Bumblebee Thumbprint Activity for Preschoolers
This thumbprint activity is part imaginative play and part art. Little kids will have fun helping bees collect pollen from the flowers to store in the beehive.
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The idea for this activity is to have a child use yellow stamp-pad ink to make a thumbprint at each flower. Each thumbprint represents a bumblebee (or honeybee, etc) landing on the flower to collect nectar. The bumblebee needs to visit each flower and then take the nectar back to the hive.
Note: There are alternative options toward the end of this post for kids who don’t want to get their fingers messy.
There are 4 different printable options for this activity. The black and white options can be downloaded from the buttons at the bottom of this post. The bonus full-color versions are available inside the Free Resource Library which all newsletter subscribers have access to for free. (More on that at the bottom of the post)
Where to Start:
I recommend starting with the simpler flower printable (pictured above) so kids can get the hang of how to do the activity.
Start without any ink. Just have the child practice pressing on each flower with his/her thumb. For the littlest kiddos, this will be a challenge in hand-eye coordination.
Next comes the fun part. Press the child’s thumb onto the yellow inkpad and have them use their inked thumb to stamp each flower pretending they’re a bee landing to collect nectar.
Re-ink the thumb as needed.
Don’t forget to make your “bee” land at the beehive (with a thumbprint).
Once children have had their fill of the simple bee and flower printable, challenge them with the maze. The dotted line represents the trail of pollen the bee left while traveling from flower to flower before ending up back at the beehive.
The goal is for children to follow the trail (dotted line) and make a thumbprint at each flower in the order of the maze so they finally end at the hive.
Suggestions for using the maze printable:
Before doing any thumbprint art, have students “trace” the maze with their finger. This may take multiple attempts and possibly some adult assistance.
Let the child trace the maze with their finger multiple times until they feel comfortable following the path.
When ready to do the thumbprint art, the child should try to follow the maze with one hand and stamp a thumbprint bee with the other. Continue like this until all flowers have a bee thumbprint and the hive does too.
Tips and Alternative Options:
Children may want to use each printable multiple times and make many bee thumbprints.
Consider printing multiple copies of the same printable for kids to repeat the activity with a fresh sheet.
Kids may get creative and want to stamp a bee in a color other than yellow. (since yellow doesn’t show up well)
For kids who don’t want to get ink on their finger, use dot markers or a cotton ball held by a clothespin dipped in paint.
We hope you and your kiddos enjoy these thumbprint art printables.
Please share for others. The image below is pinnable. Thanks!
Click the buttons to download the free Black & White Thumbprint Butterfly printables.
And if you subscribe to our newsletter (using the sign-up form under the comment section), you’ll get access to the free bonus full-color printables in the Resource Library.
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