INTRODUCTION:

They are creepy and crawly and give many of us fright.  Are you afraid of spiders?  What exactly are you afraid of?  Many people fear spider, but they don’t really have a good reason to be afraid of them.  With the help of your “Reading Buddy”, you will be investigating the fascinating world of spiders!

Some facts about spiders include:                                      

Spiders belong to a class of animals called Arachnids.

Most spiders have eight legs.

Some spiders are poisonous.

Spiders can spin a web of silk.

TASK:

1.  First you will need to choose a spider you wish to investigate.

2.  You will use World Wide Web to investigate you spider.

3.  You will record your finding on a record sheet.

4.  You will report your findings in a presentation to the class.

 PROCESS:

1.  Choose a spider.  You can look here to look at some of the different kinds of spiders.

2.  Find out how your spider looks like; look for information about how many eyes and legs does it have.  Draw a picture.

3.  Find out what your spider eats.

4.  Find three interesting facts about your spider that are somehow unusual, or amazing.  You can list some of the following facts:

• Habitat; in what type of climate or part of the world would you find your spider
• Type of web: describe the spider’s web.
• Does it have any special physical features?

5.  Use the resources provided below to complete your sheet.

RESOURCES:                                                 

This site has facts about a few of the spiders:

http://polk.ga.net/Westside/Spider/Westside_Spidermania.html   

Pictures of spiders:

http://www.xs4all.nl/~ednieuw/Spiders/thumbnails/spidhome_thumbnails.htm 

Common spiders:

http://www.rochedalss.eq.edu.au/commonspidersusa.htm 

More Spiders:

http://arachne.cofc.edu/HVE/myspider.html

Black Widow Spider:

http://www.ext.vt.edu/departments/entomology/factsheets/blackwid.html

Wolf Spider:

http://www.ext.vt.edu/departments/entomology/factsheets/wolfspid.html  

Mexican Red-kneed Tarantula:

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/arachnids/spider/Spiderprintout.shtml 

Tarantula:

http://www.desertusa.com/july96/du_taran.html

Trapdoor Spider:

http://goodnightstories.com/wildlife/insects/card29.htm  

Use these books for more information about spiders:

Spiders by Christopher Nicholas

The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle

The Spider’s Web by Christine Web

The Lady and the Spider by Faith McNulty

Discovering Spiders by Penny Malcolm

 EVALUATION:

CONCLUSION:

Congratulations, You have finished your quest!  Now that you have become a spider expert you may choose to play a few games that involve the creepy crawlies.

Some spider games:

http://www.mov.vic.gov.au/spiders/games.aspx 

Food hunt game:

http://www.rochedalss.eq.edu.au/spidergame.htm