Paper plate bee craft activity

Inspired by ‘Bee Movie’ on Netflix, we did a simple craft activity that uses a paper plate to make a bee! Aside from it being ridiculously adorable, the process in making this bee has toddlers and preschoolers cutting, tracing, tearing and sticking various pieces in order for it all to come together. A real fine motor skills work out. 
We recently had Netflix installed and I have to say that our family are loving it. My husband and I enjoy the variety or shows and movies and its simplicity to install it and use. When it comes to Possum, we are extremely mindful of how much screen time she gets and we restrict her occasional viewing to quality tv shows and maybe a movie as a special treat. 

One show we recently enjoyed as a family was called ‘Bee Movie’ and it inspired all sorts of wonderful questions about bees. It also inspired this fun paper plate bee craft activity. 

To make this paper plate bee craft activity you will need – 

• Paper plate
• Glue stick
• Yellow, black and red paper
• Scissors
• Googly eyes (optional)
• Black pipe cleaner x 2

Begin by covering the paper plate with lots of glue. Possum loved using a glue stick because they are easy to hold and your fingers usually don’t becoming a sticky mess in the process. She getting very good at knowing how to wind it up and down and remembering to replace the lid afterwards to avoid it drying out.

Tearing paper

Tearing paper can be a bit of a challenge for some children, but that isn’t to say we should avoid them doing it. It’s wonderful for developing fine motor skills and by simply instructing them to focus on creating a small tear on the edge of the paper to start, they soon get the hang of it and can do it independently. 

Simply have your toddler or preschooler tear up pieces of yellow paper and stick them to the glue on the paper plate. This will soon become the bee’s body and wonderfully textured with all the broken pieces of paper. 

Cutting with Scissors

There is quite an art to cutting scissors and it is something children get better at with practise. In this bee craft activity I had Possum cut simple strips of black paper to make bee stripes. She has certainly become more confident with using scissors and hard the challenge has been in teaching her to hold them correctly. A good trick to use is drawing a smily face on a child’s thumbnail and telling them to ensure it’s always looking up when they cut. 

Tracing

Possum’s latest obsession is tracing around things. This activity involves a little bit of tracing for a bee’s head. I had her use a simple candle lid to trace around and do her best at cutting it out. I wasn’t looking for perfection, just confidence to give it a go. 😉

We stuck that to the paper plate and added some eyes. Who doesn’t love goggly eyes?

With a bit of help Possum tore the red paper to make a smile for our bee. Super cute. We also bent a black pipe cleaner to make antennas and stuck them using sticky tape to the back of the head.  

Of course what is a bee without a stinger? I had some large pipe cleaners and trimmed it to make a point and it was to become the stinger. A smaller pipe cleaner that is less fluffy would work just as well.   

Just for fun, I thought it would also be interesting to share with you some facts about bees. Did you know – 

• Bees are the only insect in the world that makes food humans can eat!
• Bees have been around for more than 300 million years
• Queen bee will lay 1,500 eggs a day -whoa! 
• Bees have two stomachs, one for food and the other for nectar

And so our bee is complete and looking very cute. Bees are such fascinating insects and interesting to kids. This paper plate craft was lots of fun for us to make together and it also involved lots of opportunities to develop skills such as cutting, tracing, sticking and tearing up paper. I hope you have an opportunity to make one with your children. 

What skills are your children working on? 

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