S-P-I-D-E-R

Introduction

Make a silly or scary spider that your child can play alphabet games with.

Materials:

• Multi-colored construction paper
• Scissors (*to be used by an adult only)
• Pencil
• White paper
• Glue Stick

Directions:

• Trace a circle with a pencil onto the black construction paper. Your child can use the bottom of a coffee can or other can that that may be in the home. Then have an adult cut out the circle.
• Now have your child draw eight legs. Your child can trace a pencil or pen or for a really big spider she can trace a banana. Try to make the legs curved like a banana is curved.
• Have your child glue the eight legs to the circle which will become the body of the spider.
• Using the white construction paper, have your child draw two circles for eyes. For younger children they can draw a dotted circle and have them trace it. Use other colors to make the coloring in the eyes of the spider. Have an adult, cut out the eyes.
• Have your child draw a mouth onto the red construction paper and then have an adult cut out the mouth.
• Have your child glue the mouth and eyes onto the spider.
• Finally, have your child write the word �SPIDER� on her spider. For younger children draw dotted letters that your child can trace.

Take it further:

Say the following nursery rhyme and stop before the highlighted words. Ask your child to guess what word is next. For a greater challenge have your child spell the next word and sound out each letter of the word.

The itsy bitsy spider
Crawled up the water spout
Down came the rain
And washed the spider out
Out came the sun
And dried up all the rain
And the itsy bitsy spider
Crawled up the spout again

Show different emotions:

• When making the mouth for the spider, have your child make multiple mouths. Have some be happy, sad, silly or surprised. Then have her put different mouths on the spider and ask your child what the spider is feeling.

Make an alphabet web:

• Using the attached printable, have your child connect the alphabet letters in order to make a web for your spider.

Make your own spider web:

• Using your child�s first and last name, have her connect the letters in the correct order to form a spider web.

Suggested Reading: The Itsy Bitsy Spider by Iza Trapani

• Read this beautifully illustrated book by Author Iza Trapani with your child. Try to incorporate some of the activities above while you are reading this book like stopping at certain words and having your child sound them out.

Talk about it:

• What other nursery rhymes does your child know besides The Itsy Bitsy Spider? Sing some of the nursery rhymes together. Talk about which nursery rhyme is her favorite one.