Spiders - That's a Wrap!

So now you have three days with  lesson plans about spiders that are easy, and don't take a lot of time.  If you want you can also rent movies at the library about spiders.  We really enjoyed Bill Nye: Spiders, and Magic School Bus: Creepy Crawly Fun which has a video on spiders and bats (which is the next unit).

If you want to add a field trip day here are some suggestions:
1.  Go on a spider walk.  Look for webs and spiders in your neighborhood, remind your child not to touch the web or spider.
2.  Go to the zoo and look at spiders.
3.  Go to the pet shop and look at their tarantulas.

I hope you had as much fun with this unit as we did!

Spiders - Day 3

Writing/ Phonics

Preparation:

Get materials together

Materials

• Plate
• Jell-o/Gelatin

Teaching

1. Sprinkle a thin layer of Jell-o on the plate.
2. Have your child write the letter "S" in the Jell-o saying the /s/ sound as they form the letter.
3. You can have your child write a few of the other letters of "Spider," having the child say the sound of the letter as they form the letter. 
4. The fun of this is that your child gets to taste the yummy jell-o each time he licks his finger.  The tactile feeling helps memory of letter and sound.

Reading

Preparation:

None

Materials

• BOB Book
• Spider Book

Teaching

1. Have your child read the books with you.

Math

Preparation:
Make3 sets of 4 spiders on 3x5 cards. One set red, one set yellow, and  one set black.
Materials
Spider cards

Teaching

1. Place cards face down on table. 
2. Play "memory" game, but flip over four spiders at a time.  Name the spiders flipped over. For example, if you flipped over one black spider, one red spider, and two yellow spiders you would say, "I have four spiders, one black, one red, and two yellow, but they don't match."
3. Have your child name the cards they flip over, too.
4. When a person has 4 cards of the same color, they get to keep them.

Book
Preparation:
Plan a visit to your bookstore or Library (I prefer library) and get three books on spiders for the week.
You want to find books with no more than a dew sentences on each page, and large illustrations or photographs.
I like:
Spiders by Gail Gibbons
Spiders Biggest! Littlest! by Sandra Markle
On a large piece of paper draw a spider with extra long legs (you'll be writing facts on these later)
Materials
Book
Spider Picture
Pen
Sticky notes (like Post-Its)
Teaching
1. Read book to child.
2.  When you read an interesting fact place a sticky note on the page, and write one word to describe the cast, or draw a simple line picture.
3. After reading, go to each sticky note, and, if needed, remind your child of the fact you read. Have child tell you fact, then write it on a spider leg.

Art
Preparation:
Cut a piece of black paper into a small 6x6 square
Materials
Black Paper
Glue
Glitter

Teaching
1. Let your child create a sticky web by squirting glue on the black paper in any shape web they would like. Let them add some sparkle with glitter.

Spiders - Day 2

Writing/ Phonics

Preparation:

Cut an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of paper in 1/2 lengthwise.  Then fold this into thirds and cut into 6 strips.  In the first space of each strip write a letter of the word spider. It will look like this: 

Materials

• "Spider" written on strips
• Pen

Teaching

1. Say, "We are going to write words using the letters in spider."
2. Using "S" word strip say, "We are going to write the word 'sun'." Point to the "S" and say sound for /s/.  Slowly say the word "sun" enunciating the /u/ sound.
3. Ask, "What says /u/?"
4. Write the letter "u" in the next space on words strip. 
5. Slowly say the word "sun" enunciating the /n/ sound.
6. Ask, "What says the /n/ sound?"
7. Write the letter n in third space.
8. Say the word "sun" slowly, pointing to each letter as you say its sound.
9. Repeat the steps again with P (pet), I (In), D (Dog), E (Egg), and R (Red).
10. When you are done it looks like this:

Modifications:

Use any two or three letter words you want.

You can have your child write the letters.

Reading

Preparation:

Make a book.  You can tape or staple pages together or watch video below to make your own book.

Write title "Colorful Spiders" on title page.  On bottom of first page write "Black Spider", write "Red Spider" on bottom of 2nd page, write "Brown Spider" on bottom of 3rd page, write "Green Spider" on bottom of 4th page, "Orange Spider" on bottom of 5th page and "Yellow Spider" on bottom of 6th page.  You can write "The End" on the back (we like to do that).

Materials

• Book
• Pen
• Black, red, brown, green, orange, and yellow crayons

Teaching

1. Read the title of the book and say, "You get to make a book about spiders."
2. On first page have your child draw a black spider, reading the words "Black spider" to your child.
3. Repeat drawing coordinating spider to color for each page.
4. The book will look like this (sorry its a little blurry):

5.  Have your child read and reread the book several times.  Put it in your child's bookshelf and have him read it often.  Have him read it to you, dad, grandma, grandpa, anyone with sixty seconds to spare.

Math

Preparation:
Make a simple flip sheet. 
1.  Fold a sheet of paper in half lengthwise. Unfold and make three cuts to the mid line with scissors.  You now have four flaps.
2.  Label the flaps 1, 2, 3, & 4.

Materials

• Sheet of paper with flaps.
• Crayons, spider stickers, or spider stamps

Teaching
1. Have your child draw one spider under the flap labeled one.  Two spiders under flap labeled 2, etc.
2.  Have your child "find" 3 spiders,or four spiders, etc. by lifting the flaps.

Book
Preparation:
Plan a visit to your bookstore or Library (I prefer library) and get three books on spiders for the week.
You want to find books with no more than a dew sentences on each page, and large illustrations or photographs.
I like:
Spiders by Gail Gibbons
Spiders Biggest! Littlest! by Sandra Markle
Read the book beforehand and create 5 strips with facts from the book about spiders. Also create 5 strips that give incorrect information on spiders.
On one piece of paper write "YES" with a picture of a spider.
On another piece of paper write "NO"
MaterialsBook
Fact strips
"Yes" and "No" Papers

Teaching
1. Read book to child.
2.  Read each fact strip to your child.  Have them put the true facts under "YES" and the incorrect facts under "NO."


Art
Preparation:
I bought a spider art kit from Joann's.  But it's easy to create a spider with the following materials.
Materials
1 Large pom pom
1 medium size pom pom
2 small googly eyes
Pipe cleaner cut into eight pieces.
Piece of craft foam cut in shape of spider.

Teaching
1. Child glues large pom pom on body of spider.
2. Child glues medium pompom for head of spider.
3. Child glues eyes on head of spider.
4.  Child glues glues legs out from body of spider.

Spiders Day One

Writing/ Phonics

Preparation:

Using glue write the word "Spider" on a strip of paper.  Make sure the glue is "puffy" enough when it is dry so child can do a rubbing of the word. You need to be careful when writing the letters that when formed the letters are correctly formed so the child can easily identify the letters.

Your strip should look like this:

For this I had to go over the glue after it had dried because the first time I wrote the word it bled out into the paper too much to make a good rubbing.

Materials

• "Spider" written in glue
• Paper large enough to cover "Spider"
• Crayon with paper torn off
• Tape (optional)

Teaching

1. Give child "Spider" word strip.
2. Have child trace the glue letters, one by one, identifying each letter as they trace with their finger.
3. Ask, "What do you think this word spells?"
4. Cover "Spider" word strip with a blank piece of paper (if you need to, tape strip on paper, then tape blank paper over it so it doesn't shift.
5. Using the side ONLY of the crayon, have child rub over word strip (see below)
6. When word is revealed, have child trace each letter while making the sound.  Have them hold the sound of one letter before transitioning to the next letter.
7. If child is having a hard time putting sounds together tell them, "The word is Spider."

Modifications:

If your child doesn't know letters tell them each letter as they trace it.

If your child doesn't know letter sounds, you sound out the word for them, pointing to each letter as you sound it out. 

Keep working on letter recognition and sounds using games in previous blogs.

Reading

Preparation:

If you have them, use BOB books , or create your own simple books using word families. I copy three pages out of my BOB book so we don't write in the book, but feel free to write in the book itself.

Materials

• BOB book, or book you've written
• Yellow, green, and red crayons

Teaching

1. Point to the letters on the page.  Say, "These are letters.  Letters make words.  When you read words they tell us stories, or teach us things."
2. Using Yellow crayon highlight the first letter.  Ask, "What letter is this? What sound does the letter make?"  Repeat this for each letter in first word. Then point to the space between the words and say, "This space means we stop and we have read a word (get excited!!)!" Underline the word in green crayon. Highlight the space in red crayon.  "This space means we've stopped reading that word and we are now going to read another word."  Repeat highlighting letter, words and spaces until you get to end of page/sentence.  Do this for 2-3 pages.

Math
Preparation:
Have 2-3 sets of 3 identical spiders.  These could be stickers, foam stickers, or spiders you've printed out on the computer
Materials
Spiders
Teaching
1. Ask your child to make a group of three spiders.  Watch how they create the group.  Do they count out the spiders one by one, or do they put out a group of three spiders?  Label their spiders saying "You have two black spiders and one white spider."
Modifications:
If your child is able to create a group of three without counting using two different colors of spider, move on to the number four.  This is a great idea I got from a workshop I took on Math Their Way.

Book
Preparation:
Plan a visit to your bookstore or Library (I prefer library) and get three books on spiders for the week.
You want to find books with no more than a dew sentences on each page, and large illustrations or photographs.

I like:
Spiders by Gail Gibbons
Spiders Biggest! Littlest! by Sandra Markle
Materials
Book
Paper
Pen
Teaching
1. Fold Paper into three sections labeling first section with a "K", second with a "W", third with an "L".
2.  Ask your child, "What do you know about spiders?"
3.  Write what they know under "K" section (K=Know)
4.  Ask your child what they want to know about spiders (W=Want to know)
5.  Write questions in column under "W". 
6.  Read Book, talking as you read about the things you are learning
7.  Write under "L" the things learned (L=Learned).
** Don't expect a long list in any of the categories, 2-3 things is good!
Art
Preparation:
Prepare materials (easy!)
Materials
White Paint
Black Paper cut to fit an 8x8 or 9x9 pan
8x8 or 9x9 pan
Marble
Spider sticker or printout of spider

Teaching
1. Place paper in pan.
2. Place a blob of paint in middle of paper and place marble on top of blob of paint.
3.  Let your child roll the marble around in the paint and on to the paper creating a "Sheet web."
4.  Have child place 1spider sticker or cutout on the web.