EEEEEK! A SPIDER {research, writing, and crafts}

It's that time of year. Halloween is in full effect. I just finished up a few more October-inspired products for math and language arts that I'm going to use this week with my thirdsters. I'm hoping to get them uploaded today or tomorrow. In the meantime, I gathered up some new craft project ideas to compliment our spider research and writing projects. Below is a recycled post from last fall followed by a collection of spider crafts.  We're home tomorrow thanks to Mr. Columbus and I'll be wearing my Stay-at-Home-Mom hat. I'm thinking we'll get our spider craft on and make some Halloween decorations for the house.

This kit can be purchased and downloaded for  by clicking here

I had a blast focusing on spiders with my class during writing. Their level of enthusiasm made for an entire week of on task learning. We began by writing things that we “knew” about spiders on Post-It notes and placed them under the title, “My Schema.” I read several non-fiction books and discussed the elements (glossary, index, table of contents, photos, captions, etc). We discussed main idea and detail. Throughout the week we added Post-Its to the “New Learning” category and moves some of our schema over to misconceptions.

Armed with an abundance of newfound arachnid knowledge the students filled in their own charts completing the prompts: spiders can..., spiders are..., and spiders have...

We used the charts to complete the top-down writing web and then wrote the draft.

After editing with the teacher, the students wrote their final copies. I always try to culminate our writing projects with a simple art project. We created handprint spiders to accent their wonderful work.

This kit was created to be used by teachers in grades K-5. The materials were designed to make modifications easy within your classroom.

The Primary Pages above were tested and approved by my 6 year old son.

Included in this kit you will find the following spider-themed items:
a 5 detail web to organize writing
a 3 detail web to organize writing
primary-ruled draft paper
intermediate-ruled draft paper
primary-ruled final product paper
intermediate-ruled final product paper
a “Can / Have / Are” graphic organizer
headings for a Schema Tree Map

Below you'll find lots of cute ideas for spider craftivities you can make with your class to display with your spider writing. It would be hard to pick a favorite. 

This cute little spider craft would be quick, easy and cheap to make.

f the handprint craft alone didn't win me over then the 3D project certainly did. Plus, they had me at "googly eye." 

This would not only be cute, but great for fine motor skills.
I'm going to make the materials available with a sample as an indoor recess choice.

If I'm being honest, glitter scares me a heck of a lot more than spiders,
but I do really love the unexpected colors and how they look together.

Admittedly a thumbprint inked spider craft is much neater and easier than a painted hand...plus you could make a whole spider family. I think I'll have my kids do this around their published spider research writing 

Not the cheapest or the easiest project for the classroom,
but it sure would be great fun for an after school project! I love how this looks!

Be prepared to get messy, but I think I love it!
This is a great addition to spider research or a reading of Charlotte's Web

Black paper plate...genius!

Do you love it? I love it!

There is no way I'm attempting a project like this in my classroom...BUT it was too stinking cute and the fabric (or maybe it's ribbon) banner in the background was far too fabulous not to share!

{photo sources accessed: via Clutter-Free Classroom via Pinterest}