Praying for Bees
During Catholic School Week in February, a second grade student shared that her Dad, Kevin Harrington, was a beekeeper. While this fascinating snippet didn’t make it into our student interview montage, it proved to be useful information leading up to Mrs. Janus’ presentation about bees in Junior Kindergarten this week!
Since we are currently unable to welcome parent volunteers inside classrooms owing to COVID mitigation policies, Mrs. Janus called upon Mr. Harrington who kindly stopped by to drop off some interesting bee facts as well as a small sample hive to share with our students. For those readers who may be concerned–“bee” not afraid–the hive was empty of buzzy inhabitants.
Mr. Harrington also shared an endearing bit of news about the hives he keeps in his backyard. It turns out Mrs. Klein’s class had been praying for them throughout the winter during their morning prayer intentions! Less than 50% of hives are able to successfully endure the winter months, but despite several cold snaps, all of his bees survived. And thanks to his home’s proximity to our school, it’s entirely possible that the pollinator plants in and around our campus (including those in our school garden planted by Mrs. Janus’ Garden Club!) might be visited by some of the honey bees in the Harrington family hives.
Prepped by an expert and determined to wow our tiniest Monarchs with her newfound knowledge of all things bee, Mrs. Janus made two key decisions: She sourced a bee costume and purchased cheese balls. The result? 15 Junior Kindergarteners received some hands on learning (complete with “cheesy” pollen tasting) and buzzy bee dance moves!
Other ECDC classrooms have also been prepping for Earth Day by learning about parts of the flowers, counting leaves and reading The Lorax by Dr. Seuss with Mrs. Lavallee. Happy Earth Day to all, big and small, from SMCS!
