DIY Homeschooler

The First Book of Bees by Albert B. Tibbets published in 1952 is another in “The First Book of” series published by Franklin Watts that is now in the public domain.

Like all of the books in the series, The First Book of Bees provides a first look at a topic — in this case bees. But despite the introductory nature of the book, you’ll find an amazing amount of detail, including the appropriate vocabulary with wonderful illustrations to help explain things.

The First Book of Bees covers:

• The busy nature of bees.
• Members of the bee colony.
• The jobs of worker bees.
• Bee anatomy.
• Honeycombs.
• Bee hives.
• Bees and flowers.
• Making honey.
• Pollination.
• Different types of bee eggs.
• Bee life cycle.
• Swarms.
• Robber bees.
• How bees sting.
• Beekeeping.
• Types of honey.
• Different types of bees.

As you can see, for an introductory book less than 70 pages long, The First Book of Bees covers a great deal of ground!

Some of the illustrations and diagrams will make great additions to a bee notebook.

Wonderful book for those enjoying our free nature studies or those with a bee interest — and it’s free!

Free eBook

• Read online
• PDF
• Various formats

Suggestions

Have your students do one or more of the following:

• Read one section at a sitting. Then have your child narrate what he learned.
• Ask him to create a bee notebook and decorate the cover.
• The narrations can be held inside the notebook.
• There are many useful diagrams in the book that will aid in understanding. Add these to the notebook. They can be printed or the child can draw them himself.

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Additional Resources

Free Nature Studies: The Honey Bee
Lots of resources covering bees in this part of our free nature studies.

Free Nature Studies: Bees and Flowers
Lots of resources in our free nature studies series covering pollination.