Fascinating Spiders

• Explain what an insect is.
• Choose an insect, and describe what it looks like.
• How do the insects’ bodies compare to the spiders’ bodies?
• Describe the mouths of the spiders.
• Explain how a spider is different from an insect.

• Allow the children to make spiders using egg cartons, black paint, pipe cleaners, and googly eyes. Cut each egg carton into six sections with two egg cups each attached. Have the children paint their egg cartons. When the egg cartons are dry, push 4 pipe cleaners that have been cut in half into each side of the second section of the carton. Allow the children to glue eyes on the front section of the egg carton.
• With the class, make a spider web with yarn. Sit in a circle on the floor. Hold on to the end of a ball of yarn, and roll it to a child. Demonstrate how to wrap the yarn loosely around your finger, and roll the yarn ball to another child. Continue rolling the yarn ball until everyone has had a turn to place the yarn around their finger. Place a plastic insect on the yarn web. Have the children notice that the insect falls off the web. Explain how a real web is different from a yarn web and why the other insect would stick.

• Could children explain what an insect’s body looks like?
• Could children explain what a spider’s body looks like?
• Could children tell how a spider is different from an insect?

Arthropods are animals with segmented bodies, six or more jointed legs, and a hard shell called an exoskeleton. There are three major groups of arthropods: insects (the largest group), arachnids, and crustaceans. All arachnids have eight legs, two body parts, and no antennae. Arachnids also have two other pairs of limbs. The first pair is for catching and holding prey; this is also where the poison sacs and fangs are located. Another pair is for feeling and manipulating prey.

Insects eat mostly plants, but a spider’s favorite food is insects. Some insects have mouth parts that are similar to a spider’s; the difference is that insects can chew, and spiders cannot. Spiders have fangs that are used for injecting their prey with paralyzing venom. Spiders then douse their prey with digestive juices to liquefy the prey. Then, the spider slurps up the insides of the prey’s body.

• spider – a small animal with eight legs and a body made up of two parts.
• insect – a small animal with a hard covering over its three-part body and six legs.
• animal – one of a large group of living things that is not a plant.
• arthropod – a large group of animals with hard shells on the outsides of their bodies, legs with joints, and no bones on the insides of their bodies.
• arachnid – an arthropod having four pairs of legs and belonging to the class that includes scorpions, ticks, and spiders.
• exoskeleton – an external supporting structure, such as the shell of a crustacean.

• Instead of using pictures of insects and spiders, you can use plastic insects and spiders (available inexpensively at discount stores). At the end of the investigation, children can sort them into piles of insects and non-insects.
• Search online for close-up pictures of insects and spiders.
• Make sure the close-up pictures of the arthropods clearly show the parts of the bodies (segmented bodies, jointed legs, eyes, and exoskeleton).

• Miss Spider’s Tea Party by David Kirk
• The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle
• Spiders by Gail Gibbons
• Are You a Spider? by Judy Allen