After seeing a minibeast hotel in the woods I used to do forest school sessions with nursery children I have always wanted to build one with the children.
We had a special science day throughout school and our focus was “minibeasts” so it was perfect timing.
Our caretaker keeps the wood pallets fruit and paper are delivered on for us, we put them in the outside building area, knowing they would be eventually replaced we decided we could use then for our hotel and stacked thusly:
We then collected a variety of materials a minibeast may enjoy:
Hollow sticks
Wood and straw
Bamboo
Bricks and pipes
And of course a boot and a brush head!
We also had some wool and other odds and ends (sheeps wool!) 89 children (3 reception classes) took it it in turns to fill each level all the while discussing why certain minibeasts will like what and where. It really had helped the children emphathise with these little creatures.
We then went on a minibeast hunt, of course we reminded the children we would usually put them back where we found them, but this time we put all the wee beasties in our hotel!
This is not a new idea I know but the children have loved it so thought I’d share! Still requires some more materials to full properly, another teacher pointed out rotten apples etc would be good shoved right in the middle.
Will follow up with a picture when it’s not covered in snow!
catchthemsomehow 
I love this 🙂 please put pictures up of the completed hotel. We tried it once but ours didn’t look as good as yours! Maybe we used the wrong stuff 🙂
Will do, ours is by no means finished, shall be an ongoing project!