A bug hotel is part garden craft and part winter home for insects and bugs! Create one today with your kids with this fun and easy bug hotel craft for kids and help the bugs in your garden stay warm and safe! It is a great spring spring STEAM craft for kids of all ages!
What is a Bug Hotel?
What exactly is a bug hotel? A bug hotel is a human-made structure placed outdoors, usually in a garden or near where insects like to live. It is ideally made using natural material.
A bug hotel attracts insects and bugs, giving them with shelter and a cosy, safe place to stay.
Benefits of Bug Hotels?
Bug hotels are a great way to protect local bug and insect life as well as promote biodiversity right in your own garden! They are great during cold winter months when bug need shelter to protect them from the cold.
They are also a fantastic way to explore and talk about nature with kids!
How to Get Started?
Start by collecting some paper towel or toilet paper rolls. They make they best structure to house different natural materials needed to make the best bug hotel. You can also start by collecting dried grass clipping, twigs, moss, pinecones or pebbles. Get out below for other items to save and collect for your bug hotel.
Materials for Bug Hotel Craft for Kids
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- Toilet paper rolls
- Milk Carton
- Acrylic paint
- Large straws or rolled up piece of paper
- Moss
- Dried grass
- Pinecones
- Twigs
- Leaves
- Fishing net
- Stones
- Rolled paper
- Craft knife
- Black dot stickers
How to Make A Bug Hotel Craft for Kids
- Cut a large opening on one side of the milk carton using a craft knife.
- Paint the outside of the milk carton red. Set aside to dry.
- Decorate with black dot stickers so that it looks like a ladybug.
- Seal the paint with water proof sealer, especially if you want to keep your bug hotel outside in an area where it can get wet.
- Grab and insert 7-8 toilet paper rolls into the milk carton.
- Start by adding some dried grass or moss around the sides of the rolls and in the back of the milk carton.
- Then start to fill each tube. Fill one with moss, another with sticks, another with rolled up pieces of paper. another with more moss, another with pine cones and another with cut paper straws. Fill another with twigs. Fill another with pebbles.
- Fill in the sides of the milk carton with rocks, dried grass, sticks and pine cones or moss.
- Make a sign out of cardboard reading BUG HOTEL!
- Place it outside and watch ants, ladybugs, spiders and maybe bees move in!
Age Suitability
This activity is good for toddlers aged children 2 years old and up. My kids are 5, 5 and 8 years old.
Mess Level
The mess level for this activity is medium.
Difficulty to Create
Low.
Skills Developed
Language development, shape recognition, color recognition, hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, imaginative play, creativity.
Toddler and Preschooler Curriculums, Books & TV Show!
Play2Learn Toddler & Preschool Programs for Curious Toddlers
There is no limit to your toddler’s energy and curiosity. That energy and curiosity although a joy can be challenging at times. Their interest in just about everything around them is what makes them great learners. One and two year olds can soak up so much just from their senses!
But as a teacher or parent that thirst for learning can be exhausting. That is why I created this toddler and preschooler program. To help you get the most out of this time with your curious toddler without having to come up with creative ways to play and interact with them.
Play2Learn for Toddlers includes 20 Units for toddlers. Each 2-week toddler unit has 20 super easy to set up and engaging activities for toddlers 18 months to 3 years.
Play2Learn Preschool which includes 20 Units for preschoolers. Each 2-week preschoolers unit has 20 unique and easy to set up and engaging activities for preschoolers 3 years to 5 years. That’s over 800 learning activities for your toddler and preschooler at your fingertips! So many ideas you and your child will never be bored again!
These toddler and preschool lesson plans and activities will definitely keep you and your toddler and preschooler busy playing and learning!
Click here for more information: Play2Learn
Designed for toddlers 18 months and up.
Book: Exciting Sensory Bins for Curious Kids
Did you know I wrote a book of sensory bins? Click here for more information Exciting Sensory Bin for Curious Kids. Or grab your copy at Amazon.
Boring afternoons are made exciting with awesome animal-based bins, like Salty Shark Bay or Yarn Farm. Pretend play bins like Birthday Cake Sensory Play or Bubble Tea Party encourage creativity and imagination. And your kids will have so much fun they won’t even know they’re getting smarter with STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) activities like Sink or Float Soup, Magnetic Letter Hunt or Ice Cream Scoop and Count.
Designed for toddlers 18 months and up.
Book: Super STEAM Activity Book for Kids
Learning all about science, technology, engineering, art, and math sets kids up for scholastic success―and it can be so much fun! Watch kids enjoy building STEAM skills as they color friendly fish, help water find its way to tree roots, solve math problems with mazes, and more.
Find out more and grab your copy here.
Designed for preschoolers 3 years old and up.
Book: Big Book of Riddles for Kids
Riddle me this: What’s an exciting way to practice critical thinking while having a blast? The Big Riddle Book for Kids, of course! From hilarious puns to tough brain teasers, kids can build problem-solving skills with hundreds of riddles that show them how to think outside the box.
- 350 riddles for kids—Have hours of fun with riddles, puns and jokes, and math and logic puzzles that’ll get their wheels turning!
- Level up their skills—Riddles get trickier as kids progress through the book, challenging them as they get better at solving puzzles!
- Double-check their work—Kids can check their answers in the back of the book with a handy answer key.
Help children expand their minds while having fun with this puzzle book for kids!
Designed for kids ages 6 years old and up.
TV Show: Curious Crafting
I’m so excited to finally share my new crafting TV show Curious Crafting which launched July 1 at on TVOkids and TVOkids YouTube!
Set in the ultimate crafting space, Curious Crafting is a short form pre-school age series about the joy of making crafts. I lead a rotating cast of adorable little preschoolers (including my own) making magic out of common household objects.
In each episode we transform recycled items into magical crafts like a milk carton school bus, paper bag puppet or cotton pad turtle. The crafters learn and laugh their way through each activity while demonstrating what their young imaginations can create.
Curious Crafting shares the adventure and joy of making art with takeaway lessons for creating crafts at home.
This show designed for toddlers and preschoolers 2.5 years old and up.
WILL YOU TRY MAKING THIS BUG HOTEL CRAFT FOR KIDS? PIN IT FOR LATER.
