Spiders Mini Unit

Spiders are fascinating. They’re creepy yet incredibly important in the ecosystem. Engage your middle schoolers in a spider mini unit that allows them to spend a whole week exploring the characteristics and classification of spiders.

Why should I teach a spider mini unit?

In a word, spiders are fun. Students are instantly curious, and the more they learn about spiders, they more curious they’ll become. A mini unit is a great way to cover curricular concepts within an engaging framework. 

When should I teach a spider mini unit?

The spider mini unit makes sense at a few points in the middle school curriculum. I’ve used it as a Halloween event. I decorate the room with spiders, I give out plastic spider rings as prizes – it’s a whole party atmosphere. But a mini unit about spiders also makes sense at the point in your curriculum when you’re teaching characteristics of living things or classification of living things.

Unit plans:

Engagement:

• Spider “Fact or Fiction”- Here are 3 things I didn’t know:

• Spider anatomy worksheet 

Exploration:

• Groups of students or individuals research questions about spiders that intrigue them and report out to the class. Some questions students have researched in the past: How are the eyes of spiders different from the eyes of humans? What home and garden pests do spiders eat? How do spiders deliver venom to their victims? 

Explanation:

• Picture walk of different spider species. Students walk around the room and use posters to answer questions about different spider species including the tarantula, wolf spiders, orb weaver spiders, and jumping spiders as well as the two spiders found in the United States that are dangerous to humans – the Black Widow spider and the Brown Recluse spider.
• invertebrate identification activity. Using a question and answer format, students observe characteristics of 25 different invertebrates to identify what group they belong to. Try this mini unit by downloading the invertebrate identification activity for free here!

Extension:

• STEM activity building a spider web. Students work together as a class to develop what criteria and constraints their spider web should have and then build their web. [I always gave out plastic spider rings or spider lollipops as the prize to the group whose web could hold the most weight.]

Evaluation:

• Review activity 
• Crossword puzzle

Each day includes complete lesson plans and everything you need to implement the lesson.

What other resources can supplement the spider mini unit?

.If your students are excited by the invertebrate identification activity, introduce them to the world of dichotomous keys.  This simple dichotomous key activity gives students the structure to  create their own dichotomous keys.