My daughterās preschool class has been very interested in bugs so far this year. The school does a great job of following the organic interests of the kids and structuring supportive, creative learning experiences based on those interests.
I thought about suggesting a bug hotel project, and have been doing some research on it. It seems the main down side is the potential for mites and parasite populations getting too concentrated? If I recommended they plan to disassemble the hotel next year in the summer since properly cleaning them isnāt necessarily practical, would this be a good activity?
They have a large campus (itās a private K-8 school) with a wooded area. Other than the wooded area, they definitely donāt āleave the leaves,ā and I donāt think thereās a good chance of me convincing them to. So while I understand the best way is to simply let nature do its thing, I thought this could be a fun and educational project for the kids who are already showing a lot of interest in insects.
Also, should I propose it be installed somewhere outside their main outdoor play area? The idea being they could still take class walks to check it out with teacher supervision, but it wouldnāt be inviting curious hands to disassemble it every day.
Any advice appreciated! Especially if it includes suggestions for preschool age books that could accompany this extended lesson.
Pic is not my own, using it to satisfy the algorithm tax