Along came a spider...

This was one of the participants in today's Messy Fingers class. We looked at some real live spiders and discovered many cool things. We learned about the body parts of a spider - Abdomen, Cephalothorax (head), 8 legs, 2 Pedipalps, and 8 eyes.

We also made our own webs. This was really hard. Each child got a paper plate with 8 holes punched along the outer edge and a piece of yarn. We taped one end to the back of the plate and then wove our structural strands to form a star. Then we took another piece of yarn, tied it to the star and wove. Keeping your web together was tricky.

To check to see if we remembered our anatomy, we made thumb print spiders with our thumb as the abdomen, a finger print cephalothorax, 8 legs, and 8 eyes.

If you are in the area, check out our web in the craft room!

Science Words: first, second, more, less, weave, predator, prey, spider, insect

What do spiders eat? Not all spiders spin webs. Some are hunters like tarantulas. Go on a bug hunt and pretend to be a hunting spider. Search your back yard for yummy insects to eat! Who can find the most? Who can find the biggest bug?

Webs: Make some fun spider webs using glitter glue and construction paper. You can draw or trace a web onto black or dark colored paper with chalk or a white pen. Then trace over it with glitter glue. Wait for the moisture in the glue to evaporate and you have a sparkly web. You can add a plastic spider before the glue dries.

Go on a Web hunt: Search your yard for spider webs. If you mist a web softly with water from a spray bottle, a web will pop into view. Try –ever so gently- tickling the web with a piece of grass. A spider might come out to see what they’ve “caught” in their web.

Song:
Itsy Bitsy Spider

Books:
Itsy Bitsy Spider by Iza Trapani
The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle
Charlotte’s Web by E B White – this is great read aloud

Snacks:
Marshmallow Spiders For each spider, use one large marshmallow for the body and one small marshmallow for the head (attach with 1/2 a toothpick). Make eyes from mini M&Ms, legs from pretzel sticks. Cover with chocolate sauce, if desired.
This came from a great website with other fun snack ideas: http://www.kinderkorner.com/spiders.html