Spiders - Lesson 2: Spiders Have Special Characteristics
ACTIVITY: Who Am I?
Objective
The student learns that a spider has eight legs (four on each side of the body),
cannot fly, can spin a web, has eight eyes usually but cannot see very well, and
is not an insect.
Materials
Cut-out pictures of various types of spiders
Drawings of a spider hanging from a dragline
Pictures or drawings of a spiderweb
Pictures or drawings of a spider's eyes
Word cards - arachnid, spinnerets, silk, dragline
Pieces of silk thread
Procedures
- The teacher tells a riddle: I am an animal; I have eight legs, I cannot fly
because I have no wings; I can spin a web. Who am I?
- The teacher holds up the pictures and tells the students that a spider is
not an insect; it is an arachnid (a-rak-nid). One special thing about a spider is
that it can spin a silk web. The silk comes from inside the spider's body through
small holes at the back of the body called spinnerets. The silk comes out as a
liquid but quickly dries in the air. It is very strong and looks like a long
strand of hair.
- The teacher shows a thin, long piece of silk thread. Spiders also make
draglines out of the same sticky, liquid silk. A dragline is a very long strand
of silk that allows spiders to hang in the air. They use the draglines to capture
prey, the same way as with a web.
- Spiders have many eyes but cannot see very well.
- There are over 30,000 different types of spiders that scientists have been
able to study. Most of them are very small and not dangerous. They help us by
eating insects that we may not want to have around.
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