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Let your preschooler enhance those fine motor skills with a cute little bee and flower game! This clothespin activity isn’t just colorful, it’s quite engaging!

When the flower blossoms, the bee will come.

There’s a lot of meaning to the quote above. For one, it means that the best time to act is as soon as the right opportunity arises – not before, not after. It also means that you can’t rush things – they’ll all happen in their own time, as they were meant to be. Then there’s also the underlying concept of trust – just believe that good things will happen, and they will!

Wow, that’s a lot of deep stuff to come from a little bee and a delicate flower! But then, that’s the magic of nature. There’s so much to learn, you just need to take the time and look closer. Of course, going too close to bees may not be the best idea, but you know what I’m talking about!

While the quote above is perfect on its own, we’ve gone ahead and turned it on its head for our new DIY bee and flower game – here, the flower goes to the bee! This is a fun fine motor activity for preschoolers, who can also help make the game too. So are you all ‘abuzz’ and excited to start? Let’s go!

 

This is a Guest post by the very talented Swathika Anandan ..

Bee and Flower Game for Preschoolers

Materials Required:

• Black pom pom (choose a large one)
• Yellow pipe cleaner
• Googly Eyes
• Wooden/Bamboo Clothespin
• Craft paper in Red, Orange, Yellow and Green
• Kids or baby spoon
• Double sided tape
• Pen
• Scissors
• Glue

How to make the Bee and Flower Game:

1. We’ll work on the flowers first, since they’re more challenging than the bee. Start by tracing out shapes on craft paper. Use the clothespin to get rectangles on green craft paper and the spoon for petal shapes on the paper of other colors.

2. Cut out the shapes. Let’s move on to the petals. Place the petals curved side down and mark lines in pen, as shown in the picture below. Start with a ‘v’ at the top, and then draw a line down the middle.

3. Make short snips along the ‘V’ and then cut down the line you drew in the previous step. You now have two separate petals for each flower.

4. Time to put the flower together! What we’ll need are the petal shapes you cut out earlier, the green rectangle from the clothespin template, the clothespin itself and bits of double sided tape.

5. Here’s how the assembly goes: Stick two small rectangles of tape on the two ‘jaws’ of the clothespin. Cover the rest of the clothespin with the green rectangle.

6. Now peel off the adhesive from the tape, and attach the two petal parts. What you get now looks like a tulip on a green stem from the front, but from the back, you can handle the clothespin and open and close the petals.

7. Make more flowers in different colors the same way. When you’re done, gather the supplies to make the bee – a large black pom pom, yellow pipe cleaner, googly eyes and glue.

8. Making the bee is easy as pie! Just twist the pipe cleaner around the pom pom so that black and yellow strips are prominent. Let the rest of the pipe cleaner stay that way. Stick on the googly eyes.

9. Okay, now collect all your pieces – it’s time to play!!

To play the bee and flower game, attach the bee to a stationary structure using the pipe cleaner ‘tail’ and let kids use their flowers to catch the bee. To make it more challenging, attach the bee to something that bobs up and down. The person who catches the bee first wins! Or you can make multiple bees and the person who catches the most wins.

There’s a lot a preschooler can do while making this DIY bee and flower game. They can help with tracing out the templates, making the bee, and sticking on the petals. If you’d like something a little more challenging for older kids, check out our Flowers and Bees Tic Tac Toe game. Now all your busy bees have something to make and play with!