We savored each moment rowing this book. We explored bees, honey, trees, Michigan, Canada, and SO MUCH MORE!

READY TO ROW:

I made a simple kick-off breakfast with Honeycomb cereal, fruit, and milk.

The boys created their cover page using our beeswax crayons.

Jordan added our story disk to Michigan on our world map.

BIBLE:

Memory Verse:

I created a Bible Verse pack for this row.

You can purchase your copy here at our TPT Store. There’s a FREEbie tracer in the preview!

The boys traced their verses using our beeswax crayons.

I cut apart Jordan’s verse and he glued it together in his Bible notebook.

Jordan used the Bible verse puzzle to practice his verse until he could recite it from memory.

Beatitudes:

I created a BEE-Attitudes Bible Pack for this row.

You can purchase your copy here at our TPT Store.

We took out time reading about each beatitude.

Jordan colored the Beatitude glower for each verse we learned about.

Jordan used the Beatitude booklet and traced the pages as we learned about each beatitude. He also added the flowers and matched the bees to each.

Our “Blessed Bee” tree turned out beautiful! It grew more colorful as we learned about each beatitude.

I had a hard time finding a children’s book about the beatitudes, but I finally got my hands on an old copy of Sermon on the Mountain (Arch Books Supplement Series). It was PERFECT for this Bible unit!

Hospitality:

Grampa and Mary Ellen invited everyone to their house for biscuits, honey, and tea. i thought it would be a great idea to talk about hospitality.

We read Mary and Martha’s Dinner Guest – Arch Books and reviewed a Hospitality printable (Blessed Beyond a Doubt).

Setting the Table:

Since we were talking about hospitality, I thought it would be a good idea to review how to properly set the table.

We watched a clip about setting a table from our Bee Tree playlist.

I printed out placemats (bubhub) for the boys to color however they wanted. After they colored their placemats, I set them aside to use later.

Set the Table Tray:

I remember making a “set the table” tray during our BFIAR days. I thought it would be a great way to practice the rules we learned earlier in the day.

The boys took turns “setting the table” to practice what they learned earlier in the day.

Hospitality Craft:

I set out colored construction paper and the place setting they colored earlier in the day.

Afterwards, they “set the table” by gluing each item on construction paper. They even noticed that the knife wasn’t pointing towards the place as they learned in the video.

We added “Hospitality” with foam letters to the top of the paper. They turned out cute and colorful!

Creation:

While rowing The Bee Tree, we celebrated Earth Day by studying The Days of Creation.

I printed out The Days of Creation worksheet for the kids to word on after breakfast. You can purchase your copy of our Creation pack here or just the FREEbie in the Preview!

We had a creation-inspired breakfast accompanied by our Days of Creation worksheet and a Creation bookmark (Preschool Mom).

We read Where Did the World Come From? (Arch Books Bible Stories) We also read several other Earth Day books.

Digging in the Dirt:

We took the rest of the day outside. I just can’t think of a better way to celebrate Earth Day than breathing in the fresh air, looking at God’s great creation, and digging in the dirt.

The kids weeded their garden beds so we could do our spring planting. Ellie even joined in on the fun!

Planting Seeds:

We RECYCLED the kids’ lego advent calendar containers and REUSED them as seed planters.

The kids picked out the seeds they wanted to plant. They made markers for their plants, planted their seeds, and placed them in the greenhouse.

Here they are after a couple of weeks. Most of the seeds sprouted nicely.

Dissecting Flowers:

We read From Seed to Plant while the kids ate a snack. Afterwards, we collected flowers to dissect.

SOCIAL STUDIES:

Grandpa:

Since this story was about Grampa and Mary Ellen, we took some time reading a few books about grandpas.

Watercolor Family Tree:

We read Me And My Family Tree and I printed the “My Family Tree” worksheet from our Story Review.

You down download the My Family worksheet FREEbie in the Preview!

First, the boys filled in their family tree.

Traditions:

We took a moment to read about some Jewish traditions.

We read Grover’s Hanukkah and Shanah Tovah, Grover! On our Epic app.

We also read Here is the World, A Year of Jewish Holidays on our Epic app.

Setting:

Michigan:

Since this story takes place in Michigan, we read Michigan (Rookie Read-About Geography) and The Great Lakes.

The boys color-coded Michigan and the Great Lakes on a U.S. Map.

Canada:

Eureka! What an adventure this has been! We decided to study Canada and the Yukon territory.

I printed a map of Canada, brought out some books about Canada, and our Little Passports Canada edition.

After breakfast, the boys colored their Canadian maps while I read our Canadian books.

Jordan read If You Were a Kid During the California Gold Rush (If You Were a Kid) and we reviewed the details together afterwards.

We also read Carson Crosses Canada, a personal favorite. I wish this was part of a series.

Build the Canadian Flag:

I set out a “Create the Canadian Flag” tray on Learning Lane.

The boys took turns building the Canadian flag.

Canadian Flag Art:

I also set out a Canadian flag craft.

The boys painted their flags and added various red embelishments.

Movie Night:

We watched The Call of the Wild, which had Canadian mounties and mentioned the Yukon gold rush. It was perfect!

LANGUAGE ARTS:

Vocabulary:

I created a Bee Tree Vocabulary worksheet.

You can download your FREE copy here at our TPT store.

Jordan cut & pasted the labels as we went over them together.

A Cover is Not the Book:

Since Grampa wanted Mary Ellen to know the sweetness of a book, I thought we would helpful to explore the Dewey Decimal System. I printed the Dewey Lapbook printable. I created for our Miss Rumphius row last year.

You can download your FREE copy here at our TPT Store.

We read Do You Know Dewey? on our Epic app. Jordan labeled the insert as we read about each category.

Storybook Sprout House:

I created a Storybook Sprout House based on the A Cover is Not the Book song in Mary Poppins Returns.

You can download your FREE copy here at our TPT Store.

I cut out our Storybook Sprout House, trays, dixie cups, ziplock bags, a paper towel, and a basket of seeds.

The kids picked out their seeds, placed the seeds in the folded paper towel, and dampened them with water. I put the damp folded paper towel into the ziplock, and taped it to the back of the Storybook Sprout House.

The kids added their Storybook Sprout Houses to the sliding glass doors in the classroom.

Onomatopoeia:

We read Cock-a-doodle-doo, Creak, Pop-pop, Moo on our Epic app while covering onomatopoeia. I created The Bee Tree Story Review pack which included an onomatopoeia worksheet.

You can purchase your copy here at our TPT Store.

After reading our book, the boys color coded their worksheets.

Geese:

While we were on the farm studying onomatopoeia, we took a moment to explore geese. After learning about geese, we really enjoyed reading Petunia by Roger Duvoison.

Goats:

After exploring geese, we explored goats. We read a few goat themed book as well as Patricia Polacco’s G is for Goat.

Analogy:

We read about analogies from The Know-Nonsense Guide to Grammar: An Awesomely Fun Guide to the Way We Use Words! (Know Nonsense Series) book.

Afterwards, I presented little yellow books and added a “touch” of honey to the cover, just like Grandpa did. The kids “tasted” the honey like Mary Ellen!

Grammar Ace:

We continued to work through our Grammar Ace program, reading our lessons, and adding the following thematic pages to our Grammar Notebook.

We added a honeybee “More Nouns” page.

We planted pronouns by matching the “in a nutshell” terms with their definitions on the page.

We included the honeybee lifecycle to our “Restrictive & Non Restrictive Causes & Phrases” page.

We finally ended with “More Verbs” matching all the honeybee terms with their definitions on the page.

MATH:

Hexagons:

I set out a Make a Hexagon Tray with our geoboard and rubber bands and placed it on Learning Lane.

Jordan made a hexagon as well as various polygons using our geoboard.

What better than a hexagon on a geoboard? A GIANT hexagon covering TWO geoboards!

We read If You Were a Polygon together and I brought out our Melissa and Doug wood shapes.

We also watched some shape clips on our playlist.

Parks and I played a shape game using a Roll a 3D Shape worksheet (Playdough to Plato) and our 3D Shape cards (abcteach.com).

We even formed a honeycomb and hive with our Geometric building blocks we bought WAY BACK when Jordan was in preschool! You never know when an oldie comes in handy!

Tessalations:

We also talked about tessellation. Jordan created one using our magnetic hexagons.

Tessalation Art:

I set out a tessellation art project using an idea from Delightful Learning. I made apple core hexagon stamps, because we didn’t have any potatoes on hand.

Recently, Haley learned about tessellations in math, so she briefly explained them to her brothers.

We mixed three different hues to vary the hexagons. Honestly, they were blob-like impressions, but we’ll say it was an “Impressionistic” style!

We set them aside to dry. Later, we used paint pens to add lines around their honeycomb, giving them a more defined look.

Then we added the bees they made and a “BEE Attitude” in foam letters.

Patterns:

We read Ruby, Violet, Lime: Looking for Color (Jane Brocket’s Clever Concepts) and I set out a bee themed set of manipulatives for Jordan to create patterns.

Jordan loved making different patterns. This was a really fun and easy activity.

Patterns in Art:

I thought it would be fun to create a colorful spring mixed media project using various patterns. For this activity, I chose Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert.

We set out our oil pastels, water colors, and trays outside. We read Planting a Rainbow then the kids created their colorful works of art.

It was so nice taking this activity outside. We had a great time!

Maps:

We read Looking at Maps on our Epic app. I printed the Map Coordinates worksheet from The Bee Tree Story Review.

I brought up pictures of some of the landforms and biomes mentioned in the book so Jordan would have a better understanding.

He created an icon for dunk woods, added the various icons at the given coordinates, and answered the remaining questions.

SCIENCE:

Gold:

We started our lesson on Gold with The Lost Coin breakfast. I hid a Sees gold chocolate coin under their bread.

I read The Lost Coin – Arch Books while the kids ate their oatmeal, fruit and toast.

I couldn’t sink it into the oatmeal or it would melt and knowing they would grab the toast first ensured the chocolate stayed in good form!

They were excited to find it. They gobbled the coin and we added the gold wrapper in our FIAR notebooks.

We read a few books about gold on our Epic app.

I brought out our merka Learning Kit – Periodic Table STEM Learning. We reviewed the gold card and the boys added it to their FIAR notebooks later.

We also talked several clips about gold, gold mining, and the Yukon Territory on our Bee Tree Playlist.

Pollination:

I printed up several Bee worksheets from Twinkl. In addition, I sketched a flower and bee for the kids to color and use for our pollination experiment.

Before starting, we reviewed the process of pollination using cards I downloaded from Twinkl.

I set out the supplies needed for our Pollination SNACKtivity.

Jordan helped me prepare our lemonade “nectar” while I prepared the Cheetos.

The kids dipped into their flowers, grabbing Cheetos and leaving behind “pollen” (Cheetos dust). They sipped their “nectar”, because gathering pollen is such hard work!

Trees:

I love studying trees and I decided to include a tree unit in this row since Grampa was searching for a bee TREE.

I set out a Tree station with several tree activities and Montessori printables (The Helpful Garden).

We started our with a tree themed breakfast and The Tale of Three Trees: A Traditional Folktale.

I read a few tree books while the kids ate their breakfast.

We went outside to explore the trees in our yard and the boys collected many different types of leaves from our shrubs and trees.

We came inside and did leaf rubbings.

Jordan labeled the parts of the tree (The Helpful Garden), ordered the seasons of a tree (The Helpful Garden), matched the Trees Toob (Set of 10) with their cards (Mama’s Happy Hive) , built the felt tree while I read each part aloud, and placed the “from tree to paper” cards (The Helpful Garden) in order.

Honeybees:

I set out a Honeybee box on our Learning Lane to use during this row.

First, we relaxed on the couch and watched The Magic Schoolbus In a Beehive episode.

We read several non-fiction books about bees together. I created an All About Honeybees Pack.

You can purchase your copy here at our TPT Store.

I cut out our Parts of the Honeybee worksheet and had Jordan color code it while reading from The Life and Times of the Honeybee.

We also read many adorable honey themed picture books too! You can never read too many books, because the more you read, the more you’ll learn.

The Honeybee Life Cycle:

I printed the life cycle worksheet from our All About Honeybees pack and brought out our Honeybee Life Cycle Definition Cards (Montessori Print Shop).

I read each card as Jordan cut and pasted the honeybee life cycle together.

Making Honey:

We continued reading about honey in The Life and Times of the Honeybee. We read about the largest honey-producing states and located them on our USA placemats.

After reading all about honey, we inspected and taste-tested the honeycomb we got from a local beekeeper.

Later, Jordan worked on the honey production worksheets from our pack.

Bee Keeping:

We read The Honeybee Man together on the couch. This was a wonderful picture book that explained the process of raising bees and harvesting honey.

Afterwards I brought out the Parts of the Beehive Definition Cards (Montessori Print Shop) and he color coded each part in this FIAR notebook.

I tried to snap a pic of the many bees buzzing around our garden while we rowed this wonderful book! There’s so much enjoyment that comes with savoring each lesson, each moment on our learning journey!

ARTS, CRAFTS, & MORE:

Baking Soda Biscuits:

Jordan invited the whole family to join him on the deck for freshly baked biscuits and honey.

Jordan measured the ingredients and mixed his biscuit dough.

He folded, rolled, and cut the biscuits out and placed them on the baking sheet.

We baked them in the oven and placed them in a basket, covered iwth a cloth.

Everyone enjoyed the warm biscuits drizzled in honey.

Music & Instruments:

I set out our Instrument Cards (The Helpful Garden) for this activity.

We read a few books on our Epic app. We read Mendel’s Accordion, a story about a young Jewish Musician who immigrated to America. We also read When I Grow Up I’ll Be a Musician, a story about a young violinist.

Jordan sorted through the various instruments to find those mentioned in our story.

Beeswax Candle Making:

I purchased a Beeswax Candle kit online for the kids to do together.

The kids rolled their candles and talked about all the birthday celebrations they would use them for. It was SO cute listening to them chat as they did their craft together.

Jordan wanted to light the candle to see if beeswax candles really burned longer than regular candles.

HELPFUL LINKS:

The Bee Tree Playlist:

As with our other rows, we created The Bee Tree Playlist with read-alouds, music, science, and other clips.

Pinterest Board:

You can find most of the activities, ideas, and printables from this post on our The Bee Tree Pinterest Board.