Itsy Bitsy and Big Enormous Spiders!

Spraying a sheet web to make it stand out with water.

In the northwest the fall is full of spiders.  There are spider webs across walkways and under plants.  We learned about spiders today at Tiny Treks Outdoor Preschool.  We learned that spiders have 8 legs and two parts to their bodies-the abdomen and cephalathorax.  We sang "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and other funny versions like the "Eentsy Weentsy Spider" (make a tiny spider with the tips of your fingers and a very small, high voice) and the "Big Enormous Spider" (make big motions with your arms and claws for huge spiders with a very loud, low voice.)  Everyone was laughing at our funny songs.

Making new friends on our hike.

After spending some time with the chickens and rabbits at the farm we headed into the forest with sprayers in tow.  We had sprayers to spray water on the spider webs we found.  Putting water on the webs helps to make them easier to see.  Now-you might think this was a lesson on spiders.  Or webs. Or even a lesson on hiking and how to be safe in the woods.  Well, it was all of those but mostly it was a lesson in sharing.

Just having fun spraying!

As  a teacher, I know that preschoolers can have a hard time sharing.  Especially if the preschooler is still in their threes.  So I brought 5 sprayers thinking that there would be enough for every other child.  But 2 of the sprayers I bought were missing the straw part of the sprayer so they weren't going to work.  Quickly this became a lesson in sharing that was a bit more challenging. So I set up a system where after a child had a chance to spray a web I would loudly say "share" and then the sprayer had to go to the next student.  This was a very difficult lesson for some of the kids.  Other children were happy to share and pass along the sprayer. Clearly we will all be working on sharing every week!

We saw some impressive orb webs on our walk and got to watch some big spiders. We also found some sheet webs.  We'll keep looking for spiders and their webs this fall-until it gets too cold for spiders!

See you next Wednesday!

There was even a big web on the hay bales!

Lucky Tiny Treks to have a sunny lunch time!