Organise a competition where students work in groups to see who can produce the longest piece of writing from the standpoint of a bee. If you provide a few items of specialised vocabulary, Year 7 pupils can practise personal ID, family and physical description, while older students earn bonus points for each adjective, adverb, conjunction and change of tense.

Play a game of Who Wants to be a Millionaire based on bee trivia, such as the number of eggs a queen lays in one day. For facts and figures, try www.honey.comkidsvideoHoneyFilesWeb.pdf www.umt.edubiologybeeskid.htm (click on “Jump List” then choose “Bee Trivia” from the drop-down menu).

Wenn die Bienen sterben, sind die Tage der Menschen gezAhlt. (When bees die, human beings’ days are numbered.) Einstein’s words are particularly pertinent for students of French and German. Some insecticides made by the German firm Bayer have been banned in France following report by the French Comite Scientifique et Technique (CST) on a dramatic decline in the bee population.