Spiders: Wiggle Worms (toddler)

What a great week in October to read about spiders.  Here are some spider-specific activities I did in the toddler groups this week:

Letter of the Day: Ww for Web

Book:
The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle:  The farm animals keep trying to play with spider, but page after page, she is just too busy building her web.

 

 

I used a prop to build a web as the spider builds a web in the book.  See the details of this prop here: http://storytimewithmisstara.blogspot.com/2013/10/spiders-pre-k.html

 

Web in progress

Completed web:

 

Flannel Activity:

The toddlers helped the spider catch more bugs:

Each toddler was handed a bug (fly, mosquito, beetle, or hornet) and was instructed to hold onto it until invited up.

 

As they brought their bugs up (laminated with Velcro on the back) to stick onto the web, the adults sang:

 

The spider catches a fly

The spider catches a fly

Hi ho the dairy-o

The spider catches a fly

Note:  This activity worked well with the toddlers because there tends to be lower attendance this time of year - Fall Break, cooler weather, etc..  There were only 23 toddlers on Monday and 41 on Tuesday.  I could have pulled it off with the regular larger groups too, but this really was a great week to do such a hands-on activity.

Music / Movement Activity: "Itsy Bitsy Spider"

 

Each toddler picked a spider ring on the way in to hold onto during storytime (and keep).  The spiders helped us sing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" by Hap Palmer from this CD.

 

In this version, these tenacious little spiders keeps on climbing and eventually finds a toe to land on and crawl all the way up to our hair.