Three days last week I subbed in a first grade classroom. The teacher was out due to health issues, and she had to leave abruptly, so the sub plans were few and far between. Luckily for the kiddos, I was in the Halloween spirit and whipped up this fun, and educational, activity over spiders. You can download the worksheets at my store on Tpt. If you don't have Tpt, you can download it here on Google Drive.
While the kids were in the gym for their morning assembly, I placed the spider tracing paper on their desk. They normally do some sort of writing practice first thing in the morning, so this aligned with their normal schedule. To add some fun, I placed these fun spider rings on the papers, for them to wear and keep! I had these from when I taught last year, purchased from Oriental Trading.
We read the writing after everyone was done tracing it.
Before the teacher was absent, the class had been discussing nouns and was in the beginning phases of discussing verbs. So, to give us some knowledge on spiders, we watched "Diary of a Spider" on Bookflix and then read "A Spiderling Grows Up."
(Bookflix is a site from Scholastic. Don't have access? Catch it being read on YouTube or check it out from your local library. You can also purchase "Diary of a Spider" on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.)
After we filled our brains with all things spiders, we talked about what adjectives and verbs were. Then we made a list of Spider Adjectives and Spider Verbs.
I explained how important it was to use the right adjective and verb when speaking or writing, because, if not, it could change the entire way we imagine what we read. See the difference between a poisonous and a cute spider?
I explained how important it was to use the right adjective and verb when speaking or writing, because, if not, it could change the entire way we imagine what we read. See the difference between a poisonous and a cute spider?
We finished off our creepy crawler day by completing a writing/ science activity. For this, I gave each student a copy of the spider writing page with the blank spaces. I used the document camera and projector to fill in the spaces as we talked about it. I left the last one blank for them to fill in. I then briefly explained the spider craft and how to do it. They did this when they finished with their writing.
For the spider craft, they got one piece of orange, one piece of black, one fourth piece of white, and one fourth piece of red (if they wanted red eyes). This was all regular (8.5" by 11") construction paper the teacher had in her classroom. I had google eyes at home that I had brought, so if they didn't want red eyes they could use google eyes. You can buy all sorts of these at your local craft store or at Amazon.
When they finished their spider craft, I attached it to their writing paper. I am sure the teacher was thrilled to see that, with her absence, her students were learning and having fun!
