As our 5-6 year olds examined the collapsed bee hive and wonder how it would have plummeted, they came up with their hypothesis of different events that could have occurred for the hive to collapse. 

E: The hive got heavier and heavier and heavier and that's why it fell down. 

An: (A wondered after listening to E) When they were still working and the hive falls, the air comes in right? Why did they not get out of the hive? 

E: When the hive was falling down, the bees might have known and some of the bees flew away. 

Av: In case the bees are sleeping, how will they know the hive is falling? 

An: Bees don't sleep, they only work 

Av: They sleep in the night and bats come and break, Bat is a bee eater, you know that? (He continues) I think I know, so, the bees sleep at night and are awake in the morning whereas, Bats sleep in the morning and wake up at night. That's why I think the bat's used their claws and cut the bee hive and no one knew. 

T: (Questioning Av's hypothesis) But, there is a night security at school, why didn't he take care of it? 

Av: But for the Bats, he can't do anything, if he comes near the Bats, they might poke him. Also, he cannot see the Bats because it's too up. 

It was interesting to see how children tried to make logical connections with the knowledge they had. An open discussion like this enable children to bring about their thoughts and ideas and expand their connections helping them develop their thinking muscle 

#reggioemiliainspiredlearning
#inspiringconfidentlearners
#sparklingmindzglobalpreschool
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Contributed by Yashika CG, Learning Facilitator, Sparkling Mindz Global Preschool.

​Our 5-6 year old pre-schoolers were just back from their visit to the Honey Factory and the learnings were fresh in their minds, the classes buzzed with connections to bees and the honey factory in all its glory. Just then, a hive that was housed at our school campus collapse due to its weight.

We made use of this opportunity to let children observe, feel and explore it further. The hive was carefully laid on the ground in their play area. As children arrived, some were excited, some confused, some were shocked and some curious.

E: I can see honey.
Ab: (Shocked) Where are the honey bees? O My God! They killed them. There are thousands of bees which are dead!
Aad: Because they put smoke to them (referring to a honey harvesting technique using smoke that she had heard about)
Sh: I can see the eggs, all the circle ones are eggs.
Ab: (checking if he could touch) Can I touch?
Facilitator: Gently
(Everybody take turns to touch it)
Sh: It's hard, but I can smell some yummy honey.
Aad: It looks like a mountain.
T: It's a rainbow pattern.

Post this, Ab suddenly calls out for everybody.

Ab: Worker bees! Come on, let's go look for nectar!
An: (runs to Ab) I want to be the queen bee Ab, what do I do?
Ab: You go lay eggs up there (pointing toward the area above the doll house)
An followed the instructions, while the others went looking for nectar in the garden. The exploration, in no time had taken a turn into a game of pretend play.

Children called themselves worker bees and fetched nectar from the flowers in the garden area and brought it back to the hive above the doll house, while An, pretended to lay eggs.

Once they were done with pretend play, they got back to their classes and discussed more about the bees as children who had done some research on this topic shared their knowledge with the class.

An: Talked to the class about how the bees are transferred from their natural hives to domesticated boxes.

E: Talked to the class about the process of honey creation by honey bees which she had seen in a video.

The whole class together explored the shape of the the honey comb.

When children are given an environment that kindles their curiosity and allows them to play with it, magic is sure to happen! They take that extra mile to delve deeper and immerse themselves in the learning.  And things learnt through play stays for life.

We at SM constantly strive towards creating a space that helps children explore their interests to the fullest while embedding their curriculum into it. This helps children develop a love not just for learning, but for learning in different ways which we believe is one of the most important skills to possess.

#reggioemiliainspiredlearning
#sparklingmindzglobalpreschool
​#inspiringconfidentlearners

Contributed by Yashika CG, Learning Facilitator, Sparkling Mindz Global Preschool.

Seeing the curiosity amongst our 5- 6 year olds were curious about different kinds of insects and were learning the concept of sequencing in depth in their curriculum. We decided to take them on a visit to a local honey factory.

On the day of the visit, the ground rules were arrived at and as always, they decided to learn as much as they can and not as little as they can from the visit.

We arrived at the Factory around 10:00am to find Ms. Smitha the owner and her enthusiastic team ready to take us through the journey of honey from "hives to our homes". On our request, she had also arranged a variety of bees called Apis Mellifera to show our children.
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The journey began with getting to know our cohabiting friends better. Ms. Smitha had arranged large size portraits of the three variety of bees. Apis Dorsata, Apis Mellifera and Apis Cerana, a hive of Apis Mellifera and also sample of honey made with nectar of different flowers(Coffee, Litchi and multi-flower).

As our children were introduced to the bees, below are some questions they arrived at.
T: Why do honeybees fly?, Why do honey bees need honey?, Why are there different kinds of honey bees? How does honey go to people?
A: Why do they have different names?
E: Do they make different kinds of honey?, Which is the sweetest honey?, How is the queen bee made?
Once their questions were answered, we proceeded with the processing of honey.
We moved to an in house laboratory where they demonstrated how the honey is tested for acid content. The lab also had a large oven to sterilize the instrument where T wanted to know "What is the specific heat required to kill germs?".

Post the lab, we moved on to the processing of honey, pasteurizing, mixing and setting. The settled honey then went through a packaging process. Where children experienced honey going through various process of packaging through a conveyor belt. Post this, children got to take home packed samples of honey.

The next day in class, children reflected on the the trip and recalled the sequence of events that happened at the factory. They got introduced to ordinal and cardinal numbers and went deeper to find different things in their life and around them that happen in sequence.

Since we picked something children were already curious about and incorporated the curriculum in it, children took away a lot more learning than through a class room activity. This is the magic of connected learning. It helps the learner make  deeper and wider connections and the more connections they make the stronger the learning.

The exploration didn't end here, they went into the lives of honey bees in depth, which is documented in the 2nd part of this series.

​#reggioemiliainspiredlearning
#sparklingmindzglobalpreschool
​#inspiringconfidentlearners


Contributed by Yashika CG, Learning Facilitator at Sparkling Mindz Global Preschool.