Newsletter

      Hello, Preschool 3 families! We continued our bug study this week and we got to explore and learn all about spiders. We spent our week answering all the questions our friends had about spiders. Our class is so curious! The first thing that the class learned was that spiders are not bugs, they are arachnids. We learned that bugs and arachnids have differences so spiders cannot be considered bugs. Where bugs have three body parts, arachnids have two body parts. Bugs have six legs but arachnids have eight legs. Bugs have antennae and wings whereas arachnids have neither. Did you know that most spiders have eight eyes? Our friends were excited to learn about the spider's webs and we learned that their web was made of strings of silk that came out of an opening in the back of the spider called a spinneret. We found out that not all spiders weave webs. Some use the silk to make their homes soft and cozy while others use the silk to protect their young. 

 

     One of our friend's questions was, "Do spiders fly?". We learned that some spiders fly with the assistance of their webs and the electric field (or static electricity) in the air. It is believed that spiders do this to escape from prey and to flee when they sense danger. Another friend asked, "Do spiders jump?". After some research, we learned that some spiders jump. These spiders jump in an attempt to catch their prey versus other spiders who use their webs to catch their prey. They jump far and fast and there is an actual spider called the jumping spider! Another friend asked, "Do spiders sleep?". After some digging, we found that spiders do sleep or take naps from time to time. Lastly, students asked, "What do spiders eat?". We learned that spiders eat mostly other insects and spiders. However, bigger spiders eat worms, snails, lizards, frogs, birds, and bats. Then we dove deeper into how they eat their food. Once an insect or other food ends up in a spider's web, the spider wraps it in their silk so they cannot escape. Then they inject their prey with poison. The poison makes the inside of the prey dissolve and turn into goo. The spider then sucks out the goo. The class was fascinated by all that they learned. 

 

      The class also enjoyed some fun spider/bug activities. Our spiderweb target game was a class hit! We drew a picture of a web on a big piece of paper and put it up on the wall of the classroom. Our friends were given sticky snap hand toys they had to sling onto the web, like a real spider. We also put up a yarn spiderweb in dramatic play and our friends pretended to be spiders who were finishing their web and waiting for their prey to get stuck on the web. The class created spider webs using white paint, black construction paper, and marbles. We placed the construction paper in a deep tray. Then we put the marbles in white paint. From there we put the marble in the tray and moved the tray from side to side creating our beautiful web. Our friends practiced counting while putting legs on handmade spiders using clothes pins. The class also practiced letter recognition by matching magnetic letters to letters that were entangled in a spider's web. Our friends got to make cute spiders using kinetic sand, pipe cleaners, and googly eyes. The class was super excited about our special spider snack. We took a vanilla wafer cookie and put a little bit of vanilla icing on it. Next, we put on eight mini chocolate chips for the spider's eight eyes. Last, we attached eight pretzel sticks for the spider's eight legs. Our spiders were very delicious.