Ella-Bella Bee & the Pollinators:
Educational, musical fun for the family!
“Show is charged with energy and useful information while being perfectly aimed at her target audience. . . impressed with how the kiddos and parents were equally spellbound throughout the entire performance.”
~ Karen Howe, President Sammamish Friends
Some people say money is the thing that makes the world go around, but we know what REALLY does — bees and hummingbirds! These little creatures are worth a billion times their weight in gold, and without them, Earth would be severely lacking in nutrition, color, and vibrance.
Ella Bella Bee & The Pollinators! have made it their mission to help families learn about bees, bats, and hummingbirds in a way that’s fun, engaging, and interactive. This 45-50 minute comedic, educational musical production features adorable costumes, large puppets, energetic dance numbers, a villian and heroine, great science, and puns galore!
The trio (vocals, keyboards, and percussion) or duo perform at:
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Elementary school assemblies
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Family concerts
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Libraries
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Environmental festivals
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Zoos and science museums
Ready to put a bee in your child’s bonnet about the crucial role pollinators play in making our food? Hire Ella Bella Bee & The Pollinators for your next family-focused event and spark an enduring fascination for life!
Call or click here to book the musical >
50% of your presenting fee may be covered!
Check out: 4Culture Touring Artist Roster Presenter Incentive program.
". . . so incredibly appropriate and relevant. Thanks so much for developing a play that is both entertaining, engaging and informative!"
- Tracy Rathke, St. Luke School teacher
Upcoming 2024 Shows:
April 20th, 2pm and 3pm, Pacific Place
Atrium Stage, 600 Pine St, Seattle, WA 98101
June 2nd, 12:30-1:30pm, Cascadia School
4239 162nd Ave NE, Redmond, WA 98052
July 10th, 1-pm, Angle Lake Park
19408 International Blvd, SeaTac, WA 98188
July 16th, 3pm, Shoreline Library
345 NE 175th St, Shoreline, WA 98155
July 25th, 11am, Buckley Youth Ctr Field
251 River Ave South, Buckley 98321
July 28th, 3pm, Bellevue ArtsFair BAMboozle
510 Bellevue Way NE, Bellevue, WA 98004
August 10th, 10:30am Suncadia Farm,
3600 Suncadia Trail, Cle Elum, WA 98922
November 8th, 5pm, Woodinville Tots Group
Much thanks to:
Dr. Cole Gilbert of Cornell University
for fact-checking show and
support materials.
Inventor Kim David Hall,
for knuckles of 24 flying bees
pesticide bottle puppet and hummingbird.
Dr. Kevin Loope of Georgia State Univ.,
for macro-photos of hive.
Costumer Wendy Oberlin,
for cloth part of Mr. Wound-Up.
Credit Peter Shaw Photography
Buy Ella-Bella songs
digitally at Bandcamp!
Very cartoony recording, shows are full voiced.
Credit Peter Shaw © 2020
Follow-up after show:
What did you learn from show?
1) Why do people need pollinators?
2) Why do pollinators pollinate?
3) How can you avoid being stung?
4) What do bats eat that humans hate and get sick from?
6) Give examples of fruits and vegetables that depend on pollinators to exist?
7) Which pollinator eats crop-destroying beetles?
8) What are two cost-saving ways to grow some food?
9) What jobs do female honey bees have?
10) Do male bees stay in the hive over winter?
11) What is honey good for?
12) How do bees communicate?
13) What kind of things do they communicate?
14) How do you attract hummingbirds?
15) What do you need NOT to do so that hummingbirds can survive?
16) What can you use to treat a mild but painful reaction to a sting?
17) Which directions can hummingbirds fly?
18) What kind of fruits do bats pollinate?
19) What do you use if you have a serious reaction to a sting?
20) How do bats find insects in the dark?
21) What can you do to help bats survive?
22) What are hurting bee populations?
23) What can we do to help them survive?
24) How can one grow food even in a little way?
25) Where can you grow food?
26) Which is better for bees--one kind of flower or several types?
27) Do all bats drink blood?
28) What do bats do with their inner ears when they shriek?
29) Is it okay to go into bat caves?
Post comments & actions you are taking at:
Facebook.com/pollencookie.
Credit Peter Shaw Photography
Composer/Writer/Performers
Janet Rayor & Clayton Murray met as members of acoustic band Rouge.
Rayor is an avid gardener and concerned environmentalist. She created shows, taught & performed as an Artist-in-Residence through Colorado Arts & Humanities, Young Audiences, and 4Culture's Touring Roster. She won a Comedy-in-Performance scholarship through Movement Theatre Intl. and toured nationally dancing on stilts.
Talented and funny pro, stride pianist Clayton Murray, has performed in Australia, Japan, and around the Northwest including Moisture Festival and PantoTheatre. A serious, life-long full-time musician, this show allows his great comic side freedom!
Download hand-out below for ideas what you can do to help pollinators:
Some favorite books:
Bees, A Honeyed History, By Socha Piotr, Great buy for any age!
Nature's Little Wonders: Bee by Candace Savage- 5th grade+, funny and wonderfully informative.
Honey Bees by Deborah Heiligman, excellent 8+
Case of the Vanishing Little Brown Bats: a Scientific Mystery
by Sandra Markle (2015)
Case of the Vanishing Honey Bees by Sandra Markle (2014)
Hummingbirds by Melissa Gish – photos & info fantastic
Zipping Zapping Zooming Bats by Ann Earle, 1st grade+
Bats by Sophie Lockwood, The Childs World
Some favorite videos:
Slovenia is saving Bees-video
Amsterdam is bringing back Bees-video
Explanation of pesticides on seeds-video
Pollinators-Cornell University Outreach
Hummingbirds-info and slow-mo footage
Other excellent science videos from Cornell University, where my famous entomologist sister, Linda Rayor, teaches outreach are at this link. She has appeared on Discovery Channel, NPR, and is now opening a major spider exhibit at Toronto Natural History Museum!
Keep scrolling for STEAM Lessons below!
Pre-show art projects - Make backdrop for show!
Make batiks, drawings, paper mache, and paintings of pollinators and flowers.
Attach art by simple clothes-line set-up.
Decision making and brain-storming solutions:
1-Mom says the water bill is too high to water plants. How can you still get water? (Bucket water as it is heating up for shower, re-use water from washing vegetables and fruits in a pot, gather rain water in a bucket.)
2-Organic plants at a nursery are too expensive. What do you do? (Reuse plastic yogurt containers by punching holes in bottom, share cost of seeds with a friend and start seedlings inside. Buy a packet of 4 plants and share cost with 2-4 friends.)
3-No time for a garden. (Plant one plant. Plant strawberries, sorrel, leeks, potatoes, rhubarb, perennial spinach, or another plant that return without needing to replant.)
4- People that look like me do not garden or farm. (Check out www.nationalblackfarmersassociation.org, black womxn farmers, Nurturing Roots and www.blackurbangrowers.org!)
5- What else can I do to save pollinators?
• Slovenia is saving Bees-video!
• Amsterdam is bringing back Bees-video
• See Amazing Facts hand-out below!
• 9 actions to be a superhero for bees & humans.
Science and Math questions:
1) Which fruits and vegetables can you think of that need bees/pollinators in order to have fruit?
(Possible answers: cherries, grapes, watermelon, coconuts, nectarines, peaches, apples, kiwi, pears, limes, lemons, grapefruit, strawberries, currants, pomegranates, apricots, oranges, squash, pumpkin, tomatoes, eggplants, chilis, peas, cocoa, coffee beans, beans, cucumbers, peppers, avocado.) (Banana, mango, papaya-bats)
2) Which other plants need bees to help make seeds for next years' plants?
(Possible answers: Broccoli, carrots, leeks, kale, swiss chard, cabbage, beets, wheat)
3) There are nearly 1000 species of bats. Only 3 species feed on blood, mainly cattle blood. Approximately how many species do not drink blood?
4) 70% of bats eat insects, so what percentage do not eat bugs?!
5) Brown bats, the most common bat here in the Northwest, are in their mother's tummies for 2 months. Other bats stay in their mothers for 10 months before being born. What is the difference in their gestational period?
6) If boy bees—drones--are only 2% of the hive population, how many boys are in
one bumblebee hive of 600?
one honeybee hive of 50,073?
7) Bats usually only have one pup a year. The pup drinks it's mother's milk for about 6 months. How many months of the year does the mother not have a bat baby weaning?
Songs cover a range of education:
1) Ella Bella Bee & the Pollinators- We need pollinators for food to ripen and they need us to keep them healthy.
2) Leave Me Bee (video link)- Avoid being stung & what to do should you get stung!
3) Sister Bees - Bee sisters & their few drone brothers, children of the Queen bee their mother, their chores and lifecycle.
4) Apis Mellifera – Honey's anti-bacterial properties that are still being used in modern medicine. (Medi-honey applied at a regular doctor's office helped heal my Dad's wound!)
5) Little Bees - Bees survival is being threatened & some ways to help save them.
6) Tango Buzz (lyrics)- Bee dances & what they communicate.
7) Garden Fairy – Hummingbirds skills & how to attract them without hurting them.
8) Clean Flying Machine - How bats help cut down on insects & pollinate fruits.
9) Bat Habitat - Ways to help save bats.
10 ) I Need a Garden - Simple ways to grow food even in small areas, grass strips, or pots.
Writing ideas:
1) Alliteration is when you repeat a beginning consonant sound
in a sentence. It is a great way to start writing poems or lyrics.
Example:
A-"Who wins the most dancers when they perform,
waggled the best answer, n' leads the whole swarm!
B-"I got the buzzin' bee blues, it's a bitter battle I didn't choose."
C-"If food is far I figure-eight, round dance when near!"
Try starting with lots of alliteration for fun, like "Peter piper picked a pickled pepper!"
2) Lots of songs rhyme the last word of the sentence.
Come up with a new phrases to rhyme with these ones from the hummingbird's song:
"I zip round when I fly, like a helicopter hover"
The last words needs to rhyme with 'fly' and 'hover.'
Did you find useful learning tools here?
Let me know! This has been a long project that many times
I cannot see if anything is making a difference!
You can help support seed give-aways at Venmo: @janet-rayor
Email me at stiltsinger@gmail.com
Comment at: Facebook.com/pollencookie.
Super articles, webinars, & photos!
Amazing images of bee hives!
Article about bee-killing Asian Hornets. Good news that the hornet seems to be eradicated in Washington State. Great identification instructions and pics!
Interesting article on Bee Colony collapse and good research being done on alternative approach to control varroa mites that hurt bees.
Saving elephants from harm by angry farmers. . .bees to the rescue!
The Xerces Society hosts webinars for adults on pollinators:
https://www.xerces.org/events/webinars
Music integration:
1-Sing and play pollinator themed songs prior to show day.
You might include 'Be my little baby bumble bee,'
' Honeysuckle Rose,' 'Flight of the bumble bee.'
2-Listen to a recorded song from Ella-Bella.
Sing along with the chorus.
Ella-Bella Bee at March for Science
Show does not include stilting bee.
Follow & add comments at
Facebook.com/PollenCookie
Instagram: Rouge.music
Greater Seattle bee industries & educational programs
Let me know others!
Honey, mead (alcoholic drink), honey vinegar, kombucha, candles.
• JuliasGoodMedicine.com -yummy raw honey with herbal infusions & healing salves! Julia@JuliasGoodMedicine.com
• HierophantMeadery.com/(509) 294-0134/Univ. Farmers Market
• Wild Bird Unlimited- Mason bees, bat houses, hummingbird feeders, 15858 1st Ave S, Burien, WA 98148/ (206) 241-3201
• After-school and summer camp programs about gardening for 9-14 year olds in Seattle area: http://greenplatespecial.org.
• Summer camp programs Woodland Park Zoo
Ella-Bella Bee & the Pollinators is excellent for: elementary school assemblies, environmental shows, educational shows, family concerts,
family entertainment, science assemblies, science educational shows, festival family stages, museums, libraries, and zoos, especially in Seattle, Kirkland, Redmond, Bellevue, Edmonds, Everett, Washington state and Colorado.
45 minutes with optional Q&A.
Script and score will be available for small rental fee in 2025.
Some costumes and props can also be rented starting 2025.
Early videos in Bee show's development!
by Peter Shaw