This bee hive project requires a lot of attention to detail. You can adapt this project for younger students by taking away some of the shading steps. The bee is also quite complicated so you are welcome to use any directed drawing instead of the one recommended. In addition, you can opt for easier to use materials like crayons instead of oil pastels or only do one colour per comb section instead of multiple with shading.

*I had two students who wanted to make the bees for my sample so we put them both on this reference image. Typically, each student would only do one bee (as pictured below) unless you were doing simpler bees.

Time required: 2+ sessions (1-2 for the background, 1 for the bee)

Materials (background)

White paper or card stock
Pencil
Hexagon pattern block (or tracer)
Oil pastels (Brown, orange, yellow) *alternatively use crayons or markers

Materials (bee)

White paper
Pencil
Sharpie
Pencil crayons (or markers)
Glue stick
Scissors

Steps (background)

Using a hexagon shape from the pattern blocks is an easy way to make your design. I recommend starting on an edge and working your way along so that the first block is straight.
Trace the block with pencil and continue until the whole sheet is covered.
Alternatively, just use a part of the paper and start your tracing in the middle, moving outwards from there.
Once the full sheet has been covered, trace the pencil lines with a brown pastel.
Go around with orange inside each comb.
My oil pastels have a darker and lighter yellow so we used both. If you only have one yellow, you can go brown-orange-yellow.
You can use a cotton bud to help blend the colours a bit more if you wish.