Spider Centers

Why spider centers? Well, so far my library centers have been inanimate, but this year, I'm going to add LIVE ANIMALS to boost science and nature learning. I can't wait to see the look on my students' faces as they walk into the room and see my creepy creatures!
I can actually borrow tarantulas from my local education service center, and then return them when we're finished studying them. So, although you could just find a spider nearby and place him into a container with water and wood to build a web upon, I'm gonna go with the big ole tarantulas. NOTE: if you have live spiders in your library, somebody's going to have to throw some live bugs in there for dinner!

Literature Connections

Of course, you'll want to display plenty of spider books at this center. In addition to pulling from your non-fiction collection, make sure you look for these, too:

• Charlotte's Web
• The Very Busy Spider
• Miss Spider books
• Anansi the Spider books
• Diary of a Spider
• The Tarantula Scientist
• The Lady and the Spider

Spider Posters

Here's a way to showcase what goes on in your library centers: create a spider web poster. Either draw a black web on an orange poster, or use silver markers to draw a web on a black poster. Or maybe a few of each.
Don't know how to draw a spider web?
Click here for spider web drawing instructions.
Now, I can think of a couple of ways to use these posters to show off what your students are learning. One, have your students observe the live spider and write down one thing that they notice. Two, have your students look in the non-fiction spider books, and write down a fact about spiders (in their own words, of course!) When the spider web poster is filled with student knowledge, take it out of the center and display it on your wall or out in the hallway!
I think this year we will make both types of posters, in different colors, to make awesome decorations for the hallway outside our library!

Graphic Organizers

 

From Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits, a spider facts organizer

Look. Have. Eat. Can. Here is a spider fact organizer--a great way for your early learners to organize their thoughts. Or make a poster-sized version of this graphic to allow lots of students to record their observations.

Sooooo, have you ever invited a spider into YOUR school library? How did it go?