The Engineering Place (K-20 Outreach)

Webs and Spiders (K-2nd)

Lesson plan developed by Sarah Tudor

Objective: The students will be able to see how a web is made and make a spider.

Overview:
The activity is to make a web and make a spider. This should only take 45 minutes.

Number of students : 25

Biology

Materials: The materials needed are yarn, pipe cleaners, eyes and glue. This was part group and part individual.

Background Information: I obtained a book from their library, Spiders by Barbara Taylor. It had great pictures of spiders and wonderful facts. I would make the spiders before coming to class. I quickly found out from last week that some students would not have the skills needed to make this spider. I made 100 spiders. It is very time consuming. I would not have had enough time if I let them do that part.

Motivate! (Engage): Every week I tell the students what is coming up. They all were very happy about spiders. I showed them pictures of spiders. They had a chance to ask me questions about different types of spiders. They were all in the book so that I could show them.

Activity (Explore): For the web, the students stand in a circle. They throw the ball of yarn across the circle. This begins the nice web shape. We talk about how spiders make webs, where they find webs what the web is made out off. The students thought this was the best part. For the spiders, the 1st step is to take 4 pipe cleaners and in the center wrap black yarn around until it becomes a large center. The students place eyes and shape the legs.

Safety Tips:
Some students might have a hard time throwing the yarn. Help any students with disabilities or broken bones.

Closure: Bring the lesson to a close by telling something they learned. Many little facts stuck with them the most. They all learned something new about spiders. They also were able to visualize it.

Assessment (Evaluation): To assess the students I had them tell me something that they learned. I would also consider how well they worked together in making the web. Many of the students could not handle the making of the web. They were jumping and just being kids. I handle this by standing right beside them. Those students were calmer.

Connections (Integration with Other Content Areas): This activity also integrated art and physical activity. A few teachers had them writing a book about spiders based on the information they learned. Math could be integrated with counting eyes, spots and spiders. I did add historical information about why some people are afraid of spiders.

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