I can’t decide if my son really likes spiders, or if he just finds it funny that they creep me out. Either way, every Fall I face my fears as we delve into the world of spiders and string together a story about spiders taking over our apartment.
We do the following activities over the course of a couple of weeks, building up to the final spider takeover.
We start by reading Eric Carl’s The Very Busy Spider.
Then we visit the Natural History Museum’s Spider Pavilion to see some truly amazing orb weavers.
Don’t have a spider pavilion near you? You can still find some amazing spiders on a nature walk through local gardens or parks.
At home, we do some simple spider crafts that lead to some amazing things happening in our apartment.
It starts when we build our leading character out of pipe-cleaners.
Of course, this spider needs a home. So we build it a web. There’s no technique here. Just glue and tie some dowels, and haphazardly wrap some yarn around the frame.
But maybe the web isn’t big enough… or sticky enough… or maybe the spider is in the mood for an adventure. We don’t know why. But for some reason, the spider starts to venture out a bit.
In the morning, when the little guy wakes up, the spider has moved. He ends up all over the apartment, at various different times. We do this for days. The first day I ask my son: “Have you seen the spider? He’s not in his web.” And the hunt begins. After a couple of days, my son wakes up ready to track down the spider.
The catch-and-release spider trapper always returns the spider to its web.
But this spider just won’t stay put! Eventually, in the cover of night, spidey builds the ultimate web and completely takes over!
When the little guy wakes up, he finds the spider in the web, and can’t resist joining him for some web-hopping fun.
Fortunately, even the very busy spider is no match for our family’s spider- trapping, web-destroying champion!
