The Bumblebear

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Now it’s time for some art. Get a blank piece of paper and let the pen be the bumblebee. Remember not to lift the pen from the paper – where will it land? Now invite the children to colour the sections between the loops to make a funky art picture. Here’s what it might look like - https://lwvogue.com/abstract-art-project-for-kids/ Dragon (107) Monster (23) Fantasy (68) Elf (22) Ghost (2) Gnome (8) Snowman (13) Unicorn (16) OtherMakeBelieve (28) Oliver B. Bumble ( Olivier B. Bommel in Dutch) is a fictional anthropomorphic bear, one of the two main characters in a Dutch comic book series written by Marten Toonder. The other is Tom Puss ( Tom Poes), and the comic book bears the name of either of these characters. In February 2007, the Dutch Programme Foundation began a 440-part radio drama based on the series, hosted by Radio 4. The series ended in December 2009. There have been rumors of a new film and animation series.

For P1 children – they may want to explore some common 2D shapes. This resource may be helpful - https://firstlook.educationcity.com/content/index/35569 What shape makes up a honeycomb? Can they make a bee picture using the shapes they have learned about?Alligator (3) Chameleon (2) Dinosaur (6) Frog (36) Lizard (5) Snake (1) Turtle (8) OtherReptiles (1) Recap on the story of ‘Bumblebear’. Parents may want to read the story again with the children or invite the children to tell them the story, using their Bumblebear or Bumblebee puppets from last week’s activities.

Bumble has two staunch admirers. The first is Miss Doddle, Bumble's Dulcinea and his prime source of fresh tea, courage and resolve in times of great emotional turmoil. She idolizes Bumble and thinks he's the smartest man in the world, even though Bumble is out of his depth more often than not. The second great admirer is the dwarf Kwetal who thinks Bumble has a big thinking-frame ("denkraam") and blindly trusts his judgment. He is the source of some weird gadgets which wreak havoc in Bumble's life or work as a deus ex machina to solve the problems which Bumble's ill-conceived grand designs have caused. Sir Oliver B. Bumble was introduced in 1941, in the third Tom Puss story. Initially, he was only a supporting character, but he soon became a second protagonist. As Tom Puss was noble and heroic, later stories came to depend on the flawed and kind-hearted Oliver B. Bumble as an initiator of events. The final story, published in 1986, ends the story with Bumble marrying his neighbor, Miss Doddel, and settling down. Now it’s time for some honey of our own – time to make Bumblebear honey biscuits - https://www.booktrust.org.uk/globalassets/resources/time-to-read/2017/bumblebear-biscuits.pdf

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For nursery children, have fun with a bee counting song for numbers to ten - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWUgZm_AE64 The children might enjoy sitting down to watch the story of ‘The Lost Bee’ while they have their Bumblebear biscuits - https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/stories/melody-the-lost-bee The children might enjoy helping the bees to collect the pollen from the flowers in the following interactive game - https://www.bbc.co.uk/games/embed/g758zk3wbh?exitGameUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.co.uk%2Fcbeebies%2Fgames%2Fmargarets-marigolds-game