Beauty of Bees

This lesson is designed to build students’ competencies in the following skills:

• critical thinking
• communication
• creativity
• collaboration
• social skills

Australian curriculum content descriptions:

Year 5 Visual Arts: 

• Develop and apply techniques and processes when making their artworks (ACAVAM115)

Year 5 Mathematics:

• Apply the enlargement transformation to familiar two dimensional shapes and explore the properties of the resulting image compared with the original (ACMMG115)

Year 6 Visual Arts:

• Develop and apply techniques and processes when making their artworks (ACAVAM115)

Year 6 Mathematics:

• Investigate combinations of translations, reflections and rotations, with and without the use of digital technologies (ACMMG142)

General capabilities: Ethical Understanding, Personal and Social Capability, Literacy, Numeracy

Cross-curriculum priority: Sustainability OI.2, OI.3, OI.4, OI.5, OI.6, OI.7

Relevant parts of Year 5 Visual Arts achievement standards: Use visual conventions and visual arts practices to express a personal view in their artworks. They demonstrate different techniques and processes in planning and making artworks. They describe how the display of artworks enhances meaning for an audience.

Relevant parts of Year 5 Mathematics achievement standards: Students describe transformations of two-dimensional shapes. 

Relevant parts of Year 6 Visual Arts achievement standards: They use visual conventions and visual arts practices to express a personal view in their artworks. They demonstrate different techniques and processes in planning and making artworks. They describe how the display of artworks enhances meaning for an audience.

Relevant parts of Year 6 Mathematics achievement standards: Students describe combinations of transformations. 

Unit of work: Love Food? Love Bees!

Level of teacher scaffolding: High – arrange art resource/equipment. Add to wall display throughout the unit.

Goal 15: Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss

• Target 15.5: Take urgent and significant action to reduce the degradation of natural habitats, halt the loss of biodiversity and, by 2020, protect and prevent the extinction of threatened species.

• Student Worksheet – one copy per student OR computers/tablets to access the online worksheet
• Bee Art images and projector
• Bee gridline maths activity print out and one piece of blank A4 paper for each student
• Rulers, grey lead pencils, art supplies (coloured pencils, textas, paints, etc), glue or thumbtacks
• Hive of Reflection print-out
• Grid Enlargement Practice activity.

This lesson has been created in partnership with ACT for Bees. ACT for Bees is a not-for-profit organisation taking action to preserve these essential pollinators, ensuring a food-secure future.

How To Teach Sustainability With Hope

Quick summary: This course is for both primary and secondary teachers of all subjects, but especially for English, Science, Humanities and Geography teachers who are covering climate change and the cross-curriculum priority of sustainability.