Earth Day, launched by Gaylord Nelson and Denis Hayes in 1970, is an annual event celebrated on April 22. Every year, a specific theme for the event will be chosen by the Earth Day Network. The theme of Earth Day 2019 is: “Protect Our Species”, aiming to draw public attention towards Earth’s endangered and threatened species, particularly giraffes, elephants, whales, coral reefs, insects and bees. Therefore, for this year’s Earth Day our theme-based activities in the nursery will be focused on “Protecting Bees”.
Why do we need to protect bees?
As we all know, plants need insects to spread their pollen, making bees the indispensable pollinators of most ecosystems. Many species of animals depend on bees for their survival simply because their food sources, including nuts, berries, seeds and fruits, thrive only due to the pollination efforts of such insects. However, due to the increasingly widespread use of pesticides, climate change, land use changes and other human activities, bees are finding their living conditions drastically altered for the worse. Worldwide bee species numbers and overall population figures are in dramatic decline, a potentially disastrous trend. Life as we know it simply cannot survive without bees.
We have built a vibrant “Bee Hive”.
Currently, there are approximately 20,000 bee species around the world, many of them facing extinction. In order to raise pupils’ awareness of the need to protect bees and care about their place in the environment, pupils in our nursey designed their own unique bee, naming them things like super bee, shiny bee and bee princess. Each of these lovely bees compose an ‘extended bee family’ created by the nursery children.
During Earth Day, pupils learned many facts about bees, including details about their social roles and living habits. In roleplay , pupils became bees themselves, and foraged for pollen and nectar, which subsequently helped them understand the easiest and most effective method of protecting bees — planting more flowers.
Sowing flower seeds
Our pupils, as envoys of the ‘protecting bees’ event, sowed flower seeds around paths and on the nursery parterre, hoping that bees will have enough pollen and nectar to forage to survive and then hopefully thrive.
As we mark Earth Day, let us appreciate an ancient Chinese poem describing bees:
To the bee
Luo Yin
On the plain or atop the hill,
Of beauty you enjoy your fill.
You gather honey from flower sweet.
For whom, are you busy and fleet?
Reference： https://www.earthday.org
https://www.ted.com/talks/marla_spivak_why_bees_are_disappearing
