Heavy at the Bottom

Original lesson metadata

code: EMP-BHTL-L1-T1-WK4
curriculum_id: a_bug_hotel
curriculum_name: A Bug Hotel
level_id: L1
level_name: All Ages
age_line: around 2 to around 6
term: 1
week: 4
title: Heavy at the Bottom
blocks_this_week: 2
minutes_per_block: 25
weekly_minutes: 50
blocks: [{n: 1, title: Stones With Gaps, minutes: 25}, {n: 2, title: One Direction, Then Flat, minutes: 25}]
domains: [M, PD, UW]
objectives: [{domain: M, text: Leaves a gap between two stones wide enough for two of her own fingers}, {domain: PD, text: Carries one stone at a time with two hands, held low, walking}, {domain: UW, text: Lays every stick pointing the same way as the one before it}]
materials: [the stones pile, the sticks pile, the bark pile, four thin sticks kept aside as spacers]
space: the frame in the marked corner, with the three piles set down two steps away from it
differentiation: {younger: carries stones from the pile to an adult kneeling at the frame and hands them over, older: checks a finished gap with two fingers and says whether it is wide enough}
watching_for: whether a child fills a gap she has just made because a gap looks like a mistake
resources: []
version: 1.0
date: 2026-09-04
access: free

A BUG HOTEL · OUTDOOR LEARNING

ALL AGES · around 2 to around 6 · TERM 1, WEEK 4 · 2 × 25


DOMAINS: M, PD, UW
CODE: EMP-BHTL-L1-T1-WK4
DAY & DATE:

Objectives

M Leaves a gap between two stones wide enough for two of her own fingers.
PD Carries one stone at a time with two hands, held low, walking.
UW Lays every stick pointing the same way as the one before it.

Before you build

You will be tempted to build this one yourself. It will be quicker, it will look better, and it will be the wrong hotel. Kneel at the frame and put the pieces in with your hands only when a child hands them to you, and let it look worse than the one in your head.

The gaps are the hotel. Everything else is scaffolding for the gaps. A child who has spent three weeks tidying and sorting will close a gap the moment she sees one, because a gap reads as unfinished, and she will do it kindly and carefully and without being asked. That is the thing that goes wrong this week and it goes wrong in about the fourth stone.

So give the gap a size. Two fingers, her own, pushed into the space between two stones. A measure she carries on her hand is worth more than any amount of explaining, and it works for the two year olds and for the children who share no language with you.

Stones are the only genuinely heavy thing in this curriculum. Keep the pile two steps from the frame, never further, so that nobody is carrying a stone across open ground with children moving around her, and stand between the pile and the frame yourself for the whole of block one.

Sticks are easier and faster and the children will race. The instruction is not tidy, it is directional: every stick points the same way. Lay the first three yourself, slowly, so there is a pattern on the ground to copy rather than a rule to remember. The oldest children will spot within a minute that the tunnels only work if the sticks agree.

The bark stack will collapse once. It collapses because somebody has stacked four pieces with no spacer between them and the pile leans. Keep four thin sticks in your pocket as spacers and hand one over after every second piece of bark, without comment.

How we work at the hotel

One adult stays with the group for the whole session. Sticks, bark and stones are carried with two hands, held low, one piece at a time, walking.
Hands are washed with soap after every session at the hotel, every time, whether a child handled materials or only watched.
Nothing living is ever touched, moved, picked up or poked, with a finger or with a stick. We look, and we leave it exactly where it is.
If anything appears that is not on a layer card, everyone stops, moves back one full step and touches nothing. The adult deals with it alone and the group carries on somewhere else.
The hotel is never taken apart to see inside. We look into the gaps that are already there.
Every piece used is bigger than a child's fist or longer than a child's hand. Anything smaller goes back on the ground.
Sticks with a broken point and bark with a split edge go back on the ground. We use the blunt pieces.
A child who does not want to touch anything stands with the group and looks. She is not asked a second time and she is not moved to the edge.

At the hotel

Stones With Gaps · 25 minutes

AIM: Stack the stones into the lowest quarter of the frame with a gap you can put two fingers into.

Stones are heavy and feet are underneath them, so the adult stands between the pile and the frame for this block and nobody carries a stone past another child. One at a time, two hands, held low, walking. Say it once at the start and then just hold the line by standing in it.

Stones are the pieces most likely to have had something living under them. Say your own version of the rule as the pile goes down: if there is anything under a stone that is not on a card, put the stone down where it is, hands away, step back, and let me come to you.

Kneel at the open side of the frame. Take each stone as it arrives and place it, then take the child's hand and push her two fingers into the gap beside it before she goes back for another. That is the whole teaching move and it takes four seconds a child.

Fill only the bottom quarter. Stop while there are still stones in the pile and say plainly that the rest are for mending later. Card 2 is the one to quote here: stacked with visible gaps left between them, not wedged tight.

SAY: "Two hands. Down low. Walk. Put it there, and leave a space next to it."

One Direction, Then Flat · 25 minutes

AIM: Lay the sticks all pointing one way, then stack the bark flat with a spacer between every second piece.

Lay the first three sticks yourself while everyone watches, all pointing straight out of the open side, and do not explain them. Then hand the fourth stick to a child and wait. Somebody in the group will say it before you do.

Work along the row rather than in a heap. When a stick goes in crossways, do not take it out. Say which way the others are pointing and let the child who put it in turn it round herself.

Bark last, on top of the sticks, flat pieces stacked one on another. Hand over a thin spacer stick after every second piece without saying anything about it. Finish by kneeling at the open side with the group behind you and looking straight into the tunnels together, and count out loud how many you can see daylight through.

SAY: "All the sticks point this way. Look at mine. Now yours, next to it, same way."

If you have more time

Take one bark piece off the top, put it back with a spacer under it, and look at the difference in the gap, six minutes.
Count the stones that are left in the pile and put them somewhere dry for week 9.

One thing for home

We put the heavy things in the bottom today and left gaps on purpose. Ask your child why we did not fill the spaces in. If you are asked why this is worth doing: the gaps are what the whole thing is for, and leaving a space empty on purpose is harder than it sounds.

How you know it is working

A child pushes two fingers into a gap without being prompted. Somebody turns a stick round to match the others rather than leaving it crossways. One of them tells you the stones are for the bottom because they are heavy.

Notes: