Little Miss Muffet (Spider Focus)

Art: Spider Prints: Provide plastic and/or rubber spiders of various sizes in various colors of paints (spider body colors like black and brown).  Children dip the spiders in paints and make prints on white paper.

Easy Snack Spiders: Poke black licorice stick "legs" into the sides of chocolate cupcake spider bodies.  Use mini-marshmallows for eyes.

Bowl of "Curds and Whey": Give the children those picnic-type cardboard or plastic bowls.  Have them cut snips from strips of white paper (in keeping with this month's cutting skill) and glue them all over the inside of their bowls.  (Actually, any white or ivory/cream colored collage materials will do.)

Fine/Gross Motor: Spider Webs: Provide children with a piece of black paper that has been cut small enough to fit the inside of a Pringles Potato Chip can.  Help them place the paper in the can.  Using a spoon, they then scoop 1-2 marbles from a bowl of thick white paint and drop them into the can.  Place the lid on the can and then shake, shake, shake!  When you remove the paper from the can, you have a white spider web on the black paper.  Yes, it's noisy, but fun!
By the way, depending on the size of your bulletin board, these paintings could be the background for your Halloween decor.

Science Center: Provide pictures of spiders, as well as real samples of spiders for children to look at through a magnifying glass.

Stormie's Games: Just so you know, I offer "Spiders and Webs" patterning cards in the "Teaching Aids" section of "Stormie's Stuff for Teachers."  

*From Michelle in Port Jervis, New York:
My Favorite Spider Craft Idea: Cut an egg-hole from a cardboard egg carton.  Paint it black then add eight black pipe cleaner legs and "wiggle eyes."

*From Natascha, in Sydney, Australia:
Fine Motor Fun: Provide children with a spider posterboard cutout but do not give it legs.  The children attach colored clothespins to it for the legs.

*From Michelle Cearley:
Spiders and Webs:
Web: I buy round foil cake pans at the dollar store and cut black circles to fit inside them.  The children "marble paint" by placing two marbles in white paint, scoop them out onto the black circles, and then roll them around by moving the pans (this action makes lines on the black circles creating spider webs).  
Spider: I give each child six strips of black paper and show them how to fold them back and forth (accordian-style) to make "spider legs."  (Some children may end up with a kind of crumpled strip if making the folds are difficult for them - this works fine too.)  Then I give them a small square of black paper and they crumple it into a ball (for the spider body).  Then I "uncrumple" their balls just enough so that I can help them staple their "spider legs" to it.  We attach the spider bodies to the webs.

*From Susan B.:
Giant Web: For "Itsy, Bitsy Spider," we all sat in a circle and used yarn to make a giant spider web: I started by giving the end of a long long piece of yarn to one child.  I then walked from child to child having them grab onto the yarn.  As I walked, I went back and forth and across to get a spider web look.  The children loved it!


Favorite Books:
From Stormie:
Spider's First Day At School, by Robert Kraus:A little spider tells of the events of his first day at school.  He's afraid he won't be able to make friends with his "bug" classmates since, as he says, "Spiders don't make friends easily."  (I love his teacher's name--Miss Quito).  The story is actually for children who are a little older but it's so cute and I haven't had a problem with 4 yr olds not understanding it.
Suzanne K from New Jersey says that Eric Carle's The Very Busy Spider is about a spider who continues to spin her web throughout the day without a break.  Once she has it finished, in comes dinner!  The web itself is "raised" so children can touch it and see all the connections which hold it together as a cohesive unit.  I would use this book in October, or for "S" or "W" week.  For a follow-up activity, we make spider webs: I cut thick cardboard for each child and give them 4 (you can use more) push pins.  Everyone places their pushpins wherever they want into the cardboard, then they thread a long piece of yarn through the holes, creating their own webs.  Reading reminder: Repetition can be fun if people use inflection in their voices and have fun with books!