An Adorable and Easy Bee Craft to Make with Kids
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The Spruce / Katherine Lewis
Your little busy bees will love doing this fun craft on a lazy afternoon. Even little kids can help make these adorable bees. With just some basic materials and tools, you can create these cute bees in no time flat. Make a bunch and add them wherever you want a cheery little bee to add some color and fun around your home.
Gathering all the materials you'll need for this project is a great way to teach young kids how to plan and be organized. These skills can carry over into other things they have to do, like homework or chores.
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What You'll Need
Equipment / Tools
- Circle-shaped paper punches in 1.5 inch and 2-inch sizes
- Small flower and heart-shaped paper punches (antennae toppers)
- Scissors or paper cutter
- Ruler
Materials
- Paper: yellow, black, and red/pink
- Vellum or tracing paper (optional for wings)
- Craft sticks
- Glue dots
- Black marker
Instructions
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Make the Bees' Heads and Bodies
Start making your bees by creating the bodies. Take your yellow paper and punch out large and medium-sized circles.
Substitute for Circle Paper Punches
If you don't have circle paper punches, you can just use the bottoms of drinking glasses or bottles in two sizes to make circles; just trace it onto the paper and cut around to make your circles.
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Attach the Heads to the Bodies
Make the head and body of the bees by gluing the medium-sized circles to the larger circles as shown using glue dots.
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Cut Out Bees' Stripes & Antennae
Next, using a paper cutter or scissors, make thin strips with the black paper. If you don't have a paper cutter, just make straight lines with a ruler and cut along the lines to make the strips. Each strip should be thin, about 1/4-inch wide.
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Attach Bees' Stripes
Glue stripes to the body of the bees using the black strips of paper, as shown. For each bee, use two or three strips of paper.
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Cut off Excess Stripes
- Cut off excess strips of black paper to make them fit the bee bodies
- Then, take the black marker and draw on the eyes and mouth to make the faces for each bee.
Keep the Scraps
Don't throw away the excess strips of black paper. Save them for the next step.
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Attach Antennae
- Cut the black strips of paper into shorter pieces.
- Glue them to the backs of the heads of each bee to make the antennae.
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Cut Out Antennae Toppers
Add a pop of color and fun touch to the bee antennae with a small heart- or flower-shaped paper punch. You can leave your bees plain, but adding these little touches at the end of each antenna makes them much cuter—even more than they already are!
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Attach Antennae Toppers
Glue on the antennae toppers to the front of each antenna, as shown.
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Attach Stingers and Sticks
These stingers are cute and safe, unlike the real thing!
- Using the black paper, cut out small triangles.
- Then, glue them to the bodies of the bees.
- If you want to put the bees into planters around the house or use them as puppets, glue craft sticks to the back of each bee.
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Add Wings
While the bees are adorable just as they are without the wings, you may want to add them for extra detail.
- Use a small circle punch, about 1-inch in diameter (or a small bottle that you can use to trace and cut your circles) make the wings using see-through vellum paper or tracing paper.
- Glue the wings onto the bodies of the bees.
- Overlap the wings by putting one wing on the front and one on the back.
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Decorate With Your Bees
Once you have a batch of finished bees, put them all around the house–in your flower pots, on your fridge, on your walls, or anywhere they fit.
Learn the Buzz Words
Use this bee craft as an educational activity, too. Take out some books from the library or go online for some info about bees and how important they are to our planet and crops; learn together with your kids how they contribute to our lives every day, including, of course, making honey.