Life Cycle of a Honey Bee for Kids

It’s so much fun to learn about bees with these worksheets that teach the life cycle of a honey bee for kids. Perfect for spring and summer learning!

These worksheets are perfect to add to your bee activities for preschoolers. They provide great opportunities for little ones to learn about bees in a fun and engaging way.

Spring is here, and summer is not too far away. As you begin to spend more and more time outdoors, your preschooler will begin to see more and more bees buzzing about. 

You can help them learn more about bees with this free preschool printable. It is designed to teach preschoolers about the life cycle of a bee in very simple terms.

Life Cycle of a Honey Bee for Kids

This simple pack is perfect for preschoolers and kindergarteners. It contains a life cycle poster, life cycle description cards, picture cards, and a cut and paste life cycle page for your little ones to complete. 

When you pair this life cycle printable with some simple non-fiction books about bees, you’ve got everything you need to spend some time learning about the life cycle of a honey bee.

How to Prepare the Printables

I suggest printing and laminating the poster, the description cards, and the picture cards. This will make them more durable and able to withstand use by preschoolers. 

Print the cut and paste page on regular printer paper so kids can color and cut this activity page at the end of the lesson.

Teaching Kids About Bees

To start the lesson, I suggest reading one or more nonfiction books about bees. I recommend National Geographic Readers: Bees and Time for Kids: A Bee’s Life. Both of these books have simple text and real photographs of bees.

For more suggestions, check out my full list of nonfiction books about bees. 

After reading a couple of books about bees, show your kids the life cycle poster. Talk about each of the four stages shown. 

You can use the information cards to go into as much or as little detail as you’d like. I recommend teaching kids the names of each of the stages.

Your children are little sponges right now and can pick up the words pupa and larva pretty quickly.

When you present the picture cards, see if your kids can recall the names of each of the stages. You can also use a plastic replica of the life cycle stages. I purchased mine at Michaels with a coupon, but you can find several different styles on Amazon.

Have your kids match each figure to the correct card. See if they can recall what happens in each stage.

PRESCHOOL BOOKS ABOUT BEES

Fill your book basket with a great collection of books about bees. Most of these books can be found at your local library or used bookstore.

If you have a hard time finding them, you can order them through my Amazon affiliate links by clicking the images below.

 Bee & Me – A little girl befriends a bee that takes her on a journey of discovery, revealing an action that every child can take to aid in conservation. 

The Honeybee Man – Every morning, Fred climbs three flights of stairs—up to his rooftop in Brooklyn, New York—and greets the members of his enormous family: “Good morning, my bees, my darlings!”

His honeybee workers are busy—they tend the hive, feed babies, and make wax rooms. They also forage in flowers abloom across Brooklyn… so that, one day, Fred can make his famous honey, something the entire neighborhood looks forward to tasting.

The Life and Times of the Honeybee – Why do beekeepers use smoke machines when collecting honey? Can a bee really sting only once? Why do bees “dance”?

In concise, detailed text and abundant illustrations that range from the humorous to the scientific, Charles Micucci offers a wide-ranging and spirited introduction to the life cycle, social organization, and history of one of the world’s most useful insects. 

Teaching Resources

This beautiful wooden honey bee puzzle let’s the child explore the wonderful world of honey bees.

You can add some plush bumblebee toys to your imaginative play area for kids to act out their favorite bee stories.

This collection of bee resources is full of my favorite things for teaching preschoolers about bees.

This printable bee craft for preschoolers is so cute! It is super simple to make, and it’s sure to inspire hours of imaginative play.

Spring and summer are the perfect time to learn about bees and this bee life cycle playdough mat is perfect for your unit.

Honey Bee Life Cycle Activities

The activities included in this learning pack will help your kids learn more about honey bees. They also work on fine motor skills (cut and paste) and sequencing.