With this resource, students will learn about bee communication by creating their own waggle dance and performing it with their classmates.
The activity introduces students to pollination, the role of bees, how bees communicate to find food, and the need to protect them.
Teaching Tips
Positives
Students will enjoy dancing together and this activity will improve their communication and teamwork skills.
The art of dance helps teach a child creativity and coordination.
Additional Prerequisites
Teachers can review the linked sources to gain additional context before using this activity with students.
Differentiation
The teacher may need to more directly guide any groups having difficulties creating the dance and show them an example.
Students can brainstorm ways to protect bees and discuss what would happen if they became extinct.
In an art class, the teacher could ask students to draw bee workers and try to represent the way they communicate in their drawing.
Another engaging resource on this topic is the video Bee and Me.
Scientist Notes
Pollinators are at risk across the globe from climate change and insecticides. This activity helps students understand how bees, one of our most important pollinators, communicate with each other about where to find food. This resource is recommended for teaching.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
LS2: Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
2-LS2-2 Develop a simple model that mimics the function of an animal in dispersing seeds or pollinating plants.
National Core Arts Standards
Dance: Standard 1 - Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work.
DA:Cr1.1.2b Combine a variety of movements while manipulating the elements of dance.
Dance: Standard 4 - Select, analyze, and interpret artistic work for presentation.
DA:Pr4.1.1b Relate quick, moderate and slow movements to duration in time. Recognize steady beat and move to varying tempi of steady beat.
