Designs of Nature - Spiders and Webs

Focus: Spider webs are beautifully designed to carry out their food-trapping function, and so are the spiders that made them.

Puppets (Benjy Bear, Charlotte Spider, Rhonda Robin)

Materials Checklist
Puppet Show (puppets, script)
Spider Spying (live spiders in clear glass jars with perforated lids, moist cotton balls, hand lenses)
Felt Board Spider (felt board, spider anatomy diagram, felt cutouts of spider body parts)
Spider Sensations (blocks of wood with five six-foot lengths of yarn tied to large staple in center)
Spider Supper (bicycle wheel with yarn woven through the spokes, spider made of pipe cleaners, flies made of clothespins, pieces of yarn)
Spider Scavenger Hunt (illustrations of different web types, Spider Hunt cards, clipboards, pencils, water mister (optional))
Weaving a Sharing Circle (ball of yarn)
Spider Smorgasbord (5/6 ELF) (Spider Smorgasbord Chart, Spiders & Webs study guide, clipboards, pencils, optional water misters)

Supplementary Reference Materials(Spider Hunt Cards, Spider Web Types, Spider Diagram, Spider Web Diagram, Templates for Felt Board Spiders, ELF 5/6 Activity: Field Identification, Spiders and Webs Study Guide, Field Identification Guide)

Additional Reading/Resources
A Guide to Spiders and Their Kin, by H.W. Levi, L.R. Levi, and H.S. Zim, Golden Press, New York, 1968.
Sophie's Masterpiece: A Spider's Tale, by Eileen Spinelli, Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing, 2001.
Wolfie, by Janet Chenery, Harpercollins Juvenile Books, 1969.
"Spiders in and around the house" from Ohio State University.
ELF Corner: Webless Spiders (pdf file)

For Younger Children
Many of the activities in VINS's new Small Wonders book can be used in ELF, too. To find appropriate activities for children aged 3-6, click here.

Teaching suggestions

Spider Spying
Plastic peanut butter jars work well – you can melt holes in the bottom and place the jars on the table upside down so the colored-plastic lid doesn't interfere with your view. Use cotton balls for moisture. Place a label on top of lid and note where you found the spider so you can return it after the workshop.

Well ahead of time, scout out the location of a number of different spiders, so you'll be able to capture plenty to take in for your workshop. After you teach, release your spiders where you found them within about 24 hours.

Spider Sensations
Transition to this activity from Spider Spying by asking students to look for hairs on the legs of the spiders. These are sensory and help the critters catch their food. “Let's see how well you do at catching your food by feeling it.” Explain to younger students that only ONE child will pluck the string at a time, but all will have a chance to before we're done.

You can have young children make nice webs by drawing (or tracing) an orb web with a glue pen and then sprinking glitter on it.

One group combined Spider Sensations and Spider Supper in this way: Who can tell me why spiders spin webs? (to catch food) Does anyone know what spiders eat? (insects) So, in this game we are going to play a game of predator and prey, with the spider as predator and the insect as prey. Talk with children about how a spider catches and eats an insect. Then, play the Spider Sensations game.

Spider Supper
Rather than lugging around those bicycle wheels, right after Spider Sensations give each child (still seated around their block yarn webs) a plastic insect and a length of yarn. As you describe the process, have children act out how spiders locate, attack, and eat their prey.

Don't forget to discuss wandering spiders, such as wolf, crab, fishing.

Here's a poem by jen lingelbach
TRAP ZAP WRAP
It's a snap!
If you sit down beside her
That hungry old spider
Will make you an insect FRAPPE!

Weaving a Web Sharing Circle
Have kids raise up the sheet web they've made while sharing and create a cobweb, by moving their hands around.
You can have children create an imaginary web by pretending to throw a ball of yarn from one person to another – makes clean up a lot easier, no tangled yarn with which to contend!

Snack
One group had grapes for snack and pretended to eat like spiders, sucking the insides out of the grapes. Another wrapped juice boxes in yarn and had kids poke straws in and suck out insides.

Extensions
Watch just five minutes of National Geographic's Web of Life video #51653, c. 1992 or The Nature Series: Spiders by Diamond Entertainment.

Set up a terrarium with a forked twig and a spider.

Some children have pet tarantulas, a nice addition to this workshop!

Check out the spider section in The Way Nature Works. Macmillan. Read Spinelli, Eileen. Sophie's Masterpiece: A Spider's Tale.
Read Janet Chenery. Wolfie. A Science I Can Read book.

Learning Goals
Focus: Spiders webs are beautifully designed to carry out their food-trapping function and so are the spiders that make them.

Concepts/Ideas:

• Spiders and insects are related in that both are arthropods, having jointed legs and an exoskeleton.
• Spiders have two main body parts cephalothorax and abdomen. They have eight legs and can have up to eight eyes.
• Almost all spiders can produce silk from glands within the abdomen and release it through spinnerets located near the end of the abdomen on the undersurface.
• Spiders may use their silk to spin a web or for draglines or securing threads to prevent falls or aid in escaping from predators.
• Not all spiders spin webs, but those that do use them to catch insects. Webs vary in complexity and structure
• Web spinning spiders use their sense of touch to detect web motion made by a mate approaching or by prey.

Vocabulary:
Arthropod, spider, insect, cephalothorax, abdomen, thorax, spinnerets, pedipalps, prey, predator, silk, web, design, structure

Skills:

• Comparing and contrasting spiders and insects.
• Observing a variety of live spiders and examining the design of their bodies.
• Experiencing through simulation how web-spinning spiders use their sense of touch to detect motion in their webs.
• Observing spiders outdoors and discussing the process by which many web-spinning spiders capture and eat their food.
• Reflecting and sharing information about spiders with a group.

Grade Expectations:
Grades PK-K (S30, S38) Spiders are living animals. They need food, water and air to survive. Some spiders can make webs for catching food.

Grades 1-2 (S30, S38) Spiders are in a group of animals that all have the same basic body structure. They are made up of body parts that enable them to get the food, water, and air they need to live. Spiders' ability to spin webs makes it possible for them to live in a variety of places.

Grades 3-4 (S30, S38, S39) Spiders have physical and behavioral characteristics that help them to get what they need to survive in their environment. There are many different kinds of spiders; they may be grouped according to similarities in web structure and body structure.

Grades 5-6 (38) Spiders live in a range of habitats. Particular features and habits are used to identify a particular kind of spider.

Good question!
I've heard that daddy long-legs (harvestmen) are very poisonous, but that their jaws are too small to bite humans. Is that true?
No. Daddy long-legs eat mostly plant material and have no need of venom. They are not poisonous at all. What most people refer to by the name "daddy long-legs" are not true spiders, but a related arachnid called an opilionid. There are also some true spiders called "daddy long-legs spiders, but these are also harmless. For more information, please see this University of California website.

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