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| Students celebrate the importance of bees to our environment by creating delightful paper beehive lanterns. This quick craft pairs well with any bee book or study. It requires no coloring or painting...only cutting, folding, and pasting (and optional stapling.) |
The prototypes of the firefly lantern craft that I designed a couple of years ago still hang in our schoolroom closet. I love them. They never fail to brighten my day a bit when I see them. I had long wanted to give the lantern idea another go, but I never seemed to get around to it. Last week while researching labels for my honey bee diagram, I came across a really adorable board book called Discovering the Busy World of the Beehive by Petra Bartikova. The creative shaping of the book pages inspired me. Thus, this beehive lantern craft was born.
I've listed a variety of other buzzworthy bee books at the end of this post. Most are nonfiction read alouds or bee-autifully illustrated encyclopedia-type books, but there are some leveled readers as well.
What people don't initially realize about these lanterns is that they are mini sized. The tube part is roughly the size of an empty toilet paper roll. This makes them both economical to print and a joy to create!
Both my firefly and beehive lanterns use the Astrobrights "Bright" assortment paper pack. The 100-sheet paper pack is around $5 at Walmart! There's 20 sheets per color, so the beehive lantern as shown in the picture at the top of this post will likely take two packs for a typical-sized class.
As for the "branch" handles (they emulate tree branches that beehives often hang from), dark brown paper can be tricky to come by, especially if you live rurally. I've always gotten mine from multi-colored cardstock packs that I've purchased from either Michael's or Hobby Lobby. If your store options are few, you can cut down brown construction paper to letter size and run it through your printer. The handles print twelve to a page, so you will likely need only one or two sheets of brown paper for a typical-sized class.
If you can't find, or simply don't want to look for, brown paper, you can use the orange from the Astrobrights paper pack as an easy substitution. Pictured below are two color variations...the first one uses orange for the handle only while the second uses orange for both the handle and honeycomb core. If you go with the second color combo, you will probably be able to get by with just one Astrobrights paper pack, as the lanterns and honeycombs print two to a page.
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| Feel free to have some fun with your paper choices. Pictured above are two color variations using paper from only the Astrobrights "Bright" assorted paper pack. |
Assembly Directions
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| The beehive lantern's easy step-by-step assembly directions include visual guides. Check out its preview to see its supply list, full written directions, and project pieces as well. |
>> Download this beehive lantern craft in my TPT store today!
Related Resources
Books of Interest
The Bee Book by Charlotte Milner
Bees: A Honeyed History by Piotr Socha
Discovering the Busy World of the Beehive by Petra Bartikova
DK Readers: Amazing Bees by Sue Unstead
The Honey Makers by Gail Gibbons
Honeybee: The Busy Life of Apis Mellifera by Candance Fleming
The Honeybee by Kirsten Hall
I Am a Bee: A Book About Bees for Kids by Rebecca McDonald
National Geographic Readers: Bees by Laura Marsh
Penguin Young Readers: Honeybees by Joyce Milton
Videos of Interest
Bees! playlist by SciShow Kids
How Do Bees Make Honey? by Be Smart
How Do Bees Make Honey? by Mystery Doug & Mystery Science
The Magic School Bus: In a Beehive
What You'd See If You Could Walk Into a Beehive by Bright Side
Please preview all books and videos to ensure they're appropriate for your student(s).
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