Eeeek!   Check out the photo of the spider who took up residence outside our kitchen window this past week. 

(It’s a black and yellow argiope.) 

If the size of the spider wasn’t intriguing enough, when a grasshopper became entangled in the spider’s clutches, it was fascinating! 

And, the questions started to roll!  Can a spider turn its head?  Is he really eating it?  Does he have teeth?

This week, I’d like to share some spider resources I have found and activities we have started or will be completing over the course of our unit (or my daughter asks about another science concept...whichever comes first!)

I started by purchasing the spider lapbook project pack from In The Hands of a Child (www.handsofachild.com).  We spent the first day learning about the unique physical characteristics of spiders and answered the “Is he really eating it?” and “Does it have teeth?” questions..

Other Activities

• Design and build a spider home.  Spiders live in a variety of habitats.  Select a habitat (desert, backyard, forest, etc.) and think about what the habitat is like and what the spider would need to survive in this habitat.   You can use any materials for your habitat – shoebox or other cardboard box, aquarium, bug habitat, art materials, materials from outside, etc.  Don’t forget to put a spider inside.  (If you don’t have a fake spider for your home, try making the spider in the next activity.)

• Make a spider with jointed legs using pieces of straw for the leg.  Use an egg-shaped piece of Styrofoam as the body (cut it in half, lengthwise), hot glue a small round Styrofoam ball as the head. 

• Create a moving spider following the instructions at this site: http://www.berghuis.co.nz/abiator/unit/science/spiders/make.html 
  
• Around the World on a Spider!  Read information about spiders found in different parts of the world.  I enlarged a copy of the world map and put it on our wall.  Each day we are visiting a website devoted to spider found in different parts of the world.  After drawing a picture of different spiders, we’ll put them up on the wall and run a piece of yarn from the spider to the country.

         Here are some of the sites I’ve bookmarked for this activity:

         European spiders  http://www.eurospiders.com

        South African spiders http://www.museums.org.za/bio/spiderweb/mug.htm

        Spiders of northwest Europe http://www.xs4all.nl/~ednieuw/Spiders/spidhome.htm

        Spiders found in Japan http://www.cyberoz.net/city/sekine/zukax06.htm

        Spiders and Insects of North America  http://www.cirrusimage.com

•  How do spiders build their web:  Check out these two movies!  (You’ll need QuickTime installed on your computer.) http://www.conservation.unibas.ch/team/zschokke/movie.html

• Make a spider web (PreK-1^st):  Cut a circle out of a Styrofoam meat tray. Next, make small notches all the way around the outside of the circle.  Then, wind yard across from one side of the circle to the other, using the notches to hold the yarn in place.  Draw and color a small spider to put on your web.

• Why don’t spiders stick to their own web?  For the answer, check out Dr. Universe at  http://www.wsu.edu/DrUniverse/spiders.html

• What really our attention about this particular web outside our kitchen window was the zig zag section of silk, called the stabilimentum.   We thought it was mostly for decoration, but as we’ve studied more about this spider and various types of webs, we’ve found that this section of the web has caused a lot of discussion among scientists and spider enthusiasts.  Here are some good photos from Cornell Univsersity

http://www.entomology.cornell.edu/Faculty_Staff/Blackledge/stabilimenta_photos.html

This particular spider spins debris into is stabilimentum

http://www.entomology.cornell.edu/Faculty_Staff/Blackledge/other_stab.html

So, what purpose does the stabilimentum serve?  From the name, we thought the stabilimentum added stability to the web, but not so….read here….

http://www.bugsinthenews.com/stabilimentum_and_some_notions_on%20function.htm

 
Resources for our spider unit are endless, and we’ll go until we finish our  spider lapbook project pack and my daughter says, “Ok, can we now study……”

Thanks for visiting this week. 

Michelle 

Michelle and her husband have been homeschooling for 9 years.  They are the owners of Treasure Box Press.  Michelle holds a Master's degree in Child Development and Family Studies. She serves as the Judge Advisor for the North Carolina FIRST (www.usfirst.org) Lego League and a judge for the www.FIRST.org World Festival.  She is the author of numerous Sam's Science Adventures, including "RIC: Robots in the Classroom", all available through www.TreasureBoxPress.com.  She spent 15 years in the biotechnology industry before turning her heart toward home.