Spider Preschool Activities, Photo by Paul Stein
Enjoy this preschool lesson plan all about spiders. The following activities will introduce children to spiders through fun facts, activities, books, songs, and crafts. This lesson plan works well in conjunction with a daycare center unit with a theme about bugs or Halloween.
Learning about Spiders
Basic facts about spiders:
Spiders have eight legs, an abdomen, and a thorax.
Spiders eat other insects.
Spiders produce silk to climb and spin webs to catch.
Spiders have either six or eight eyes.
There are about 40,000 spider species.
Preschool Spider Craft
Styrofoam Ball Spider
Materials: Medium sized Styrofoam balls, black tempera paint, wide black pipe cleaners, googley eyes, glue, scissors
Instructions: Encourage children to paint the Styrofoam ball black. Allow to dry completely. Cut the black pipe cleaners in half. Next show children how to push pipe cleaners into the Styrofoam ball for the spider’s legs. There will be four on each side. Next, glue the googley eyes on the face of the spider.
Spider Math/Manipulation Activity
This activity will help children practice counting and sorting. Cut out spiders from black construction paper, card stock, or felt. Attach a red sticker to half of the spiders to create black widow spiders. Encourage children to count the total number of butterflies. Then ask children to count the number of spiders without red dots. Next ask children to count the number of black widows. Children can then arrange the spiders on the felt board or sort construction paper spiders into two separate categories or piles.
Preschool Spider Song
“Sing a Song of Spiders”
Sing “Sing a Song of Spiders*” to the tune of “Sing a Song of Six Pence”.
“Sing a song of spiders,
Up in a tree.
Six shinny spiders,
Sliding down by me.
When they came near,
I began to run.
Sitting under spiders
Isn’t lots of fun!”
*By Jean Warren, Preschoolexpress.com
Preschool Books about Spiders
Here are some books about spiders to share with preschoolers:
Aaarrggh! Spider! by Lydia Monks [Sandpiper, 2007]
Are You a Spider? by Tudor Humphries [Kingfisher, 2003]
The Very Busy Spider? by Eric Carle [Philomel, 1989]
Diary of a Spider by Doreen Cronin and Harry Bliss [HarperCollins, 2005]
The Itsy Bitsy Spider by Iza Trapani [Charlesbridge Publishing, 1997]
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