Subject Matter/Level: All developmental area/preschool

Instructional Designer: Joan Aughenbaugh

Description of the Unit: This unit is designed to use the natural interest children have in spiders and to build their skills in all developmental areas.

Day 1
Story Time/Language	Small group
Materials	Book: The Very Busy Spider
Activities	The children go into their small groups for story time. Before reading The Very Busy Spider ask the children what they think the spider may be busy doing. Read the story putting emphasis on the part, “He was very busy spinning his web.” Eventually ask the children to join you in saying this statement. At the end of the story you could ask the following questions: · What was the spider busy doing? · What animals do you remember from the story? · Where did the spider build his web? · What did the spider catch in his web? · What do you think the spider will do with the fly? · Why was the spider tired? Your questions will very depending on the student you are addressing the question to and that child’s developmental understanding. Repeat reading this book daily during the week. You can develop memory skills by asking more detailed questions: · What did the pig ask the spider to do? · Who wanted to chase a cat?

Motor Group	Animal Walks (small group)
Materials	Pictures of animals from the Very Busy Spider.
Activities	After reading the story show pictures of the animals and demonstrate the different ways animals may move. Encourage the children to make the animal sounds as they move.
CENTERS
Art	Spider webs
Materials	Dark blue construction paper, white yarn, slightly watered down glue, and small plastic spiders.
Activities	Have 3- 5 children come to the art area at a time. Each child will need a dark blue sheet of construction paper. They will need to use medium sized paintbrushes to put the watered-down glue onto the construction paper. The children can use the pre-cut white yarn to design their own spider web. Some children will need a demonstration and/or sample of this activity.
Easel	Spider
Materials	Black tempera paint, white paper, medium and small sized paint brushes
Activity	Using the materials provided the children would paint a spider by making a circle, painting it in and adding the legs. This will be a good time to talk about how many legs a spider has and count to 8!
Play Dough	Making spiders.
Materials	Black or brown play dough
Activity	The children will work on rolling their play dough into a ball. With extra play dough they will roll out 8 long or short, thin or fat legs for their spiders. Use those descriptive words to describe what they are making.
Science area	Spider display
Materials	Pictures of a variety of spiders and spider webs.
Activity	Today the children can go to this area on their own to look at the pictures.
Dramatic Play	Kitchen play
Materials	Dishes, clothes, cupboards, table and chairs.
Activity	Plastic spiders should be placed in a variety of places to encourage the children to use location words. The key question is, “Where did you find it?”
Book/Quiet area	A variety of books and items that have spiders in them.
Materials	The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Silly Spider, There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly, Web Weavers and Other Spiders, Nature Watch Spiders, Identifying Spiders, Be Nice to Spiders, The Lady and the Spider, Amazing Spiders, Miss Spider’s ABC, Spider’s Lunch, Mighty Spiders!, and Dream Weaver. A nursery rhyme book, flannel board, flannel board spider pieces (for counting).
Activity	The children can look through the books, have someone read the stories to them, practice counting and recite a nursery rhyme. Having an adult in this area to facilitate the learning would be great. It is a quiet area, but it can be very active for learning.
Music	The Itsy Bitsy Spider, Little Miss Muffet, 5 Little Spiders, There’s a Spider on the Floor.
Materials	Poster board display of The Itsy Bitsy Spider & Little Miss Muffet. Flannel board, spider flannel board pcs., plastic spiders, flannel board pcs. to Little Miss Muffet.
Activities	These rhymes and songs can be used in any order. See the attached form for words and actions. Use the plastic spiders while singing There’s a Spider on the Floor.
Outside	Spider Home
Materials	Aquarium with screen lid, 1-2 plants, dirt, water and plastic jar with a lid
Activity	Have an area prepared outside for this activity. Explain to the children why the terrarium is being made. Let the children help put dirt into the aquarium. The teacher needs to plant the plants. Ask the children why they think we have put plants and water in the aquarium. Now it is time for the nature or nature hunt. The children should be instructed to look for spiders in the playground area. This activity could be done earlier in the morning when dew helps to make it easier to see spider webs. After finding several spiders return to the aquarium and place them inside. Don’t forget to put the lid on. Place the aquarium in the science area for the children to observe throughout the week.

Day 2
Story Time/Language	Small group
Materials	The Very Busy Spider & Silly Spider
Activity	Review The Very Busy Spider and read the book again. Let the children recite the parts they remember. Repeat the question asked on the first day to build understanding of the question and to increase their memory skills. Next, read Silly Spider. This is a great book for location words. While reading the story ask the children where they think the spider might be. Follow up questions may include: · Which room was the spider in? · How did I feel when I saw the spider? · Where did the spider hide?
Motor Group	Obstacle course (small group)
Materials	Tunnel, wide board, steps (3-4 steps) and a large box
Activity	Recite The Itsy Bitsy Spider. Tell the children that they get to be the spider and the tunnel is the waterspout. You will need to demonstrate (or use one of the children) how to go through the obstacle course. First crawl up and down the steps, along the board, through the tunnel and into the box. The activity ends when the children make it to the box.
CENTERS
Art	Thumbprint Spiders
Materials	5 ½ “ x 8 ½ “ piece of white construction paper for each child, ink pad (black or a variety of colors if you choose.), fine tipped marker (black or colors matching the ink pads.)
Activity	They are to then use a fine tipped marker to make the legs on their spider. Some children will need hand-over-hand assistance. * Remember to have a finished produced ready and to demonstrate the process before beginning the activity with the children The children are to roll their thumb across the inkpad and then roll their thumb across the white piece of paper. The children can make as many thumbprints as they want. They are to then use a fine tipped marker to make the legs on their spider. Some children will need hand-over-hand assistance. * Remember to have a finished produced ready and to demonstrate the process before beginning the activity with the children.
Easel	Spiders
Materials	White paper, tempera paint (variety of colors)
Activity	This is a repeat of day 1 activity. The difference is that the child now gets to pick what color his/her spider will be.
Play Dough	Spiders
Materials	Black play dough
Activity	Repeat of day 1 activity. The children are working on rolling play dough into balls and rolling eight small legs to attach to the balls of play dough.
Science Area	Live Spiders
Materials	Spider display in the aquarium, magnifying glasses and the pictures of spiders.
Activity	The children are free to observe the spiders with the magnifying glasses. Hopefully the spiders have made a web for the children to look at and to discuss. “What is a spider web for?”
Dramatic Play	Searching for spiders!
Materials	The same as day 1.
Activity	The children will be looking for spiders this time. After they count the spiders tell them where to hide the spider or they can tell you where they are going to hide the spider for other children to search.
Book/Quiet Area
Materials	Same items as Day 1
Activity	Read! Read! Read! Children love repetition. Continue counting flannel board spiders.
Music	The Itsy Bitsy Spider, Little Miss Muffet, 5Little Spiders, and There’s a Spider on the Floor.
Materials	Same as Day 1
Activity	Repeat the songs and rhymes that were introduced on Day 1. If one was missed introduce it today! Repetition to help develop memory skill in actions and in reciting is the purpose of this area!
Outside	Searching for bugs!
Materials	Plastic jars with lids
Activity	The children can spend some of their playtime outside to find at least one bug to put in the aquarium. Ask the children what they think might happen to the bugs.
Day 3
Story Time/Language	Small group
Materials	Silly Spider & There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly
Activities	Ask questions about the Silly Spider before reading it to see how much the children can recall. Then read or sing There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly. This is another book that has a spider in it. Tell the children the name of the book and ask them what they think will happen in the story. As you read the story see if the children can guess what the woman might swallow next. You may ask the following questions when the story is finished: · What did the old woman swallow? · What happened to the woman as she swallowed more animals? · What happened at the end of the end of the story?
Motor Group	Target Practice
Materials	4 half sheets of tag board with a large spider drawn on it. 4 tennis balls.
Activity	The goal is for the children to work on eye hand coordination by aiming and throwing the ball at the spider.
CENTERS
Art	Lacy Spider Webs
Materials	Wax paper, glue, clear or silver glitter
Activity	Make a spider web design by having the children pour thin lines of glue on a piece of wax paper. Sprinkle the glitter on the wet glue and set aside to dry. After the glue has dried, remove the glue from the wax paper. Hang the webs from the windows.
Easel	Spider Webs
Materials	Black construction paper and white tempera paint.
Activity	The children can make their own spider web design.
Play Dough	Spiders
Materials	Play dough and pieces from the Cootie game.
Activity	The children can roll the play dough into different sized balls. They can then use the legs and eyes from the Cootie game to make a spider. Encourage getting the correct number of legs.
Science Area	Observing spiders!
Materials	Same as Day 2
Activity	Same as Day 2, but ask the children what changes they see if any!
Dramatic Play	Kitchen area
Materials	Same as Day 1 & 2
Activity	The children can take turns hiding and then searching for the spiders in this area. Continue on working on location words.
Book/Quiet area
Materials	Same as before, but add the Little Miss Muffet flannel board pieces.
Activity	Let the children recite the Little Miss Muffet rhyme while using the flannel board pieces. The children can work in pairs in this activity.
Nutrition	Peanut Butter Cracker Spiders
Materials	Peanut butter, Ritz crackers, raisins, pretzels and plastic knives
Activity	Give each child 4 Ritz crackers to make 2 sandwiches with peanut butter. Have them put the sandwiches side-by-side, sticking them together with more peanut butter. Attach the raisins for eyes and the pretzels for legs.
Outside Play
Materials	Plastic jar with lid
Activity	The children can search for bug to put in the aquarium. Play time outside.
Day 4
Story Time/Language	Small group
Materials	Stool, bowl, spoon and a spider on a string
Activity	Dramatizing Little Miss Muffet. You can demonstrate the dramatization. Each child should have a turn to be Miss Muffet.
Motor Group	Animal walks
Materials	Pictures of animals from The Very Busy Spider.
Activity	To walk like animals and to make animal sounds. Before going to the next activity each child gets to throw a ball at the spider target.
CENTERS
Art	Finger painting
Materials	Finger paint paper and a variety of different colored finger- paint.
Activities	Give each child a piece of finger paint paper. The children get to choose which color of paint they want to use. After using their hands to spread the paint all over the paper have them use their finger to make a spider web design.
Easel	Spiders and Webs
Materials	Light colored construction paper. Markers or crayons.
Activities	The children can use the markers or the crayons to draw a spider web design or a spider. Let them be creative!
Play Dough	Spiders
Materials	Play dough and Cootie pieces
Activity	Same as Day 3.
Science Area
Materials	Same as Days 2 &3
Activity	Observations for changes. Have them look for what the spiders might need if anything.
Dramatic Play	Kitchen Area
Materials	Same as Day 2 & 3
Activity	Same as Day 2 & 3
Book/Quiet Area
Materials	Same as Day 3
Activity	Same as Day 3
Music
Materials	Same as Day 1-3
Activity	Introduce The Big Humungous Spider. This is done the same way as the Itsy Bitsy Spider except now the spider is big and so your movements are big. Use a lower voice while singing.
Outside	Spider Races
Materials	Starting and ending points. This can be a rope, fence or anything that shows a beginning and ending point.
Activity	Have the children sit on the ground, push up on their hands and feet lifting their bottom off the ground. Move forward fast. There is no winner. Just spiders moving from one point to another.
Day 5
Story Time/Language	Small group
Materials	Resource person and tarantella
Activity	Invite a community resource person (pet store owner/pet owner) to bring in a tarantella for the children to see and to hear about.
Motor Group
Materials	Plastic spiders and 2 buckets
Activity	Have the children stand 3- 5 feet from a bucket. They are to toss in up to 10 spiders. Have them count how many they got in versus how many they missed.
CENTERS
Art	Spiders
Materials	Styrofoam balls, black tempera paint, paintbrushes, black pipe cleaners, googly eyes and glue.
Activity	Have the children paint the Styrofoam balls with black paint. Stick on pipe cleaners for the leg and glue on two google eyes.
Easel	Spiders & Webs
Materials	Black construction paper and chalk
Activity	Encourage the children to make spiders and webs using this new medium.
Play Dough
Materials	Same as Day 3
Activity	Same as Day 3
Science
Materials	Same as Day 3&4
Activity	Same as Day 3&4
Book/Quiet Area
Materials	Same as Day 3
Activity	Same as Day 3
Music
Materials	Ball of white yarn and charts of “Are you afraid of spiders?”
Activity	Bring the chart out again and ask the children who is and isn’t afraid of spiders and see if the chart is different from the first time. Next have the children form a circle and sit down. Tell them we will be making a giant spider web with the yarn. While the children roll the yarn ball to each other the group can sing, The Itsy Bitsy Spider & The Big Humungous Spider.
Outside Play	Children’s choice.
Materials	Have materials ready for whatever activity they decide to repeat.
Activity	Children’s choice.

Resources: http://www.geocities.com/heartland/hollow/1213/spiders.html

The Mailbox Teacher Magazine, Oct./Nov. 1999