Needle Felted Bumblebees Tutorial and Preposition Literacy Unit

Spring is almost here! Despite our weekend of negative temperatures, our tulips are starting to push through the frozen soil and tell us spring is almost coming.

This week, we have been learning about prepositions in language arts. My daughter is a first grader so we are dipping our toes into grammar now.

I introduced prepositions to her by using the idea of a beehive. I created a mini unit to accompany the concept. To further elaborate prepositions, we created a needle felted bubble bee in order to act out prepositions.

Supplies:
Roving wool in black, yellow, and white
Pot holder or felting mat
Needle felting needle
Jewelry wire

Steps:

Shape a small amount of yellow wool into an oblong shaped ball and needle felt until it is the desired shape.

Wrap a small strip of black around the yellow and needle felt into place.

Wrap a second black strip around the yellow and felt again.

On the end of the bee, cover in a small layer of black wool and felt into place to create the bottom of the bee.

Use the white wool to create a small tear drop shape, use the needle to felt the wool together to make one wing. Repeat to create the second wing.

Use a small amount of brown felt and place over the top of each wing, felt into place to create lines.

At the top of the bee, insert a 2 inch long piece of jewelry wire. Bend the tops into semi-circles to create antenna.

These bees can be used as a manipulative in the preposition unit, to decorate your nature table, or for play.

Preposition unit:
This unit comes with a

-printable bee hive
-preposition bees
-blank bees
-list of common prepositions
-preposition poetry activity

You can access the unit here