Activities

Free Bee Craft Activity: Building Coordination

Celebrate the hard-working bee by making one from a loo roll. Cutting and gluing practise scissor skills and hand-eye coordination, the same skills children need for handwriting.

Updated 6 September 2023

Cardboard tube bee craft made from a loo roll with paper wings and pipe cleaner antennae

Quick answer

Paint a loo roll yellow, add black paper stripes, white paper wings, pipe-cleaner antennae and googly eyes. About 30 minutes plus drying time, for ages 3 to 7.

How about we celebrate this hard-working insect by making a cute one from a loo roll? It is a craft you can start with things already in the recycling.

This activity gives your child a chance to practise scissor skills and gluing, which both support fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination. Using these skills through play is helpful for mastering handwriting too.

Finished loo roll bee craft with googly eyes, black stripes and white paper wings

1. Loo roll bee

Turn a loo roll into a buzzing bee with yellow paint, black paper stripes, white paper wings and pipe-cleaner antennae.

Best forScissor skills and gluing
Age3 to 7
Time30 to 45 minutes, plus drying
Mess levelMedium
DifficultyEasy
CostUnder £2, mostly from the recycling

You will need

Loo roll, or yellow card rolled into a tube
White card
Black paper
Black pipe cleaner
Yellow paint and a paintbrush
Glue or glue dots
Googly eyes
Marker pen

How to set it up

Paint the loo roll yellow and let it dry. To skip the painting, roll yellow card into a tube and tape it at the back.
Cut two wings from the white card.
Cut two black stripes from the black paper.
Cut the pipe cleaner into two shorter pieces.
Stick on the googly eyes and draw a smiley face near the top of the roll.
Wrap the black stripes around the roll and glue them down.
Glue the wings to the back of the roll.
Glue the pipe cleaner pieces inside the top of the roll so they stick out like antennae.

Why it helps

Using scissors builds hand-eye coordination: children learn to watch where they are cutting and use their eyes to guide the next move. Gluing the pieces in place practises the fine motor control they will need for handwriting, and mastering both is useful for sport, cooking and everyday life.

Safety notes

Use child-safe scissors and stay with your child while they cut. Googly eyes and pipe-cleaner pieces are small parts, so keep them away from children under three.