Spiders

Snacks:You can make lots of variations of these edible spiders. For the body: Ritz crackers with cream cheese or peanut butter sandwiched in between; or for something sweeter, an Oreo cookie would work too. For the legs: Pretzel sticks or crunchy chow mein noodles or, for a sweeter option, licorice laces. For the eyes: Raisins or chocolate chips or mini M&Ms etc..

Books:

The very Busy Spider by Eric Carle

("The farm animals try to divert a busy little spider from spinning her web, but she persists and produces a thing of both beauty and usefulness. The pictures may be felt as well as seen.")

The Eensy Weensy Spider by Mary Ann Hoberman

("Eensy Weensy Spider's song becomes an extended and fun adventure in this picture-book retelling").

Aaaarrgghh, Spider! by Lydia Monks

("A clever spider is lonely and longs to become a family pet." )

Anansi and the Magic Stick by Eric A. Kimmel

("Anansi the Spider steals Hyena's magic stick so he won't have to do the chores, but when the stick's magic won't stop, he gets more than he bargained for.")

***Eric Kimmel has a series of books about Anansi the spider. Any of them would be fun.

Songs:

SPIDER DANCE
Tune: “Farmer In The Dell”

Spiders crawl around, (crawl fingers around)
Spiders up and down, (lift hands up,and down)
Spiders, spiders make a web, (make a circle above head with arms)
Spiders circle ‘round. (do a twirl)
Spiders in and out, (crawl fingers on left hand, down and back on right arm)
Spiders all about, (repeat crawl action)
Spiders, spiders make a web, (make a circle above head with arms)
Spiders all sit down. (children sit down)

EENSY WEENSY SPIDER

The Eensy weensy spider went up the water spout.
Down came the rain and washed the spider out.
Out came the sun and dried up all the ran;

And the eensy weensy spider went up the spout again.

I'M A LITTLE SPIDER (Tune: I'm a Little Teapot):

I'm a little spider watch me spin
If you'll be my dinner
I'll let you come in
Then I'll spin a web to hold you tight
And gobble you up in ONE BIG BITE!

Activity Ideas:

Marble Art Spider Webs

Materials Needed:
Dark construction paper

white paint

tray or shallow cardboard box (I used a cookie sheet)

marble

paper plate to hold paint

glue

scissors

paper spider

(you can either print a clip art picture for your child to color or cutout your own from construction paper and add eyes)

Step 1:Place the piece of construction paper in the tray

Step 2:Squeeze some paint on a paper plate

Step 3:Roll marble in the white paint

Step 4:Place paint-dipped marble on the tray and tilt tray left to right and front to back to make "spider web" designs across your paper. (If the tilting of the tray is too awkward for your child, let them roll the marble across their paper with their finger.)

Step 5: Repeat dipping marble in paint and rolling across paper until satisfied with the design.

Step 6: Color clip art spider and cut and glue it on your spider web (Example photo #1). Or cut out black spider out of construction paper and glue on eyes before gluing down to your spider web (Example photo #2).

**Your child may want to make more than one since the marble rolling will go quickly.

Example photo #1:

I did an image search on google and found a spider coloring page and printed it off.

Example photo #2: I cut out the spider out of black construction paper and had her glue on the eyes.

Spider Stamps

Materials Needed:

-Toilet Paper
-Scissors
-Black Paint
-Construction Paper

Step 1: Cut toilet paper tube like photo, an inch from the top. You need four legs on each side.
Step 2: Bend back the cardboard legs so that the tube is level at the top.
Step3: Dip stamp in black paint and begin stamping on paper.
This is a quick activity, but still fun. When the spiders dry, your child can add faces to them.