Spider Web Letters
Materials
- black construction paper
- white chalk, pencil, or crayon
- liquid glue
- glitter or glitter glue
In early fall, go on a spider web hunt to look for orb weavers.
Background Information
Some spiders make an orb web to trap their prey. They use silk produced by glands within their body and extruded through spinnerets on their abdomens. The liquid silk hardens quickly and is incredibly strong. Some strands within their web are sticky and some are dry. A spider moves about on the dry strands but a spider’s feet are also oily so that they don’t stick to their own web. The spider attaches itself to the web with a silk strand and hangs out in the web or below the web waiting to feel a vibration from a trapped insect. It rushes out and wraps its catch in fresh silk for eating at a later time or it will snack on its prey immediately. Spiders can’t chew so they inject poison through their fangs into a prey’s body. The poison turns the prey into a liquid and the spider sips a tasty meal.
Activity
Each child will need a piece of black construction paper. They can use their paper vertically or horizontally.
First they need to use chalk to draw a line that curves from corner to corner at the top of their paper.
Next they ‘hang’ a capital letter ‘Y’ from their line. Before they start, you might want them to make a small dot in the middle of their paper to aim for. Help them touch their chalk to the line on the left and slide down to the right going to the middle of their paper. Now touch the line on the right and slide to the left going to the middle of the paper and touching the first line. They should have a letter ‘V’ hanging down. Finally make a line going straight down from the bottom of the ‘V’ and the ‘Y’ is complete.
Have the children start in the middle and spiral around and around stopping at the top curved line. If they choose, they can then add more straight lines to their ‘Y.’
Carefully cover the chalk lines with liquid glue. Sprinkle glitter over the glue and let dry for several hours (drying them overnight works best).
With younger children a glitter glue pen works well.
Remember if the end result doesn’t resemble any spider’s web you’ve ever seen before, that’s perfectly fine. To the child the process is most important.
Activity provided by:
Fontenelle Forest
1111 N. Bellevue Blvd.
Bellevue, NE 68005
www.fontenelleforest.org

_ 0-1
_ 1-2
_ 2-3
✓ 3-4
✓ 4-5
✓ 5-6
Category: Crafts
Iowa Early Learning Standards:
8.2, 8.3, 9.1, 9.4, 11.2, 13.1, 14.3
Related Kindernature Resources:
- Peachy Spiders
- Spider Cupcakes
- Spider Hats
- Spider Spins a Web
- Spider’s Web Game
- Spunky Spiders
- Sticky Spider Web Play