Spider Book Based Unit for Preschool

We had so much fun with our spider unit the last few weeks!   

First we read a factual book, Super Spiders by Jason Blake.  My daughter loves spiders and was excited to learn about them, however, in a classroom it is always a good idea to see how students feel about spiders.  After reading the book we focused on three of the biggest "facts:"  spiders have eight legs, two body parts and eight eyes (four pairs).  V liked labeled the spider with the numbers.  Finally, we made this adorable spider crown.

On day 2 we read The Very Busy Spider,  by Eric Carle.  After we read through the story once, she helped to retell the story.  We reviewed the characters and the narrators response.  Then, we worked on rhyming with "Spider Spider in the Web."  V worked on finding a rhyme out of four choices.  For an art/sensory project I drew a web on a square piece black paper.  V used a bottle of white glue and traced the lines.  Then, she coated the glue lines with salt and used watercolors to paint the web.  For a fine-motor work out, we sorted jumping spiders into the correct web.

On Day 3 we learned the nursery rhyme Little Miss Muffet.  To help V remember, we role played it using a chair and a plastic spider.  V pretended to sit on the chair and eat her curds and whey.  I crept close to the chair with a little spider and she pretended to be terrified and jumped out of the chair.  We talked about the letters in our name and that spider starts with the letter "s."  We rotated through several centers throughout the week.

Centers:

1.  Using shaving cream, glue and a dab of Karo syrup V made this web like shape.  She cut out the letters of her name and placed them in the mixture.  

2.  We used glow in the dark webs, spiders and other creepy bugs to make this fun sensory table.  I added several of our ABC cards to practice matching uppercase letters (spiders to webs).  

3.  We made a fun slime and created spider tracks.

4.  We built spiders with dough, pipe cleaners, googly eyes etc.

5.  We made an S is for Spiders Craft.

Day 4 we focused on Itsy Bitsy Spider.  We love the story by Kate Toms.  We also practiced the nursery rhyme the traditional way with our fingers.  V LOVED our cute story prop.  We used a black bag and our poem to make a cute 3D house.  Then we taped a straw to the side of the house, slid the spider on the straw and taped the bottom.  We practiced the song all day and used our prop as a Halloween decoration.

V also worked on tracing numbers, matching numbers to sets, and recognizing numbers with these fun printables.

Day 5 we focused on sequencing with the book  There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly.  As we read the book, we stuck the characters on the our Little Old Lady Story Prop.  After we read, we recalled the story and the order the characters appeared in the story.  For a project V made this cut Little Old Lady story prop using our printable and a baggie.  It was fun to retell the story to her friends.

On Day 6 we focused on numbers and the number 8.  V loved to help read our story.  As we read Counting Spiders V helped stick the ring spiders into the web.  Then, we played a spider game.  I placed contact paper onto the window.  V identified the number and then placed the matching number of flies on the web.  Then, we made this cute spider craft.  We discussed the shapes circle and rectangle and reviewed the fact that a spider has 8 legs.  Finally, V matched spiders to numbers with this cute printable.

This unit was so fun!  Although we had a theme each of the six days, we were able to stretch this unit out for two week!  Check it out here:

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