From Funerals to Mating - What a Week!!!!

We had a good time with Busy Buzzy Bee this week.  I have so many great nonfiction stories about bees, but realized this week was really lacking in fiction.  I am going to buy more fictional bee stories before this time next year.  On Tuesday, my kids spotted a bee on the playground.  I am such a dedicated teacher that I captured it in a jar!  I made my kids tell me "Thank you for risking your own safety for our education, Mrs. Morrison."  Having the power can be so much fun!  :)  We checked out that bee, but the next day it was dead.  The kids were a bit sad, but it turned out to be great.  With the bee dead, we were able to look at it with a magnifying glass. 


After we checked it out, someone suggested we have a funeral for the bee.  Sounded like a good time to me!  We made a little headstone and buried it outside of our classroom.  We took a moment of silence to remember all the bee taught us - like bees have furry bodies and four wings.  We placed a purple flower on the grave because these were her favorite.  It was pretty fun! 



My current author study is Doreen Cronin.  My kids loved Diary of a Spider, Fly, and Worm.  I had them write their own story called "Diary of a Bee".  Some of them turned out so cute.  Our story tells about how the queen bee mates with all the drones.  I felt so lucky that nobody even asked about mating this year.  As I was looking at their stories I found a most disturbing diary entry "Today I mated with my mom."  Oh goodness!!!  Does anybody else have to deal with mating questions in first grade?  How do you reply?