We love the book Bug Hotel by Libby Walden and Clover Robin. My kids like the idea of bugs living together in a cozy hotel so much that we thought we’d try building our own.
For the “hotel”, I used a cardboard box with 2 bamboo utsenil box inserts from Dollarama. Then I placed a number of materials in the tray that the kids could put in the hotel for different insect habitats. The Bug Hotel book provides the perfect guidance for this activity. Our habitat materials were mostly gathered from around the house and outside. We used mini stumps, pine needles, sticks, pinecones, scrunched paper filler, seed heads, moss, egg carton, bamboo pieces, toilet paper rolls. I also cut some slits in pieces of cardboard to use for butterfly habitats. Everything was easy to collect, with the exception of the bamboo pieces. I bought the bamboo pole from Dollarama and had to use some muscle to cut it into 2-3 inch pieces with a saw.
Other Materials Used in the Activity:
- Bug Hotel by Libby Walden and Clover Robin – Amazon
- Bugs in the Garden Dirt Scented Sensory Bin in a Bag – Readymade Play Canada (code PLAY10) (note: I used 2 bags of dirt scented filler here)
- Felt ladybug, bees, butterfly & Safari Ltd. life cycle figures – Sewing Seeds Play (code HOUSEOFPLAY10)
- Artificial worms – Amazon
- Tuff Tray – Scholar’s Choice
- Small assembled Bug Hotel – Dollarama
*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
My kids really enjoyed this activity and used the book as a reference for creating various habitats for the different insects. There were a number of textures to explore as well as an exploration of containment as they tried to fill the open spaces with different materials. The small assembled Bug Hotel went outside immediately so that real bugs could move in as soon as possible.
