When the summer sun begins to shine, the bees begin to buzzzzzz! Let your child experience the fun of collage art while jumping into a little bee science by helping him make his very own bee-utiful busy bee. He'll love cutting, bunching, crumpling, and gluing tissue paper for his collage, and he'll build up his hand muscles (so important for good handwriting) in the process.
What You Need:
- Construction paper
- Black and yellow tissue paper, cut or torn into small pieces
- Scissors
- Clear drying, non-toxic glue
- Markers
What You Do:
- First, learn all about bees with your child. Take a trip to the local library and look through books and magazines about these amazing insects. Look for illustrations and photographs that clearly show what a bee looks like, focusing on pattern and texture. Explain to him why bees are so important: how they help flowers grow, how they make honey, etc.
- Before starting the craft, take a walk around your yard or a local park. Encourage him to collect fallen flower petals and/or leaves for the collage, but remind him not to pick the petals or leaves of live plants.
- Now start the collage. Ask him to draw an outline of a bee, including its stripes, on a sheet of construction paper.
- Encourage him to crinkle, crumple, and bunch up the tissue paper pieces, then glue them onto the bee drawing.
- Help him glue the leaves and flower petals on or around the bee. Flower petals also make great wings!
- Set the collage aside to dry.
- Hang it up and enjoy!
If he enjoys this science-based art exploration, try making other insect collages. Make a dragonfly, ant, or even a beautiful butterfly!
By Erica Loop
Erica Loop has an MS in Applied Developmental Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh's School of Education. She has many years of teaching experience working in early childhood education, and as an arts educator at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh.
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