Spider Fingers!

Spiders, spiders, and more spiders!!! No, I don't like spiders....but it's almost Halloween and I figured my firsties would enjoy a unit on spiders. I was right. They LOVED it! 

I started Monday morning with a web graph on the board. It immediately grabbed their attention as soon as they walked in the room! I mean, why wouldn't it? It's completely awesome...I'm an artist, didn't you know?! Ha! Just kidding! First graders will notice ANYTHING new....especially a giant spider web on the board! 

We talked a little about spiders. The kids voted whether or not they thought spiders were creepy or not, by drawing their own little spiders on the web. Ok, maybe it's the lil' spiders that make it so awesome:).

We read this cute little book about spiders and then did some brainstorming for our mini spider reports.

This was their first go at informational writing. We need some more practice with topic sentences; but overall, a very successful week of writing. I can't believe  how much growth they've already made since August! 

The students copied their rough drafts on to a spider body for the final drafts. This was a hit with the kiddos! I didn't mind cutting out 178 little spider legs:).

So cute!

Ok, I had to post this last spider because one of my lil' firsties informed me that it was a mini me. I guess I'm a spider:). At least I'm smiling:).

Next up....our Sammy the Spider books! The kids connected their spider rings to their books using a dragline (fancy spider vocabulary-aka string) to use for tracking while reading. Another big hit with the kiddos! 

Blingy spider rings:).

Reading is much more fun with a spider on your finger:). I think I need to invest in some year-round spider ring trackers.

That concludes our spider week! Stay tuned for bat week next week! Have a great weekend!

~Jamie