1-2-3 Come Do Some More Spider Activities With Me

With all of the spooky goings on in October, I thought it would be a fitting time to study spiders; using that as a theme to practice a variety of standards. 

With that in mind, I designed a "Speaking Of Spiders" packet, which provides a nice assortment of non-fiction spider activities and includes writing prompts, a mini-report, worksheets, a graph, plus a “flip the flap” craftivity.

I’ve included several pages of non-creepy spider facts.

Choose which ones are the most appropriate for your age group, then share them with your students.

Afterwards test their comprehension by asking them to complete a few fill-in-the-blank statements, or make up some “true or false” questions to answer orally, by simply referring to these fact pages.

Students also use this information to complete a variety of worksheets, some of which relate to knowing the difference between a fact and opinion. 

I’ve included black and white templates for students, as well as full color patterns, so that you can do some of these activities as a whole group, especially with younger children. 

The spiders "Can-Are-Have" flip the flap craftivity, is also an interesting way to check comprehension.

I've also included a one-page, graphic organizer that acts like a mini spider report.

There's a KWL worksheet to introduce and end your spider lesson with, which can be done individually or as a whole group.

I've also included a fun writing prompt about tarantulas as pets, with a real photograph to grab attention, plus a spider webbed paper to write on. 

Many of the completed worksheets make a nice spider-themed bulletin board.

I also use a spider to practice 2D shapes. My Y5s have really enjoyed making "Inky" the 2D shape "spider slider". (He's very busy eating them.) 

I’ve included templates if you want to pre-cut the circles, as well as patterns you can run off to have students trim their own.

There are also eye patterns with and without pupils, so students can add wiggle eyes with glue dots for that extra bit of 3D pizzazz, or they can draw their own.

To reinforce the fact that a spider is an arachnid and not an insect, we count the 8 legs and I remind students that insects have 6.

Accordion-folding the "legs" is not only fun for your students, but a great fine motor activity that will help strengthen their finger and hand muscles. I think it also adds that “finishing touch”

Choose the 2D shapes you want to review and print those sliders off. Children color, cut & glue the strips together.

The 2D shape options are the basic 5: circle, oval, triangle, square & rectangle, as well as options for a hexagon, pentagon, octagon, star, heart, trapezoid and rhombus.

There are sliders with the blank shapes, as well as patterns with a fly on each shape. My students like to pretend that the spider is slurping up the flies as we identify the various shapes.

The spider sliders also provide a quick, easy and fun way to whole group assess.

Finally, my students practice math skills, with this quick, easy and fun spiderweb game. 

PK children pick a partner, then take turns rolling ONE dice. Whatever number they roll, is how many web "sections" they color in. 

Older students practice their addition skills, by rolling a pair of dice, writing and solving the equation on the worksheet, then coloring that many sections of their web. 

For an additional math extension, students "guess-timate" how many sections are in the web, then record their answer along with how they figured that out on the worksheet provided.

Completed projects make a nice bulletin board, as each web is colorfully different.

I've included a "We're Caught in the Web Of Learning!" poster for the center of your display. 

Today's featured FREEBIE is a "Spin a Spider" 2D Shape Game.  Students take turns spinning.  Whatever shape they land on, they color or bingo dot the matching shaped spider on their web. 

 I've included a "match the spider shape to the shape word worksheet", which they can also complete using the spinner.  

A set of shapely spiders and their shape words are included in this packet, which you can use to make an Itty Bitty "trace & write" Spider Shape Booklet.

That's it for today.  Thanks for stopping by. Time to put on my "Nana hat" as my grandchildren are coming over this afternoon.

Wishing you a love-filled and snuggly day. 

"Grandchildren fill a place in your heart that you didn't even know was empty." -Unknown

1-2-3 Come Do Some Spider Craftivities With Me

My Y5's LOVED the story The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle.   I especially liked it for sequencing practice.  The Very Busy Spider is also an easy story to review beginning, middle and end concepts.

To introduce the story, and grab your students' attention, do the Spider Cuts  scissor activity.  While your little ones watch, inform them that you are "busy" and ask them what they think you are making.

I got the spider idea over at Green Baby Guide.  She didn't have a pattern, so I thought I'd make one.    Add some wiggle eyes for pizzazz.  Click on the link to view/download Spider Cuts.

The Very Busy Spider is super to sequence! My little ones always enjoyed sequencing stories,  because I'd pass out picture cards or manipulatives to them. 

Prior to passing out "stuff" to quiet children, I'd explain that if they played with it and didn't listen to the story, they would get the card or item taken away; this really kept them from fooling around with any story props that I handed out.

When I came to a picture in the story that was on a card, I'd pause, the child with the matching card would come up and place it in the pocket chart or on the white board. 

So that everyone could have a turn with the cards, as well as provide another opportunity to review the story, I'd pass the cards out again, and we'd try to put them in order without the help of the book.  You can make extra sets so that children can transition and play Memory Mathching games.

Click on the link to view/download The Very Busy Spider Sequencing cards.  Included in this packet is a mini sequencing sheet that students can do as a center, or run off copies for all of your students to cut, glue and sequence. 

I enjoy looking for interesting videos on YouTube that match an activity.  There's almost always a professional reader out there who's made a nice Power Point of a story. 

There were quite a few for The Very Busy Spider.  One that I think was rather well-done, is read by an English gal.  The moving graphics of the spider and buzzing fly are sweet.  Click on the link to check it out. 

As another fun way to review the story, have your kiddo's watch it and do the mini sequencing activity at the same time.  Afterwards, as a transition activity, students can choose a partner and play the Spin To Win Busy Spider game. This is also included in the packet.

As part of our review, I'd use pocket cards that said: characters, setting, and events on them. 

After reading the story, we'd discuss each one as it pertained to the book.  I've included a set for The Very Busy Spider.

Understanding the concept of beginning-middle-and end of stories enables a child to better retell it.  Knowing this organization, will also improve writing.

Because of this, I always followed up story telling, by asking children what happened in the beginning, the middle and at the end of the story.  After you review this orally, have your students write their thoughts on The Very Busy Spider (beginning-middle-end) graphic organizer.  All of these items are in  The Very Busy Spider Story Packet. Click on the link to view/download it.

To nail even more Common Core State Standards-- print, laminate and trim The Very Busy Spider Grammar Cards.  Put them in a pocket chart or on your whiteboard and read the sentences together as a whole group. 

For added fun make a spider pointer or web wand, with the spider & web patterns; glue them to a Popsicle stick and have children use them to point to the words as you read the pocket cards. 

Using a red dry erase marker, have a child come up and circle any letters that should be capitalized.  Another student  can add the end punctuation.

Review parts of speech by having children circle nouns, underline verbs and put a square around adjectives. 

You can also practice vowel identification.  Have a student come up and circle the vowels with a green marker.  I have set up the content of the cards, so they also provide a nice discussion and review of the story.

Click on the link to view/download The Very Busy Spider Grammar Cards.

To put their grammar skills into practice, have students write a page for your class book: The Very Busy Students and Their Spiders. Click on the link to view/print a copy.

Finally, it's always fun to throw in an art activity if you have time.  I set the "glittering web" craftivity up as a center, where 3 children come up and do the project with me. While they are working, I have each one tell me a spider fact that they learned, or ask them what their favorite part of the story was.

This photo does not do the artwork justice, as it's truly lovely; it doesn't capture the sparkling and glittery effects. 

Since you might not be able to find a colorful little stationery web that my kiddo's attached to their webs, you can either skip this step, or print off the Very Busy Spider one that I made.  I've included my little poem on it.

To make a busy spider glitter web, pre-cut black circles to fit inside a metal cake pan.  Each child holds one.  I squirt a dollop of white paint that has been mixed with Elmer's glue, in the middle of the circle; children place a large marble on top of the "paint-puddle."

The object of this project is to make an orb spider web by having the marble roll back and forth + up and down through the paint.  As it does so, it "spins" a web.  When students are pleased with their web, and while the paint is still wet, children sprinkle opalescent or silver glitter on their creation. 

I squirt a blob of Elmer's glue wherever they want me to, and they plop a black plastic spider or fly on it.  They write their name on the little spider web Halloween tag and glue it to a corner.  

These look smashing on a bulletin board, wall, or hung back-to-back from the ceiling.  Your caption can be: "Our students and spiders have been very busy!"  Click on the link to view/print the Glittering Web craft.

Thanks for visiting today.  Sorry this article got a bit long.  I have so much to share, so I hope you can pop back tomorrow for more FREEBIES.  Feel free to PIN away.  

"Most people see what is, and never see what can be." -Albert Einstein

1-2-3 Come Do Some More Spider Stuff With Me!

The spider shape activities are popular downloads, so I decided to do a few more spider-themed things.  All of these lessons will help your kiddo's practice upper and lowercase letters.  (To see the spider shape activities, scroll down for that blog article.)

Since the apple and pumpin clothespin "craftivities" were also very popular, I thought it would be fun to design a spider one too.  I named him Alphie.  Use my patterns to make templates; and then trace, cut and glue your spider together.  I added wiggle eyes and black pipe cleaner legs for that extra pizzazz. 

So that students can self-check, I've included a spider ABC chart.  For more letter practice, I designed a match the uppercase letter to the lowercase letter worksheet as well.

Alphie makes a wonderful independent center, or something for early-finishers to do.   You may want to make a few extra spiders to send home with children who are struggling.  I've included a note home, + a reminder note incase a family "forgets" to send Alphie back.  Click on the link to view/download the spider alphabet matching game.

I had a request for some spider alphabet cards.  If you collect ABC cards so you can change them each month, I have lots of themes available, and am always open to any requests visitors have for others. (diane@teachwithme.com). 

I've also included a BLANK color, as well as a black and white set of cards, for you to program with whatever + a 3-page tip sheet of ideas for games and other activities that you can do with the cards.   Click on the link to view/download the spider alphabet cards.

Because assessing can be overwhelming for little ones, I like to dream up fun ways I can do that.  Assessing is time consuming too, so I did a lot of whole-group assessment to weed out the strugglers.  

Playing "I Spy" is a fun game that enables you to see at a glance who is having difficulty.  I designed a spider upper and lowercase letter bookmark that's perfect for an "I Spy" game. 

Run off the spider bookmarks and give each child a spider ring or piece of candy corn to use as a manipulative.  Whenever I'm using candy as a marker, I always allow students to eat one at the beginning of the activity. 

It saves a lot of time reminding students that they cannot eat the candy 'til the game is done, and helps them enjoy the game and stay focussed better. 

The teacher starts by calling out a letter, children move their marker to that letter and raise their hand to signal that they have "spied" it.  The teacher then calls on a child to choose the next letter.  Play continues 'til all of the letters are called.  If you don't want to reuse the bookmarks each year, students can also circle the letters and then take their bookmarks home.  

If you are doing an individual assessment, circle the letters the student does not know, write a note on the back asking parents to work on those letters and send it home with the child.  There are also 6 alphabet worksheets for even more practice.  Click on the link to view/download the spider alphabet activities.

Finally, if you're looking for a bit more, you may enjoy an older Spider packet that has a few alphabet activities in it, as well as lots of math fun.  My kiddos especially enjoyed working with the paper flies and spider web sorting mats. 

If you want to see all of the other spider freebies I offer, click on the link.

Thanks for visiting today.  I hope you found something you can use for your spider studies.  I'm off to check the basement after a ton of rain.  Hopefully there are no disasterous puddles down there, or spiders for that matter. :-)

"Children don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care." -Unknown

1-2-3 Come Do Some Spider Stuff With Me!

Even though I am absolutely creeped out by spiders, I LOVED teaching our spider unit to my Y5's.  These spiders were cute and not creepy. The reason I hate real ones, is a huge pine spider dropped from the ceiling onto my shoulder, when I was lying on a cot at our cottage.  I was only 5, but I still remember it. Yikes!

Anything I design with shapes seems to be downloaded quite often, so I decided to whip together some 2D flat shape activities, featuring some sweet spiders. 

These lessons are quite versatile.  Use them for independent math centers, table top lessons, a Daily 5 option, review, game, or even a whole-group assessment!

Inky is a quick and easy "craftivity."  Students trace, cut and glue their spider slider together.  Add some wiggle eyes for extra pizzazz and have students trace and color the shapes.  Cut slits and insert the shape slider. 

Teacher calls out a shape and children slide their strip up and down 'til they locate Inky's "tongue."  If you want to whole-group assess, have students show you their answer. 

Click on the link to view/download the spider slider shape craftivity.

Peek-A-Eek is another "craftivity" that you can simply make for yourself and share as a read-aloud to review the basic 2D-flat shapes.  

I used a file folder to make my easy-reader sturdier. 

If you want your kiddo's to have their own, simply trim some folders and have them glue the cover (circle web page) to the front, and the hexagon web page to the inside. 

Make a fluffy spider, by gluing a black pom pom to the center of the hexagon shape.  This is the last page.  

Trim and assemble the rest of the pages.  Cut the "web window" shapes out so that the spider will peek through all of the pages.  Click on the link to view/download Peek-A-Eek the spider shape booklet.

Spin A Spider is also quick and easy.  Your little ones will enjoy taking turns spinning.  Whatever shape they spin, they color or bingo dot the matching  spider on their web. 

I've included spider cards with the shapes as well as the shape words on them.  Laminate and trim into puzzles. 

Besides putting together a puzzle, use the cards for a Memory Match, or "I Have; Who Has?" game.  There's also a "Match the spider shape to the shape word" activity.  Students can use the spinner to fill in this worksheet as well.   Click on the link to view/download the Spin A Spider game packet.

Finally, I made a Spider Shape game, that matches the other themed ones that have been so popular. 

Run off the shape tiles on a variety of colors of construction paper; laminate and trim.  Students place the tile onto the matching spider card. Click on the above link to view/download. 

Thanks for visiting today.  I design and try to blog daily, so I hope you can pop  by tomorrow to grab a few more FREEBIES. If there's something you need, drop me an e-mail with your request and I'll see what I can do: diane@teachwithme.com

  "To LOVE what you do and feel that it matters-what could be more fun?" -Katherine Graham.  (I am so blessed to be doing what I so enjoy! I hope my endeavors make your life a little easier and teaching even more fun. )