Spiders!

This morning we sorted the insects and spiders in the pool. During morning circle we talked about the calendar and counted. Our letter of the day was B. We brainstormed words that start with the /b/ sound. The kids also sounded out CVC words starting with b.

Our book today was "Be Nice to Spiders" by Margaret Graham. A spider named Helen lived at the zoo. She helped the animals by making webs to catch all the pesky flies. When the mayor was coming to visit the zoo keeper wanted the animal cages cleaned...including the spider webs! After a few days the animals was unhappy because of all the flies! The zoo keeper found Helen and learned how important she was to zoo. At the end of the story, Helen laid a egg sac full of baby spiders. Now there would be lots of spiders to eat all the flies! After reading the story we talked about egg sacs....we learned what they looked like, where to find them and why they are important.

For science we talked about spider webs. The webs are very sticky to help catch flies and other bugs. So....why doesn't the spider get caught in the web? The kids pretended their fingers were bugs crawling on a web (contact paper). They kept getting stuck! Then we learned that spider legs are oily to help them crawl around their sticky web. The kids dipped their fingers in oil and then they were able to move across the web (contact paper) easily.

For art we made spiders! The kids first painted the spider bodies black. Then we added 8 legs and eyes. The kids pretended they were crawling around our classroom.

Since it was so nice outside and we are learning about bugs we headed to the park to play and eat lunch. The kids looked for bugs in the grass and on the ground. They also had a chance to play on the big playground...and they loved it! We sat at picnic tables for lunch....it was a blast! We had to hurry back to school at the end of the day....it was a great day!