Alana C won the Bee Competition!
Bumblebees and Flowers Art Competition
Our West Country Buzz project is excited to launch an art competition for primary schools in North Devon. Pupils are invited to create a piece of art about bumblebees and flowers, using any medium they like such as pen, pencil, paint or textiles.
The competition is open to North Devon primary school education pupils (age 5-11) only. There are three categories, Reception, Years 1 & 2; Years 3 & 4; and Years 5 & 6. North Devon is a hotspot for rare bumblebees including the Brown-banded carder bee (Bombus humilis). With some of the most beautiful coastline and countryside, we hope the children of North Devon will explore the great outdoors and ‘bee’ creative with their artwork on the theme of bumblebees and flowers. Many bumblebees are in decline, including our rare Brown-banded carder bee, and we hope that entrants will help us to spread the message of planting more flowers to help these and other bees.
Winners from each category will receive flowering hedge plants and spring bulbs for the school grounds, activity sheets, flower and vegetable seeds for their class, and for themselves one of our Youth Memberships as well as Bumblebee Conservation Trust goodies including stickers, pencils and more. Entries will be shortlisted by the West Country Buzz team. The winners will then be chosen by our patron and award-winning writer, Kate Bradbury! Winners will be recognised through our social media channels and marketing material.
When creating our artwork we studied the bees in the area, particularly the Brown-banded carder bee along with the plants they love, such as lavender, bugle and marjoram. The pupils paid close attention to the shape and texture of the bees.
Each pupil used a honeycomb-shaped piece of paper so we could present their artwork as a giant honeycomb in the shape of a map of North Devon. This also has our local landmarks as beehive and also our school so we can see how we fit into the map.
the activity has improved our knowledge of the environment these bees need to thrive.
