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The Spider Beside Her (Grade 2)

Master Teacher

Cam T. Szakovits

Overview

This lesson will allow students to expand their knowledge of spiders. By creating a model of a spider, students will recognize differences between spiders and insects and will determine that a spider is not an insect. The concept of the spider as a predator who captures its food will be related to the fact that all animals have basic needs that they are adapted physically to meet.

SC Math/Science Standards Met

Science Achievement Standards:
Area I: A-1 & 4
Area II: A-1a and 1b
Area II: A-2a
Area III: C-1a

Math Achievement Standards:

Area IV: A-1
Area IV: E; G

Learning Objectives

Students will be able to:

construct a model of a spider
classify spiders as arthropods not as insects
construct a model of a spider's web to demonstrate predator behavior

Materials

First Activity—Spider Model

Per person:

paper body parts of spider
two pieces of dried macaroni (pedipalps)
12-inch piece of silk thread
eight pipe cleaner pieces (legs)
eight sequins
paper work mat

Second Activity—Web Model

Per partnership:

small ball of twine
transparent tape
two plastic spiders
geometric shape chart
spider web recording sheets
rulers, pencils, markers
chart paper
camera (optional)

Vocabulary

arthropod
web
symmetry
cephalothorax
silk
geometric shapes
abdomen
spinnerets
pedipalps
predator/prey

ITV Series

Backyard Science, Lesson 8, "Spiders"

Previewing Activity

Introduce the lesson by sharing a poem chart of the nursery rhyme "Little Miss Muffet." Tell students that this poem is based on the story of little Patience Muffet, the daughter of an English physician who long ago used spiders to treat his patients because he believed they had medicinal value. The legend goes that his daughter was not as fond of spiders as he was; hence, the rhyme was penned. Engage students in creating a "Word Web" about things they know about spiders. (Note connection of "Word

Web" to a spider's web.) Show the overhead of mixed-up body parts (Activity Sheet 2). Ask students to help you put it together correctly. Distribute Activity Sheets 1 and 2 and the rest of the spider model materials (except thread).

Focus for Viewing 1

To give students a specific responsibility while viewing, tell them to watch for how a spider's body parts are put together and to listen to whether or not a spider is an insect. Remind them that they will be asked to compare spiders and their body parts to what they learned in their previous study of ants and their body parts.

Viewing Activity 1

Start the video where you see the spider on the leaf and you hear, "…insects that eat our food crops." Pause the video every time a body part is named on screen. Identify the body part orally and match it with the material (paper shapes, sequins, etc.) that represents it. Have students arrange their materials to correctly assemble the spider's anatomy.

Stop the video and check students' work. Question them to determine body part knowledge. Compare spider bodies to ant bodies and determine that a spider is not an insect. Discuss body symmetry.

Focus for Viewing 2

Relate to students that spiders have a special ability that allows them to catch their food. This ability is called "web-making." Introduce the terms predator/prey, silk, and spinnerets. To give students a responsibility while viewing, ask them to look for how spiders use their ability to "spin" their "silk."

Viewing Activity 2

Resume playing the tape again. Pause at the end of the silk-wrapping visual. Give students a piece of silk thread to add to their spider models.

Start the tape after the narrator says, "...to dash out and capture an insect for food," and fast forward to the visual of a black widow spider (red-spot). Start the video when you hear, "Spiders are small animals..." and continue to the end of the video.

Post-Viewing Activity

1. Review lesson objectives and discuss webs. Rewind the tape and look at the examples of webs shown in the video.

2. Go outside on a "Web Scavenger Hunt." Have students draw or take photos of examples of the webs they find. Remind them to be respectful of the spiders and the webs, taking care not to disturb or damage them. Tell students to record what they observe on their "Spider Web Recording Sheets" (Activity Sheet 3). Return to the classroom and share information gathered about webs. Display a chart depicting various geometric shapes (example: square, rectangle, circle, triangle, rhombus, trapezoid, hexagon). Ask students if they see any of these geometric shapes in their web drawings.

3. Challenge students to work with partners to create a web of their own, using twine, transparent tape, and classroom furniture as the base. Add plastic spiders just for fun! At the conclusion of the activity, ask students to identify the geometric shapes evident in their webs. Tally the results on chart paper.

4. Students will construct an "edible spider" out of snack treats. Each child will be given a plastic baggie containing:

two sandwich-type cookies with cream filling (cephalothorax and abdomen)
eight 2-inch long pieces of licorice strips (legs)
eight cake decorating candies (flat to serve as eyes)
two Chinese noodles (pedipalps)
six sunflower seeds without shells (spinnerets)

Put students into cooperative groups to discuss how to put the snack treats together to form an anatomically correct spider. After discussion of what body parts correlate to the snack treats, challenge students to put together their edible spiders. Upon completion, check each student's spider for correct placement of the body parts and then allow students to eat their spiders.

Action Plan

1. Students, in collaboration with the school media specialist, will set up an informative "Spider Corner" in the school's media center.

Books to be displayed include:

Be Nice to Spiders by Margaret Bloy Graham (Harper Collins, 1967)
Spiders' Web by Christine Back (Silver-Burdett, 1996)
Miss Spider's Tea Party by David Kirk (Scholastic, 1994)
The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle (Philomel, 1984)
Spiders: "A New True Book" by Illa Podendorf (Children's Press, 1982)

Student artwork, in the style of Eric Carle, will also be displayed, along with a "tuffet," bowl, and spoon, and poster-sized copy of the "Little Miss Muffet" nursery rhyme.
In the center of the Spider Corner, students will set up an interactive survey chart. The chart will have a heading that reads "Would you sit by a spider?" and two columns be-neath—one labeled "Yes" and the other "No." As other students in the school visit the library and stop by the Spider Corner, they will be invited to cast their votes. To vote, each child will make an ink pad fingerprint on a 1-1/2" x 1-1/2" square of colored paper. Students will add eight legs to their fingerprint to make it look like a spider, sign their name below their spider, and tape it to the appropriate column.

A sign on the table will say, "If you voted `No,' we suggest you read some spider books and see if you change your mind after you do!"

Extensions

1. Health/Language Arts: Read Miss Spider's Tea Party by David Kirk and then write a class story about overcoming fears.

Students will complete a research report on spiders. They will be asked to utilize Internet resources. The association of spider "webs" and the World Wide Web should be brought to their attention and discussed.

They can use the following sites:

2. Art: Make spiders out of two sections of a paper egg carton. Have students paint the sections like a spider they have researched in a book or on the Internet. Add pipe cleaner legs and pedipalps; small plastic "wiggly eyes;" and a piece of yarn to represent the silk.

3. Technology: Make a "spider glider." Go to the Science Museum of Minnesota's interactive website to find out what a spider glider is and how to make one.

4. Multicultural: This site offers several spider lessons with Spanish language translations.

5. Optional assessment: Re-distribute the work mats and body part pieces. Have students glue the pieces to the work mat. Assess knowledge gained according to the accuracy of the completed model.