Mason Meets a Mason Bee
Outline
Gathering song (5 min.)
Head, shoulders, knees and toes song. Change words to “Head, thorax, abdomen, abdomen, eyes, antennae, mouth, and wings. Head, thorax, abdomen, abdomen. See how fast you can sing it.
This show is based on Mason Meets a Mason Bee book. Mason bees are real bees that live in Minnesota, and they’re really important because they help make our food!
But you know what? They need our help! They’re numbers are going down because they don’t have enough wild flowers. Sad huh?
Build block food chain/tower.
Ask kids what will happen if we take out the bottom block? (It will fall.)
So, if the reason the numbers of these important bees (and other good pollinators too) are going down because there aren’t enough flowers for them to eat. Can you all think of a way that we can help them? Yes, plant more flowers for them!
Show them the flowers you will be giving out after the show.
I’m going to ask you three questions about bees now. And I will ask you again after the show to see if you change your mind.
1. When you think of bees, what colors do you think of?
2. What do bees make? (Do all bees make honey?)
3. Why are people afraid of bees? (Do all bees sting?)
Do show
Ask questions the three questions again and point out that now all .
Have the kids see the nesting tubes, cocoons, bee bread, specimen
About Our Puppet Shows
“Red Light, Green Light”
Our “green light” messages promote personal and planetary health. We combine important social topics like empathy, communication, kindness, and equity into an array of environmental issues covering everything from clean air, soil, and water, to the importance of pollinators. Our shows are fun, engaging, upbeat, action-oriented, and timely. Participants are given access to the show scripts and they are encouraged to perform the shows for their friends and family to increase the reach of these important messages.
Our first puppet show was based on the Mason Meets a Mason Bee book about helping native bees by planting (native) wildflowers. From there, we’ve developed shows about combatting aquatic invasive species, and sustainability. Our goal is to have a new show every week. So, please! Sign up for a bunch of shows and have us coming back to your organization on a regular basis.
In addition to our shows, we love when time and space allow us to do a little hands-on creation or exploration. We’ve made sock puppets with kids, looked at native bee specimens, played a pollination game, and found “invasive species” (that look a lot like toy slime for this activity) hiding on a boat.
We would absolutely love to perform for you, and no fee is required. However, if your organization is in a position to help cover any amount of our costs ($300/show), we’d appreciate it.
When you’re trying to persuade people to do something important, you can present statistics, policy statements, graphs, and spreadsheets. But without a story that paints a picture of what’s at stake, touches the heartstrings, and sparks the imagination to envision possibilities, it’s hard to move people to take action. One formula for accelerating transformational change is to amplify the right message from the right messenger at the right moment in time.”