Learn all about spiders in the classroom in a fun yet meaningful way. Activities include art, reading, vocabulary building, labeled diagrams, and more.
Spider Lesson Plans for the Classroom
Once fall hits, my first and second graders enjoy learning about spiders. Spiders are everywhere, and we like to learn about their world. We learn new vocabulary, facts, and exciting things about spiders. Learning about spiders is so much fun; the kids never want the unit to end.
Table of contents
Spider Facts for Kids: What Makes Spiders Unique?
As kids dive into this unit, have some fun spider information for students at the ready. Here are some simple facts and interesting findings that students will enjoy.
How Spiders Help the Environment: Spiders are super helpful for the environment! They eat pesky bugs like flies and mosquitoes, helping keep gardens and homes bug-free. In fact, one spider can eat hundreds of insects in a single day! Spiders also help farmers by eating pests that harm crops, which means healthier fruits and vegetables for everyone. They build impressive webs that are strong and sticky. They make them into cool shapes to catch their prey.
Spider Myths Debunked: There are some funny myths about spiders that aren’t true at all! One myth is that spiders love to bite people, but most are harmless and don’t want to bother us. Another myth is that we swallow spiders in our sleep. Don’t worry, that’s just a made-up story. Spiders would rather stay away from humans. They’re way more interested in catching bugs than getting near us!
Fun Spider Activities for the Classroom
Before starting a unit, we always find out what the kids know and what they want to know. At the end of the unit, we can then see how much we learned. These KWL charts are an easy way to gauge what kids already know and their interest in the topic.
Spider Crafts for Hands-On Learning
Once we have started our KWL chart, we get into some spider art. We draw spiders on black construction paper and fill them with white glue. Then, we wait for the spiders to dry. It may take a few days for the glue to dry fully. The glue must be dry before moving on to the next step.
Use chalk pastels to make a rainbow background. We drew lines in different colors to cover the whole black paper. You can color over the spider and wipe it clean afterward. Use a tissue to smudge and blend the colors into the background to make a smokey effect. Finish it by using a white crayon to draw the spider’s web over the pastel colors.
How to Teach the Spider Life Cycle
We learn about a spider’s life cycle by completing “The Life of a Spider” Storybook. I start the lesson by reading and discussing a nonfiction book about the life cycle. There are many different spider alouds to choose from.
We sit together on the carpet with our books and pencils, ready to fill in words and draw pictures to represent the different stages of the cycle. These spider life cycle activities help them remember the different stages of a spider’s life.
Using Spider Vocabulary in Literacy
We learn about spider vocabulary and how to use a glossary. I give pairs of students a few words to look up in the glossary of a non-fiction book about spiders. They write the definition of a word on a card and illustrate the meaning. Building student vocabulary with these words will benefit their literacy skills.
Researching Using Fact Posters
Alongside using technology and books to research spiders, students use fact posters hung around the room. They record what they read and use that information for their booklets later.
Labeling the Parts of a Spider
As a class, we label the parts of a spider and discuss their uses. We talk about how many eyes spiders have, how many body parts they have, and how many legs they have. We discuss the differences between spiders and insects (e.g., Insects have six legs, three body parts, and wings). After I model, they create their diagrams in their spider books.
Recording Their Findings About Spiders
The kids use the printable pages to write many facts and opinions about spiders. They have plenty of space for writing and drawing pictures. After some practice reading and explaining their vocabulary words, students share their words with the class. This is a great way to have them learn new words rather than just telling them, which doesn’t necessarily stick into memory.
Facts & Opinions about Spiders
This activity is a great way to wrap up the unit. After studying spiders and recording their interesting facts, students can prove what they learned using this sorting activity. We start by playing a game together on the carpet. Kids get whiteboards to write whether a sentence is fact or opinion (we use F and O to represent those words).
You can “score” their points or read the sentences for fun. After the game, they work in pairs to cut out the same spider facts and opinions and sort them correctly on spider worksheets. This is a great way to check for student learning and is a fun exit ticket!
Spider Directed Drawing
Another way we learn about spiders is by drawing them using directed drawings! We follow step-by-step instructions to draw the body and legs. It’s a nice way to reinforce the parts of the body and what spiders look like. It’s also a lot of fun and can be paired with fun Halloween writing activities!
Spider Non-Fiction and Science Resource
These lessons and many more come from the All About Spiders pack by Proud to be Primary. It is 140 pages and geared towards first through third grade. The activities lend themselves easily to differentiating, and there is tons of variety for you to pick from!
The Non-Fiction & Science Bundle for the Entire Year includes this spider unit above, along with 15 other non-fiction and science units with similar activities.
FREE Spider Resource
Click the image below to grab a spider freebie with a sample of the activities provided in the larger unit! For fun, try the KWL chart and can-have-are activities with your kids!
Other Fall Resources and Ideas
30 Halloween Activities for Kids
Halloween Classroom Activities and Worksheets
PIN IT for Later
I love the craft!! How creative. I am just wondering how you got the white spider to black. Did you use marker? Thank you
Hi Hillery. The glue spider will dry and look black as it’s on black paper.