Make a blue banded bee model

To celebrate World Bee Day on 20 May, we're exploring why bees are so important and showing you how to build a model of the blue banded bee.

Please note that while this activity is suitable for younger children, it does involve the use of scissors and other sharp objects so adult supervision is required.

Here's how to get involved:

For this activity, you will need some black pipe cleaners, scissors, paper card, a pencil and some blue, yellow and black clay.

1. Separate the black clay into three balls, with one ball twice the size of the others.
2. Use the pencil to poke holes through the centre of the two smaller balls.
3. Roll out your blue clay into a long, thin strip.
4. Split the yellow clay in two parts and flatten them into dots.
5. Wind your string of blue clay around the biggest black piece to create a blue stripe.
6. Squish the yellow dots onto the top of both smaller black pieces.
7. Cut the pipe cleaners in half.
8. Trim one of the pieces to make it shorter than the others.
9. Push the three longest sections of pipe cleaner through the hole in one of the yellow dotted balls. Fan the pipe cleaners out on either side and bend the ends to create feet. This will create the middle section of the bee.
10. Push the shorter piece of pipe cleaner through the second yellow dotted ball and bend to create antennae for the bee's head.
11. Join all of the pieces you've created - antennae at one end, blue striped ball at the other, and the six feet in the middle!
12. On your piece of card, draw two connected triangles to create a diamond. Repeat this to create a second diamond for the wings.
13. Cut out your wings. You may like to create wavy irregular edges to make them look more like a bee's wings.
14. Finally, connect the wings to your bee by wedging them in the clay thorax, just above the legs on either side.