The First Check

Original lesson metadata

code: EMP-BHTL-L1-T1-WK6
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: 6
title: The First Check
blocks_this_week: 2
minutes_per_block: 25
weekly_minutes: 50
blocks: [{n: 1, title: A Step Back, minutes: 25}, {n: 2, title: Hands Behind Your Back, minutes: 25}]
domains: [PSED, UW, M]
objectives: [{domain: PSED, text: Keeps both hands behind her back for the whole time she is at the open side}, {domain: UW, text: Looks into each layer in turn from the bottom upwards and names the one she is looking at}, {domain: M, text: Says whether the hotel is the same shape as it was last week}]
materials: [none]
space: the finished hotel, with room for the whole group to stand one full step back from it
differentiation: {younger: kneels beside an adult and points at the layer being named, older: names three layers in order from the bottom without help}
watching_for: whether a child can look into a gap without a hand travelling towards it
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 6 · 2 × 25


DOMAINS: PSED, UW, M
CODE: EMP-BHTL-L1-T1-WK6
DAY & DATE:

Objectives

PSED Keeps both hands behind her back for the whole time she is at the open side.
UW Looks into each layer in turn from the bottom upwards and names the one she is looking at.
M Says whether the hotel is the same shape as it was last week.

Before you build

You are going to look into a hotel with nothing living in it. That is week 6 in most classes, in most countries, in most seasons, and it is not a sign that anything has gone wrong. Read that sentence again before you go out, because the temptation to fix the emptiness is going to arrive at about minute nine and it will arrive dressed as kindness.

Do not fix it. Do not bring something and put it in. Do not say you saw something earlier. Do not say they will come soon, because you do not know that. What you say is that we looked properly and today there was nothing, and we will look again next week, and you say it in the same voice you would use if there had been something.

The check has three steps and it never changes: stand back and look at the whole shape, kneel and look into every layer from the bottom up, then say one thing out loud. Teach it as a sequence in that order from today and use exactly the same order for the next four weeks. The routine is what makes an empty hotel bearable, because there is something to do that succeeds whether or not anything is in there.

Hands behind the back is the hardest instruction in this curriculum. A child looking into a hole will reach into it, always, and reaching is not naughtiness, it is how a four year old finds out about a hole. Give the hands a job instead of a prohibition. Behind the back, one hand holding the other wrist, and check the wrist rather than reminding about the hole.

Three children will ask where the bugs are within the first two minutes. Answer the first one properly, in front of everybody, and then answer the second and third by pointing at the layer they are standing in front of and asking what they can see in it.

Somebody will have been at the hotel between last week and this one. There will be a tube out, or a stick pulled halfway, or a stone moved. Note it and leave it. Week 9 is for mending and doing it today teaches that looking and touching are the same activity, which is the opposite of the point.

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

A Step Back · 25 minutes

AIM: Look at the whole hotel from one step back and say whether the shape has changed.

Bring the group out and stop them a full step short of the hotel, in a line facing it. Nobody kneels yet. Give them a long silent look at the whole thing before you ask anything, and count to ten in your head before you speak.

Ask one question: is it the same shape as we left it. Take every answer, including the wrong ones, and do not correct anybody. Then walk the line yourself and point at each layer in turn, bottom to top, naming it as you go, with the group repeating the name back.

Before you close the block, tell them in your own words what happens if something turns up that is not on a card: everybody stops, everybody steps back, nobody touches, and you deal with it on your own. Say it plainly, the way you would say where the toilets are.

SAY: "Stand back. Look at the whole thing. Is it the same shape as we left it?"

Hands Behind Your Back · 25 minutes

AIM: Kneel at the open side, look into every layer from the bottom up, and say one thing out loud.

Four children at the open side at a time, kneeling, hands behind backs, one hand holding the other wrist. Start at the stones and work up. Give each layer about twenty seconds of actual looking, which will feel far too long to you and is roughly right for them.

Then each child says one thing. One thing only, and it can be anything: the grass has gone flat, that tube is wet, I cannot see the back, there is nothing in the leaves. Take every one of them without ranking them. Nothing in the leaves is a good answer and should be received as one.

Swap the four out and bring the next four in. When the last group has been, stand everyone back a step, say plainly what was found today, and say when we are coming again. If nothing was found, say that in the same voice.

SAY: "Down on your knees. Start at the bottom. Tell me one thing you can see."

If you have more time

Run the three steps again with a different four children starting, eight minutes, and see whether the second look finds more than the first.
Stand at the door and look at the hotel from there, then walk in and look again, and talk about what you can see from each place.

One thing for home

We checked the hotel for the first time today without touching it. Ask your child what she saw, and take nothing as an answer. If you are asked why this is worth doing: looking carefully at something that has not changed is much harder than looking at something that has.

How you know it is working

A child puts her own hands behind her back before she kneels. Somebody says there is nothing in a layer as a piece of information rather than as a complaint.

Notes: