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Lesson- Busy Spiders!

Jill Peer – Pacific University

1. Context:

This is a First grade lesson on web spinning spiders. This lesson can be used to lead into life cycles or animals in winter. The lesson would follow previous lessons on insects, bugs or other animals that hibernate. This lesson should be taught in the fall and last about 60 minutes including all activities.

2. Objectives:

During this lesson, students will be able to demonstrate their understanding of the texts shared by contributing to class discussions and connecting previous knowledge of spiders to classmates.

During this lesson, students will be able to demonstrate their understanding of the characteristics of spiders by answering questions throughout each activity.

At the end of the lesson, students will be able to apply their understanding of the parts of a spider by creating their own spider and present it in front of the class.

3. Benchmarks:

AR.03.CP.01 Use experiences, imagination, essential elements and organizational principles to achieve a desired effect when creating, presenting and/or performing works of art.

EL.01.RE.25 Understand, learn, and use new vocabulary that is introduced and taught directly through orally-read stories and informational text as well as student-read stories and informational text.

EL.01.RE.33 Obtain information from print illustrations.

EL.01.L1.02 Demonstrate listening comprehension of more complex literary text through discussions.

EL.01.LI.07 Relate prior knowledge to the story.

1.1L.1 Compare and contrast characteristics among individuals within one plant or animal group.

4. Preparation/Materials:

1.A week prior to lesson teacher will need to visit the public library and acquire books on spiders (see differentiations section) and copy of “A Very Busy Spider” by Eric Carle. For extension, teacher will need at least two copies of “A Very Busy Spider” by Eric Carle. (1 hour)

2.A few days prior to lesson teacher will need to go to craft store and purchase assortment of art materials, yarn and tape. (1 hour)

¬Materials needed:

•Container for art materials for each desk

•Construction paper (assorted colors)

•Pipe cleaners

•Buttons

•Beads

•Googly Eyes

•Streamers

•Ribbon

•Scrap paper

•Scissors

•Glue (bottled glue for heavier materials)

•Markers/Crayons

•Lined paper (extension)

•Salt/sand (extension)

3.The night before teacher will need to prepare some pre-cut shapes for students and print article offline at KGW.com. (10-20 min)

4.Before lesson, teacher will prepare containers of materials for art and place in middle group tables. (5-10 min)

5. Lesson Introduction: (2 min)

Who can tell me something about spiders?  Where might we find spiders?

6. Sharing Objectives: (2 min)

As we learn about spiders, I hope you all learn something new and fun that you didn’t know before. I also hope you all will enjoy the spider web activity which we will work together to create and a really fun spider art project that will make it complete! At the end of the lesson, you will all have a chance to show your spider and share something you love about your spider or something you learned about spiders.

7. Learning activities:

a.Begin lesson by sharing news article found on KGW.com. Either read or share contents of story. (5 minutes)

Who has seen these big spiders around lately?

What did this article tell us about spiders?

Wow, so we know spiders___________.

b. Shared read aloud. (8 minutes)

I would like to share this story with you all, which happens to be one of my favorites. It is called “A Very Busy Spider” by Eric Carle.

Read the book and stop at the following pages to comment on the web building process:

Page: 4, after horse

Teacher script: Wow, look how the spider is making her web. Notice how far apart each strand is.

Page: 8, after lamb

Teacher script: Now the spider is connecting the inside and outside strands together.

Page: 14, after dog

Teacher script: Interesting how the spider is now going from the middle and make circles. I wonder why she is doing that.

After the story discuss as a class what they noticed about the spider’s web building process. Ask questions such as: How did she make her web? Why did she spin her web? What did we learn about spiders from this story? This will help lead into the following activity of a class spider web.

Extension:

For visually impaired students provide an addition copy of “A Very Busy Spider” to feel the web as it is created and discussed. Also check ahead of time if a braille version is available. A small toy spider also might provide assistance in understanding the structure of a spider so the student understands what is shared and also contribute to discussion.

c.Class spider web (15 minutes)

To make class web students need to sit close to one another in a circle/oval.

What I would like to do now is see if we could make a web just like the busy spider did in our story. So could we all gather in a close circle/oval. I have a big ball of yarn that I bet if we pass nicely to one another, we could make a web just like the one we read about.

What did you notice about the very busy spider’s web? When she made it did she make long strings of silk or short ones? (Long ones) So when we pass the yarn to make our web should we pass it to someone next to us or across from us? Exactly, and that is because… why? Right, spiders make webs to catch food and if all the lines are short, it would be hard to catch anything. So… I am going to pass to _____ because he/she is far away from me. Everyone look at how I am holding onto the end of the string, when you pass it, make sure you hold onto the end too.

Have students pass the ball of yarn making sure to give everyone at least one turn, if time allows let students have two turns or more.

Wow! Look at our spider web. Hmmm… it seems to be missing something though… what could it be? Have students lay the string they were holding on the ground next to them. Teacher could pass a piece of tape around or tape when students are working on spiders to secure web structure.

Before we start making our own spiders, let’s share what we know a spider looks like. Today when we make our own spiders we can make fun spiders, which means our spider does not have to be like the real ones we read about and see outside. Your spider can be purple, it can have lots of eyes or a few eyes, it can be furry, big or small. You get to make it just the way you want.

d.Make your own spider (25 minutes)

Materials should be placed on group desks ahead of time.

Once students are at their desk, they may begin exploring the materials at their group table. The teacher will walk around and assist as needed but students will be encouraged to create a spider of their own as independent as possible.

If students finish early, provide students a sheet of wide lined paper and have them write a story about their spider and give it a name.

Spend the last few minutes to clean-up materials but have students keep spiders at their desk to share with the class.

Extensions:

For visually impaired students mix salt in glue to help student find where glue is at on paper. Cut several shapes and sizes for student to pick from. This can also be helpful for students with limited motor skills at this time. Include art materials that have different textures to choose from.

e.Differentiations:

Content- Have reading material available for students in their primary language 

                as well as Braille for students to access as needed. Teacher should read story    

                out loud to class. Possible book choices:

Spanish- “Aranas” by Gillian Houghton, “Aranas/Spiders” by Margaret Hall, “La Arana” by Patricia Walsh, “La arana muy ocupada” by Eric Carle

Braille: “A Very Busy Spider” by Eric Carle, “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” by Iza Trapani

Books on tape: “Spiders” by Gail Gibbons, “Diary of a Spider” by Doreen Cronin, “Miss Spider’s Tea Party” by David Kirk, “Anansi goes Fishing” by Eric Kimmel

For visual: “Time For Kids: Spiders!” by Editors of Time For Kids, “Amazing Spiders” by Dorling Kindersley Ltd.

Process- For art, students will be provided cut shapes to assist with their    

                expressive arts spider and provide other materials as needed explained in the   

                extensions.  For web, encourage students to roll yarn to ensure safety of

                others. Students should be given at least 15 minutes for web.

Product- Students should be encouraged to work independently on their spider   

                but can discuss and share quietly among their group tables. Students should

                be assessed based on their ability levels.

Environment- Let students work independently in their groups but allow them

                to walk around the classroom and look through resources or informative

                books on spiders such as, to gain insight or ideas. Keep the noise level at a    

                volume that caters to students who need discussion and quiet in their    

                environment.

8. Closure: (7 min)
To close, students can gather in the carpet seating area or remain at their desk. Have students reflect on their process and on lesson. What did they learn, what did they enjoy, how did they come up with ideas for their spider, etc. If time allows let students explore each other’s spiders by sharing within their table groups, taking a walking tour around the room or call on a few students to share to the entire class using the projector. To decide on which students, teacher can draw Popsicle sticks with the child’s name on them.

9.Student Evaluation:

Students will be evaluated during the entire lesson through observation, participation and discussion. Particular attention will be paid to students’ sharing during the closure for their use of appropriate terms and discussion of spider parts.  It is important for the teacher to be walking around the class during the art activity to informally discuss the students’ understanding.

10. Teacher Self-Reflection:

Before lesson self-reflection: I worry that time might become an issue as we discuss the readings and share what we know. I want to make sure students have enough time to share without taking away from the other activities. I hope that enough time is given to create their spiders as well as time to share something they enjoyed about today’s lesson.

After lesson self-reflection: The lesson went very well but the closure was limited. Students were highly involved in each activity and their art, but when time to conclude students were too preoccupied with their own art to listen to their classmates. Not enough clean-up time was scheduled either so closure suffered due to cleaning up materials. It is noted that next time, more time will need to be scheduled for clean up before closure.

Class spider web activity:  inspired by activity introduced by Kaboose

Link: http://party.kaboose.com/holidays/halloween/games/halloween-partygames.html