I wanted to share our arachnophobia inducing Spider Research Project with you and share the fun and learning we had learning about spiders!   My kids were so engaged and excited learning about spiders and they learned so much!!!

Spiders Research Project

We kicked off spiders with a schema map.  Like we always do with our research projects!  We use Post It Notes so we can move our thoughts around as we organize our learning!  As we go through our spider research unit we add learning and move any misconceptions!  This is a very visual way for students to organize their learning and it’s very engaging!   My students know that our schema is what we already know about something.  Using the big vocabulary is so necessary!

We use read alouds and graphic organizers to conduct our research!   As we read, we record our learning and information on the organizers.

True false sorts are a great way to bring higher order thinking and critical thinking skills into the classroom.  When a statement is false, the kids have to explain why it’s false.  It shows that they can apply what we learned!

As we are completing our graphic organizers the students are also completing their own pages in their research journals!

The students then use their new spider knowledge to write about spiders!

      

We use the writing and a spider art project to create a spider display in our hallway!

We also do lots of spider art, science and snacks!   No research project is complete without food and science and art!     I mean who doesn’t want to eat a spider?!

Spiders Slime

Spider Slime!   Water, clear glue, and liquid starch.  Add in plastic spiders from Target.  Instant fun and excitement!

Spiders Snacks

We made Spider snacks using Oreos and pretzels!

And lots of art projects because I believe no classroom is complete without art work.  MAKE ALL THE ART!   And spiders are less creepy if it’s cute kid art….just sayin…

Paper plate spiders with sparkly legs!   I bought monster googly eyes at Dollar Tree and we used those for the eyes.  We used silver sparkly (GLITTER ALL THE THINGS!) pipe cleaners for the legs!

These spiders were so easy.  We just used rectangles and cut them into oval shapes and glued on 8 legs!

The handprint spiders are my favorite!   These turned out so cute.  My student teacher did an amazing job with the spider webs too!   We used the googly eyes from the Dollar Tree again!

Here’s another handprint spider option:

Spider Centers

Of course there are spiders in our math and literacy centers!

Spider Freebies

Spider Counting Cards FREEBIE!

And of course you can check out our Halloween and Fall resources in our classroom!  These will be getting  a lot of use in our classroom all October long!