Watch a pollinator at work
Have you ever watched or listened to a flower garden in the summer? Have you heard bees buzzing and watched butterflies visiting the flowers? Where any other animals, such as birds, beetles or ants, visiting the flowers?
Some animals are attracted to sweet nectar in flowers. Plants make nectar to help feed animals, but the animals are helping the plants too. When bees and other animals move around flowers they take pollen from one flower to another flower. If the pollen lands in the right spot, it moves down into the flower to help it make seeds and fruit. The transfer of pollen is called pollination and the animal helpers are called pollinators.
Internet links to help you:
Pictures of different types of pollinators – written for kids
Four-minute video showing the hidden beauty of pollination
Pollinators in a school garden
Books
The Reason for a Flower: A Book About Flowers, Pollen, and Seeds by Ruth Heller
National Geographic Readers: Bees by Laura Marsh
A, Bee, See: Who are our Pollinators and Why are They in Trouble? by Kenneth Eade, photographs by Valentina Eade
Pollinator Friendly Gardening: Gardening for Bees, Butterflies, and Other Pollinators by Rhonda Fleming Hayes
Flight of the Honey Bee by Raymond Huber
The Hive Detectives: Chronicle of a Honey Bee Catastrophe by Loree Griffin Burns
If You Love Honey: Nature’s Connections by Martha Sullivan
In the Trees, Honey Bees by Lori Mortensen
The Honeybee Man by Lela Nargi
Give Bees a Chance by Bethany Barton
52 Things Outside 