in a nest.

Bees build these homes.

Nests are in trees or in the ground.

Some are under roofs or other covered areas.

So look at that, a bee nest like this, or a hive.

Look at all of those bees right here.

Swarming around.

Bee jobs.

Do you have a job?

No, you're probably too young, but all bees have jobs.

Each bee has a job.

Most colonies have one queen.

Her job is to lay a eggs.

Drones are the male bees, and they mate with the queen.

The queen lays many eggs.

Look, here's the queen.

♪ Doo doo doo doo ♪ All hail queen bee.

There she is in the middle.

Worker bees are female.

They do many jobs.

Some search for food.

They gather pollen and nectar from flowers, and they take it back to the nest, or hive.

So look, there are the worker bees.

They're going and gathering pollen and bringing it back to their hive.

Workers also feed and take care of young bees.

They feed and clean the queen, and some workers clean the nest, others guard it.

So look, there's the worker bee.

And they're taking care of the young bees.

Wouldn't it be so nice to be the queen and have all of these people just cleaning you and looking after you and bringing you food?

I wanna to be a queen bee, working together, some bees dance to tell others where to find food.

They dance in the shape of an eight.

Can you make an eight?

Just like this.

The longer they dance, the farther away the food is.

So if you see a bee dancing, maybe it's telling someone else where the food is.

Guard bees protect the entrance of the nest.

They watch out for predators.

A predator is something that wants to eat the bees.

Some bees sting predators, other bees bite them.

So there they are looking for predators.

Some colonies get too crowded.

Look at this one.

There's hardly any room.

You don't even see the colony or the hive.

The queen and some workers leave the nest.

They build a new home, but the old nest gets a new queen.

The need for bees.

People need bees.

Bees spread pollen from plant to plant.

This helps plants grow.

People use those plants for food.

They also use the honey that some bees make.

So there they are in the hive with that delicious honey.

And that's the end.

It has more words that you can see.

So we learned a little bit about bees, so I hope you enjoyed the story of a colony of bees.

Of course, this is one story about bees, but there are so many more.

Make sure to check out your local library or the Sora app.

You have tons of free books on there for our Fresno Unified students.

Right, right now we're gonna go over and write what we learned about bees.

Let's put our book down, and we'll go over to our writing space.

So let's see right here is our honey bee.

And our honey bee is looking at a flower.

So we're gonna write down one of the things we learned about bees.

So if you'd like to join me, make sure that you have your pen and paper out, a marker, a crayon, whatever you use to write with.

Or you can just write in the air with me as we write down what we learned.

Okay, so think, think, think, what is one thing we learned about a bee?

That's right, they live in colonies, right?

Well, that's a big, fancy word.

Maybe we can write it right here.

Live in colonies.

So let's start writing our first word, live, l. L, can we make an L?

Big line down, little line across.

Live in colonies.

That's a place where they live in their hive.

Do they live with lots of bees or a little bit of bees?

That's right.

Lots of bees.

Remember in our book, sometimes there are so many bees that they have to go and fly and build a new nest.

What else did we learn about bees?

They work, right?

Oh, they have jobs.

Boo.

We don't like jobs, or do we?

Maybe we do.

So let's write they work.

They work.

So I know that they is a T and an H, and an E and a Y, and they work: w, ur, k. They have jobs.

Jobs.

What else did we learn about bees?

What do they do?

They go from flower to flower, and they collect the pollen.

That's right.

Let's write pollen.

Special letter P. Write it right up here.

And then I'll write.

I'll write this one in all caps since it's just one word.

Pollen.

Poll, O.

Now let's look for that next letter: l, l. What letter is that?

Can you make it in the air?

Yes, an L. And actually, because I've been writing for a long time, I know that pollen has two Ls, and then pollen, e, e. It's E. And that last sound, pollen, n, N. Ooh, that tickled my mouth when I made it.

Pollen.

They gather pollen from flowers and bring it back.

Now, there's one more thing about bees that I learned and that I love.

There's a queen.

Hello, yes, queen.

So let's write the word queen down here.

Now, q, q, q. Ooh, that's a Q.

And since it's a single word, I'm gonna write it in caps as well.

You help me out, make a big circle, then a little line, then a U to make queen, E, E. And then an E. And I know it has double E, and then last letter is an N: queen.

The queen bee is my favorite.

Everybody looks after the queen, don't they?

All the worker bees, all the drones.

And they feed her, and they take care of her.

I wanna be a queen bee.

All right, so I thought to end off our week, we would play a little.

So normally, I have little projects that you can do at home with your family.

But today I thought let's just sit down, take a look at some insects, and play with some playdough.

We can make any insect that we'd like.

Or I have some examples of insects that we can make too.

I thought what a great way to finish off our week.

Okay, let's walk over to our project place.

I'm thinking six steps today.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

Okay, did Mrs. Lara cheat a little bit?

Just a little bit.

Okay, so here are my different colors of playdough.

And I what you're thinking, "Mrs. Lara, I don't have all those different colors of playdough."

I get it.

But what you can do is you can use whatever you do have so you can play with me and we can make our insects together.

So let's review some of the colors that I was able to find.

So I have blue, a dark blue, yellow, light, orange, a lighter yellow, a lighter blue, a deeper orange and a teal.

And we're gonna use these colors to roll out and make our insects.

Let me put them over here to the side.

I have a magnifying glass.

And then I have some eyes because, oh, we gotta make our insects realistic, right?

So they're gonna need eyes since they have to see where they're going.

Be careful they won't get smashed.

Because I'm guilty.

If I see an insect, sometimes I (imitates bug squishing) smash it.

Now I think twice because I know how useful they are.

Okay, and then I have some example insects.

So let's take a look at our first one here.

And I'm actually gonna make my playdough insect right on this tray so that you're able to see it.

So let's look at this first one.

Can you see what it is from where you are?

It has two wings, and I'll give you a clue.

We used paint to make it.

It's a butterfly.

That's right.

So I'm gonna take my magnifying glass and take a look at my butterfly.

I notice that they have a body.

So I'm gonna make a body first.

What color should I use?

Maybe my white.

I'm gonna take a little bit of playdough, and I'm gonna roll it like this between my fingers.

If you have playdough at home, and you wanna play along with me, then just kind of roll it like this to make a body, a butterfly body.

It's a beautiful butterfly body.

I'm gonna stick it on there.

Let me see what else I notice.

Here's my insect.

Hmm, I noticed that it has six legs.

So that means it's an insect, right?

Because insects have six legs.

So I'm gonna use my little orange playdough.

I'm gonna roll it out into a snake, nice and thin.

You just take it and go back and forth between your hands like this.

Nice and thin, and we're gonna do six legs.

I'm gonna do 'em like this.

One, two, three, four, five, and six.

Let me take another look.

So that's what it's looking like so far.

Let's see.

What else do I see on my butterfly?

Do you see those two things at the end?

Those are the antenna.

All right, so we're gonna make two antenna.

I'm gonna use my blue.

I'm gonna use my same technique, and I'm gonna roll it back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.

And then I'm gonna put 'em right on top.

Now, this would be such a fun center to put in your independent exploration areas.

If you're a classroom teacher, just kind of put a.

It doesn't have to be different color playdough, but you can just put example insects out and have it ready for your playdough.

And your students can make insects of their choice.

They don't have to use models.

Okay, so here's what it's looking like so far.

What am I missing?

Ah, the wings.

So it has two beautiful wings like that.

Ooh, maybe I'll use a yellow for my wings.

So for this one, I'm gonna take my playdough, and I love how squishy it is.

And if it hardens, you can make it even squishier by putting it between your fingers like this, and then maybe roll it into a ball, and then kind of shape it into a wing.

Now, you kind of have to play with it a little bit.

So I love playing with playdough because it can be fixed.

So if you make a mistake, that's okay.

You can choose to keep it.

Or with playdough, you can just kind of mold it into a different shape and put it under the leg here.

That's the first part of my wing.

And then I'm gonna make another wing.

Look at that.

How's it looking?

Ooh, it's a nice butterfly.

All right, I'm gonna make another wing over here.

So it's symmetrical or the same on both sides.

Move my leg up a little.

And then maybe I'll make the bottom wings this beautiful, vibrant orange color.

So again, just kind of smashing it between my fingers.

Do you like to play with playdough?

I know a lot of the classrooms I visit, the favorite thing to do is play with playdough.

And they squish it around, and I've even had children make me playdough cookies before, playdough pizza.

Never had anyone make me a butterfly.

That would be new.

All right, then we'll make a wing over here.

Put it down.

Or maybe it needs to be a little bit more smashed.

All right, here we go.

That's what it's looking like.

Tah-dah, let's take a look.

This is my sample I was looking at, and that's what I came up with.

What do you think?

Oh, it needs eyes.

That's right.

Thank you for reminding me.

Sometimes I get so excited with the playdough.

I forget things.

Okay, I'm gonna put my eyes here.

Now does it look like a butterfly?

Okay, that's one insect down.

So you can make a butterfly, and you can take it, and you can just set it over to the side.

Very carefully.

Oh, I lost a leg.

I lost a leg.

It's an amputation.

Let's see, we'll put it back.

See, with playdough, you can.

Let's make one more insect.

Ooh, what am I gonna pick here?

How about a spider?

Spider.

Is a spider an insect?

Let's count the legs.

The spider's trying to get into my insect pile.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

It eight legs.

You're not an insect.

How about a, let's see, what else can you make?

Ooh, a beetle with its strong jaws.

Okay.

We'll make a beetle.

So you'll remember that a beetle, just like any other insect, has three parts.

And if I look very carefully at my model, it does.

It has a head, a thorax and an abdomen, and the legs are connected to the thorax.

So I'm gonna make the head first.

I'm gonna use my purple playdough.

And I'm gonna go around, and I'm gonna make kind of an oval head like this.

So you have to pay attention to details.

There are scientists that get paid lots of money to make models of different insects and other things.

Maybe that can be something you do.

Maybe you can get paid when you grow up to make models.

And you can say, "It all started with playdough when I was four years old."

And notice that it has a thorax.

Remember, we talked about it.

I'm gonna put a yellow for the thorax so you can tell it's three different body parts.

So let's put it right there in the middle.

There's the head, and the thorax, and my insect.

There's my beetle.

And the abdomen, I think I'm gonna do it in this other bright blue color.

Now, one of the things I was gonna tell you was is making playdough at home is so easy.

You can look up a recipe online and just kinda make it one color.

And then you can dye it different colors with food coloring.

Okay, next we need some legs, and it comes out of the thorax.

And how many legs do we need?

That's right.

Six, six legs.

Now I'm gonna show you a little trick that sometimes we get to use.

When I have a long snake like this, I can take some scissors, and I can cut it.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

Let's put 'em on there.

1, 2, 3 on one side, 1, 2, 3 on the other.

Six legs.

So that's what it's looking like.

Now my beetle has to have strong jaws.

Ooh, let's put that on there.

Strong jaws.

Look like it's going to eat something very big and scary.

Okay.

There we go.

And it has short little antenna.

So I'm gonna use maybe my darker blue and put some short little antenna right on the side of it.

And last, I'm going to give it some big, giant eyes, almost the size of the whole head.

What do you think?

This is what my beetle is looking like.

And this is what we started with.

(laughs) All right, time to put it to the side.

We made a butterfly and a beetle.

Now let's see.

I think we have time to make just one more.

I hope that you're playing along.

So one thing I might do is use this video and play it during independent exploration time.

So students get ideas for how to use their playdough in the classroom if you're a classroom teacher.

All right, let's see what else can we make really quickly.

Ooh, what is, let's see, a praying mantis.

Ooh.

Yes.

I love to make this one because it has a long slender body.

That means narrow.

I'm gonna make it really quickly by rolling it between my fingers here.

Look at its body.

If you can see, it's long and thin.

And then I'm gonna make six legs.

Okay, (indistinct) six legs.

And then it has kind of two claw-like things that are part of its legs, remember?

Not all the legs are the same.

Some have jumpers in the back, and their legs, their insect legs, are a lot bigger.

Okay.

Let's see.

Two, three.

Two more, two more.

Let's make it, and there we go.

One more.

There we go.

We need six.

I think this praying mantis needs longer front limbs here.

Then I'm just gonna put the leg right there.

Okay, here's what it's looking like so far.

And then it needs antenna.

Okay.

Let me put those on there.

And then we will put some eyes.

All right.

Last bit.

Put some eyes.

This is what my praying mantis looks like, and here is the model.

So you can see, it doesn't have to look exactly the same.

So look, you made a butterfly, a beetle, a praying mantis.

What other insects can you make?

I hope that you use your imagination too.

Try to come up with your own insect friend.

Give it a name.

I'd love to see pictures too if you wanna send it to the station.

All right, looks like our week is done.

Lots of learning around insects, and I hope that you continue that learning at home.

All right, Mrs. Lara sends you a big smooch.

Have a wonderful, wonderful weekend, and I'll see you next week.

Goodbye.

Great weekend.

(bright music)