Preview · the opening missionRead this to the class:
Grandpa Kenji grows pumpkins. One summer his pumpkin plants were covered in big yellow flowers, but hardly any pumpkins grew. "Where are my bees?" he said. "No bees, no pumpkins." Hana couldn't see how a bee could make a pumpkin. Bees just drink from flowers, don't they? Your team's job: be the bees, and find out how bees help flowers make seeds and fruit.
Teams of four, with jobs that swap halfway: two Bees, a Flower-keeper who sets out the flowers and checks the rules, and a Counter who records what happens.
Look inside the PDF
Sample pages, stamped “preview”. The download is the clean, full lesson.
In the full lesson PDF
9 printable pages
- Predict (5 min)
- Hunt (20 min)
- Reveal (10–15 min)
- Act (10 min)
- Background for the teacher
- Assessment
- Student sheet
- Worksheet: Flower cards
- Worksheet: Pollen dots
- Worksheet: Label it
- Worksheet: Try it at home
On the student sheet
- My guess
- Bee rounds
- My model bee
- Helper match
- Flower cards
- Pollen dots
- Label it
- Try it at home
US Letter, prints cleanly in black and white. The student sheet is on its own page, ready to photocopy.
Free with an account (any 3 lessons), or US$19 for all 3 lessons in this unit.
What students show by the end
- Explains pollination
- Uses the model
- Animal helpers
From the lesson’s rubric, which scores each one as not yet, getting there or got it.
Questions teachers ask
How long does “How do bees help flowers?” take?
45–55 min. Group size: teams of 4.
How much prep does it need?
10 minutes: print the Flower cards and the Pollen dots (Worksheet sections below), one set per team, and cut them apart. Each team also needs a scrap of paper for its model bees, a soft pencil and a pair of child scissors, which most classrooms already have.
What materials do I need?
None. No materials needed: just the printed sheets.
Which curriculum standards does it cover?
NGSS (US): 2-LS2-2. It also matches Cambridge Primary Science, Stages 1, 2 and 4 (not endorsed by Cambridge).
What’s in the lesson PDF?
A teacher guide that walks you through predict, hunt, reveal, act, background for the teacher and assessment, then a student sheet (“My guess”, “Bee rounds”, “My model bee”, “Helper match”, “Flower cards”, “Pollen dots”, “Label it” and “Try it at home”) on its own page, ready to photocopy. It’s US Letter and prints cleanly in black and white.
Can I try it for free?
Yes. A free account includes any 3 full lessons of your choice, and this can be one of them. After that, this unit is US$19 for all 3 lessons, yours to keep, or every lesson is US$199 a year.