Year 2's Pollination Party

 

Year 2 Busy Bees!

Have you ever wondered how flowers and plants grow seeds and fruit? Well, now our amazing Year 2’s know! Bees visit flowers to collect something very important – nectar to make honey. But did you know that when bees fly from one flower to another, they help the flowers grow seeds and fruit too? While the bees dive deep into the flower for their sugary drink they brush past the pollen carrying it from flower to flower. When the pollen from one flower goes onto another flower's sticky stamen then the flower can make seeds. Without the bees there would be no seeds and no fruit.

We explored our blooming Waka garden that has silverbeet, carrots and even kumaras! We got to see some bees in action. They were going deep into the purple kumara flowers looking for the nectar. We looked carefully to see the sticky stigma and pollen in the flowers.

Without bees helping with pollination, many flowers and plants wouldn’t be able to grow seeds. That would mean no new flowers or fruits! Bees are plant’s helpers, working hard to make sure plants can grow and bloom. They don't do it for free. They're paid in sweet nectar.

Back in the class we made models of flowers and used pipe cleaner bees to pollinate with glitter.

Next time we'll be making seed packets so we can grow more flowers to feed our bees.