Creepy Crawly Spiders
by Vanessa Hernandez
Help young children learn that all spiders are not dangerous. Many spiders have an important role in the balance of our ecosystem.
Lesson Topic: Spiders
Grade/ Proficiency levelGrades k-2 advance beginner to intermediate ESL; grade 4- 6 beginning ESL
TESOL Goal and Standard
Goal 2, Standard 2 - To use English to achieve academically in all content areas: Students will be able to use English to obtain, process, construct, and provide subject matter information in spoken and written form.
Goal 3, Standard 1 - To use English in socially and culturally appropriate ways: Students will use the appropriate language variety, register, and genre according to audience, purpose, and setting.
Content Concepts/Skills
Understanding spiders (arachnids) and their benefits in our lives.
Materials
- The Very Busy Spider of Eric Carle;
- Nonfiction books about spiders;
- Poems and songs about spiders
- PDF files
Vocabulary
male spider, female spider, silk, eggs, spider lings, fangs, poison, to mate, to lay, to hatch, to molt, to chew
Instructional Sequence
1. Start the lesson discussing the cover of the book "The Very Busy Spider." Ask questions such as “What is the book about? What is the meaning of the word “busy”? What do you know about spiders? Do you like spiders?”
2. Read the book aloud and encourage participation by the students using animal noises. Also ask students' help to repeat the sentence “The spider was very busy spinning her web”. At the end of the story ask questions such is "Where is the very busy spider? Why? What other animals are in the story? What happened at the end?
3. Make a fence with construction paper and draw a spider in her web. Cut and paste the animals from the story.
4. Give to the students the sheet “ The very busy spider is___________”, and ask them what other places could a spider be found. Make poster with their pictures and hang it in the classroom.
5. For the next class, read non-fiction books with the students. They will learn the anatomy and the lifecycle of the spider and how they help us when they eat harmful insects.
6. During the next class, you can read the poem “A Spider on the Floor.” Then the students can make spiders with black construction paper. They can then present the poem to their class. This poem can be found song form atBoy Scout Trail.
7. To finalize the unit, you can make a book about spiders. Go to Little Giraffe.com There is a list of poems and another activities.