Worms and Spiders
"Critters that Crawl"

Ages 3 - 6

TEKS: Scientific Principals
K (4) Tools -
a. Use senses as tools of observation.
b. Make observations using tools.
K (9) Form and Function -
c, Identify ways earth provides resources for life.

Materials:

* 2 - liter plastic bottle	* chow mien noodles	* yarn
* scissors	* chocolate (bark)	* bowls
* measuring cups	* panty hose	* stapler
* measuring spoons	* pipe cleaners	* spider picture
* stuffing	* 6" x 16" dark construction paper
* masking tape or stapler	* 1/2 cup rotten vegetables	* worm picture
* shredded newspaper	* mud dauber nest	* garden or flower bed soil
* Styrofoam balls	* five red worms	* worms
* water in watering can	* oatmeal	* small seeds to sprout
* garden shovels	* newspaper	* wax paper
* spoons	* gummy worms	* "Rosie" the tarantula
* The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle		*napkins
* eyes	* glue

Overview:

• Insect review and discussion of Worms(non-insects)
• Worm activity with compost
• Make garbage gardens
• Worm hunt outside
• Worm prints with gummy worms
• Make chocolate covered worms
• Introduction to Spiders
• The Spider song
• Show "Rosie" the tarantula
• Read The Very Busy Spider
• Sing "The Itsy Bitsy Spider"
• Build a Spider
• Look for Spiders in garden
• Make a Spider hat
  

Activities:

Activity 1: Insect Review and Introduction of Worms (non-insects)

• "How many of you remember the parts of an insect that we talked about on Monday? How many body parts do they have? How do those insects move around?"
• "Today we are going to learn about creatures you may think are insects, but they are not. Non-insects do not have three body parts. Non-insects may have two body parts, or several body parts."
• Show a picture of a worm and ask, "how many body parts do you think a worm has? Actually, a worm has several body segments(show picture). So, it is an Anthropod, not an insect. Now, we are going to make our own worms! We will hand you hose and several strings of yarn to make a worm!"
• "Fill the hose with pillow stuffing and tie the ends with yarn like so(show them)."
• "Next, tie the left-over strings up and down the filled hose to make body segments."
• "Okay now pick up your wonderful worms and make them squirm!"
  

Activity 2: Worm Activity with a local worm expert from your area.

Activity 3: Garbage Garden (adapted from Sam Hambly)

• "Now we are going to make a garbage garden to observe the worms in their environment."
• "First, we will mix 1 T of oatmeal, 1 T of soil, 1/2 cup chopped vegetable waste, and moist shredded paper in a bowl."
• "Place the worms in first, then the moist ingredients that you just mixed, and lastly the seeds on top in the bottle."
• "Place the bottle top back on the bottle to reduce loss of moisture and to let in air."
• "We must keep light away from the worms, so tape this dark construction paper around the bottle. Worms like it dark. Later, you can take the dark paper off when you want to observe your worms."
• "You may take your worms home to observe them. We will send home instructions to your parents for care of your new pets!"
  

Activity 4: Worm Hunt

• "Now that we have learned all about worms, we are going to look at their habitat outside. We're going on a worm hunt!"
• Warn the children not to pick up unfamiliar insects, as they may be bitten or stung.
• Hand out garden shovels to the students.
• In a single-file line, take them outside to a tree and begin to dig in the soil.
• After about twenty minutes, take them in and clean them up for they will surely be dirty by now.
• Discuss what the children found and answer they're questions as best as you can.
  

Activity 5: Worm Prints

• "Now we have another fun activity for you all."
• Hand out white construction paper.
• Place tempera paint in a bowl in the middle of the table.
• Give each child a couple gummy worms each(not to eat).
• Have the children place them into the paint.
• Press the gummy worms onto the paper to make worm prints.
• Tell the children not to put them in their mouth and supervise them.
• Collect the wet worms and throw them into the trash and clean accordingly.
• When the paint is dry take the worm tracks home and enjoy!
  

Activity 6: Chocolate Covered Worms

• Melt chocolate bark in a microwave directly before the activity begins.
• Place wax paper under the pan to catch chocolate droppings and a plastic plate to the side to use later.
• Put melted chocolate in a bowl in order to dip in the noodles.
• "Now, we are going to make something fun and yummy that we can eat. It is called chocolate covered worms! I am going to give you some noodles and a spoon. Put the noodles in the bowl of chocolate and stir them together with you spoon. Make sure you cover your noodles well. With the spoon, scoop out the noodles one by one and let them dry on your paper plate."
• After about ten or fifteen minutes, eat, eat, eat!!!
• May place worms in the refrigerator for faster results.
  

Activity 7: Introduction of Spiders:

• "Now that we have learned so much about worms and how they are not insects, we are going to talk about another non-insect. This non-insect is the spider. Does anyone know how many body parts a spider has? A spider has two body parts: a cephalothorax and an abdomen. What else do you know about spiders? Did you know that most spiders have EIGHT eyes? The rest of the afternoon we will be doing activities to find out more about spiders."
  

Activity 9: The Spider Song

• Sing the following song to the children pointing to the appropriate body parts:
  

Cephalothorax, abdomen...abdomen

Cephalothorax, abdomen...abdomen

Six or eight eyes

Eight legs

Two Pedipalps

Don't forget the spinerettes

Spinerettes!

Activity 8: The Very Busy Spider Book (by Eric Carle)

• "We are going to read a book called The Very Busy Spider by a man named Eric Carle. Have any of you have read this book before? What do you think the story is about. Well, let's read the book and find out why this spider is sooo busy."
• Read the book to the class.
• Stop throughout the book and point out certain feature about the spider(body parts, eyes, actions such as spinning a web and chasing its prey).
• Discuss the book in a circle and allow the children to make comments about the spider.
  

Activity 9: Sing "The Itsy Bitsy Spider"

• "Does anyone know the song 'The Itsy Bitsy Spider?' Do you remember how it goes? Does anyone know the hand movements too? Let's go over the song and then we'll go over the hand movements:
  

The Itsy Bitsy Spider

crawled up the water spout.

Down came the rain

and washed the spider out.

Out came the sun

and dried up all the rain

And the Itsy Bitsy Spider

Crawled up the spout again.

Activity 10: Building a Spider

• "Now we're going to build our own spiders."
• Give each child a medium sized Styrofoam ball and 1 small Styrofoam ball. The medium one is for the abdomen and the small is for the cephalothorax.
• Give the children eight pipe cleaners each and show them how to stick them into the abdomen.
• Next, give them each eight eyes and show them how to glue them to the cephalothorax.
• Then, show them how to glue the abdomen to the cephalothorax.
• Now the spiders are done, but they need to dry overnight. Display them in the classroom for everyone to see! They children can take them home at the end of the week.
  

Activity 11: Spider Hat

• "Do any of you remember how many legs spiders have? Eight! That's correct."
• "Do any of you remember how many eyes most of them have? Eight! Right again."
• "Well, today we are going to make a spider hat!" Show them one that you have already made." This will help you to remember that they have...how many legs? And how many eyes? Let's count them together. Great! Then let's begin."
• Give the children half of a strip of construction paper (long ways) to fit around their heads and eight long, thin strips to use for the legs.
• Staple the large piece together. Be sure to measure it on the child's head first.
• Show the children how to fold all the long, thin strips back and forth like an accordion.
• Have the children glue each leg to the spider body(show them your own spider hat again).

Return to Lesson Plans