Spider Unit!

When it came time for Halloween this year another kindergarten teacher and I decided to do a spider unit.  This was the most fun and most successful unit I have ever done!  My students loved it!  It really incorporated the Common Core Standards too.  I wish I had taken more pictures, but I promise to be better in the future!  Scout's Honor! Before this unit I used to be scared of spiders and I am proud to say that now after studying them I am not scared at all! I actually think they are pretty cool creatures.

 I turned my dramatic play center into a Science Laboratory.  I went wondering around my house and around the school and caught about fifteen different spiders and placed them in bug containers.  The kids were able to study them and try to figure out what kinds of spiders they were by using the "All About Spiders" books we borrowed from the library.  They tried to measure them and write descriptions about them.  They were also able to take different pieces of colored paper and see which color each spider was most camouflage on.

Here is a math game that went along with our spider theme.  I took a piece of poster board and drew a spider web on it using a black permanent marker.  I then laminated it to keep it sturdy and placed small sticky notes as the game spaces.  I then made spiders out of pipe cleaners and pom poms (thanks to Hobby Lobby!) but you could use any kind of spider game piece you would like (even spider rings would be great).  I then added a dice to the game.  If they rolled a number five they were able to move up one space.  If they did not roll a five they had to say whether the number they rolled was greater than or less than five and pass the dice to the next player.  They LOVED this game and it never got old!

On Halloween we had a Spider Celebration!  We encouraged the kids to dress up like spiders and we rotated through the kindergarten classes doing fun activities with and about spiders.  Some kids were so decked out it was fantastic!  Some of the teachers dressed up too we had a blast!