Spiders - Lesson 6: Spiders Live Everywhere
On this page
- Encountering the Idea
- Exploring the Idea
- Getting the Idea
- Organizing the Idea
- Closure and Assessment
- List of Activities for this Lesson
BIG IDEAS:We can find spiders everywhere in the world because they have
adapted themselves to living in different environments.
Whole Group Work
Materials
- Various reference books on spiders that describe and tell about their habitats
- Color pictures of a variety of spiders
- Pictures of different spiders' habitats including the trap-door, water, grass,
purse-web, tarantula and/or others
- Paper, pencil, crayons
All living organisms need a place where they can be safe, eat, sleep or rest,
develop from new organisms to maturity and can become adults and be able to
reproduce. Spiders are living organisms, so they too need all these things. We
know that spiders live in every kind of environment there is on earth. They live
in the desert; they live in cold weather. They live in the jungle, and they can
live underwater. One of the reasons that spiders can live in many different
places on earth is because they have adapted to their environments. They have
made changes so they can live where they are. In this lesson, we are going to
discover different ways spiders have adapted to their environments.
To begin our lesson, we are going to take a nature walk to discover and observe
different spiders and see where they live. The students prepare for the walk by
taking jars to capture any spiders they see that are different from the ones they
have in the class vivarium. They can also capture insects and other animals to
place in the vivarium for spider food.
The students will keep a record in their notebooks of the number of different
spiders they find. The students can draw pictures of the spiders they see. When
the students return to the classroom, they complete a record of their
observations. Some things they can look for are whether the spider was in the
shade or out in the sun, and whether the spider was moving or being very still.
They can make any other observations they would like.
At the Science Center, students:
- observe and draw a picture of the habitat of one of the spiders in the
vivarium.
- complete Activity - Where Do Spiders Live?
- read a book describing different spider habitats.
At the Mathematics Center, students complete
Activity - Spider Number Stories.
We can find spiders anywhere on earth because they have adapted to the
environment to make a habitat. For example, if the place where they live, their
habitat, is cold or has too much rain or light or enemies are around, some spiders build
tents that they use as retreats or hiding places to find shelter from all of
this. These spiders roll up a leaf, wrap it and secure it with silk threads. They
go into the shelter until they feel safe enough to come out. This way spiders can
live under difficult conditions in different parts of the world. Some types of
spiders use the tents to jump down on unsuspecting prey.
Some spiders build tents underwater. An aquatic spider builds her tent in the
shape of a bell and fills it with air. Other spiders make complete envelopes out
of very tough silk for themselves and their eggs until the spiderlings are
capable of taking care of themselves.
Spiders do not live in captivity for a long time. Males die soon after they mate,
but if kept alone in captivity they may linger for several weeks, usually
refusing to eat. Females, on the other hand, live longer. In some species the
female dies soon after laying eggs, but in others they may live for several
years, laying eggs annually. Some large tarantulas are known to have lived in
captivity for as long as 15 years.
Students will draw a picture of a spider they found at home or on the nature walk
and write about (dictate) where they found it (its habitat).
At the Language Center, the students make a chart:
In a whole group activity, the class suggests words to fill in blanks on
four types of spiders. Then they work in small groups to complete the frame
sentences.
I am a __________ (type of spider) __________ . You will find me __________
(habitat) __________ . I __________ (do/don't) __________ build a web.
My web __________ (what it looks like or what its used for) __________ .
Oral Assessment
- Do all spiders live in hot, dry places? Where else can you find spiders?
Name at least three different habitats that you learned about in reading your
book in the Science Center.
- Describe how a trap-door spider builds its web.
- If you were a garden spider, where and how would you build your web? What
would you eat?
Performance Assessment
- Assess completion of Activity - Where Do Spiders Live? and level of
participation in and completion of frame sentences in the Writing Center.
- Assess level of completion of a drawing of a spider found around the home
and identification of what type (garden, trap-door, etc.) of spider it is and how
the student came to that conclusion.
- Where Do Spiders Live?
- Spider Number Stories
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