The Worm Hotel

About this printable

Where do our banana peels go?

After dinner, June scrapes the peels into the trash and asks Nana where it all goes. "To the landfill," says Nana. So the next morning Nana carries in a wooden box full of tiny holes. It's a hotel. For worms.

Together they make beds from torn newspaper, welcome hundreds of red wiggler guests, bring room service, make a few smelly mistakes (too much food!) and, weeks later, discover the "black gold" that makes their tomatoes the tallest in the garden.

It's a gentle, read-aloud picture book about composting with worms. Kids learn that nothing in nature is wasted, then get activity pages to build a real worm bin of their own.

Book 2 of the little food forest series

June, Nana and Dot the ladybug are back. It reads perfectly on its own, and pairs with June and the Little Food Forest.

Made to be read again and again

• Find Dot! A little ladybug with a white heart hides on every story page, with an answer page at the back
• Nana's Notes: a true, kid-sized science fact on every story page (worms breathe through their skin, red wigglers can eat about half their body weight a day, worm eggs come in tiny lemon-shaped cocoons)

THE STORY (14 pages)

• Fully illustrated, cut-paper style art on every page, including a glowing nighttime look inside the worm bin
• One big idea per spread: food scraps are a resource, living soil, small steady care, tiny ecosystems, closing the loop, sharing what you know
• Reads aloud in about 10 minutes, so it's perfect for bedtime, circle time or a science morning

7 grow-along activities + certificate

• Build your own worm hotel: 6 illustrated steps with a plastic tub
• What's on the worm menu? Circle or cross out 12 foods (answer key included)
• Label a worm: head, saddle, segments and tail
• My worm hotel diary: 6 weeks of feeding and observations
• The great food loop: color, cut and arrange
• Decomposer detectives: match 5 helpers to their jobs
• Meet my worm guests: name and draw your worms

+ An "Official Worm Hotel Manager" certificate

For grown-ups

• A one-page guide to the big ideas: what each page teaches and a question to ask
• A family troubleshooting page: bad smells, tiny flies, escaping worms, dry or cold bins, moldy food
• Simple safety notes for little hands

What you get

• 29-page PDF in two sizes: US Letter (11 × 8.5 in) and A4, both landscape
• Print at home in color; activity pages also print well in black and white
• Print the diary and menu sort again for every new bin

This is a digital download. Nothing will be shipped. Download from Purchases and Reviews on etsy.com in a web browser (the Etsy app can't download files). Worms and bin not included.

Good to know

• Ages 4–8; younger kids love the pictures, and older kids can read it themselves
• Personal-use license: print as many copies as your household needs. Teachers: please buy one copy per classroom. Please don't resell or share the files.