Spiders....

Boy, do I miss Windows Live Writer right now. Gotta say, maybe this computer will last longer and have less viruses than the Windows computers we had, but I do not like Apple any better than Windows. I like it less, actually, and I think it's going to stay that way for awhile. (I'm not drinking the Apple Koolaid on the Imac, Apple people.) So I'm trying to get these pictures loaded on Blogger online, and I hope it works.

Anyhoo... this week we did a unit study on spiders. We spent 4 days doing experiments and reading books, and we had a blast. Seth told me often how much he'd enjoyed it, and as I've found Five in a Row to be a little less heavy on science in some books than I would like, this was a nice way to supplement.

On the first day, we made a spider per the instructions from Janice Van Cleeve's "Play and Find Out About Bugs." He had 8 eyes, eight legs, a cephalothorax, an abdomen, and later in the week, Seth insisted on adding fangs and spinnerets on his own initiative. Mr. Spider got moved around the playroom on his yarn dragline, and the boys would come in to find him in hanging in different spots. =)

A few of our books. Notice "Charlotte's Web." It was the perfect time to start this read- aloud, and I'd forgotten how much information there is about spiders in this book.

Our spider "leaping" off the table using his "dragline." 

I made a web first using a single strand of painter's tape. They threw cotton ball "bugs" at it, and we noticed how few actually stuck. Then we talked about how spiders have many strands in their webs to make it easier to catch their dinners. So they helped me make a much bigger web with more strands. After the "bugs" got stuck, they would go up to them and pretend to eat them. :)

We made spiderlings with little bits of paper and strands of thread glued to them. The boys blew on them to simulate the wind blowing them around to find new homes. 

This was to illustrate the different kinds of spider silk that spiders can make. I put yarn on top of some of the tape I'd put down to show that some strands are sticky and some are not. I also dabbed some oil on their fingers and had them notice that their fingers wouldn't stick because of it. Spiders have oily fingers that help keep them from sticking to their own webs... I loved seeing the little light bulbs going off in their minds when I did that. =)

We went to the indoor playground one day this week, and Seth enjoyed chasing other kids around and pretending to be a spider. He got at least 2 other boys around his age to join his game. =) He'd yell, "Time for dinner!" while he chased the "flies." 

At one point early in the week, Seth told me that he didn't want to keep reading "Charlotte's Web." He was worried that Wilber was going to die. After I told him that Charlotte might have a plan to keep Wilber from dying, he lit up. He can't wait to read more each day to find out more about Charlotte's plan. =)