Spiders

Here are a few highlights of our spider activities this week.

I purchased Deanna Jump's Spider Math and Literacy Activities and we did her Spider Glyph:

We did a couple of science experiments to find out how spiders eat their prey and why spiders don't stick to their webs even though insects do.

I gave each child a paper plate with these items:

1 eye dropper

1 sugar cube

1 dixie cup of water

1 dixie cup with a small amount of cooking oil (enough for them to wet the tips of their fingers)

1 piece of tape with the sticky side up

Experiment 1 (How spiders eat their prey):  The water represents spider venom and the sugar cube represents the insect.  Students use the eyedropper to put water on the sugar cube and observe what happens to the sugar. 

Experiment 2 (Why spiders don't stick to their webs):  Students walk their fingers over the tape and their fingers will stick.  Explain that this is what happens when an insect walks on a spider web.  Then have the students dip their fingers in cooking oil and walk their fingers over the tape again.  Explain that this is what happens when a spider walks over his own spider web because they have oil on their bodies that keeps them from sticking.

We also made peanut butter wolf spiders:

Peanut Butter Dough Recipe:

Mix together 1 cup of creamy peanut butter and 1/4 cup of honey.

Add 1 cup of instant non-fat dry milk.

Mix together until the consistency of play dough.

I doubled the above recipe for a class of 18.

Instructions:  Roll one small ball for the head.  Roll a bigger ball for the abdomen.  Use Chow mein noodles for the legs, rice crispies for the spiderlings, and mini chocolate chips for the eyes.

We sang "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and acted it out while singing.

We also learned that not all spiders spin webs.  We made a tri-fold book showing 3 spiders that do not spin webs to catch their prey.

(FYI:  I got the purple sticky spider  along with some other colors at the dollar spot in Target)