This year my class loves circle time, they are so engaged, and I have had a blast creating circle time activities for them. One of the things I always incorporate into my circle time activities is movement. Movement helps to break up the sitting time, and that helps preschoolers to stay engaged and be successful. I would much rather help these little learners by setting them up for success than giving out warnings or addressing challenging behavior because I’ve created an impossibly challenging situation where my expectations for my students don’t meet their developmental level. This spider themed circle time activity works with any spider or color themed book though I used an old favorite; The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle. My students loved this activity, and I think the magic was the mix of music and movement so I couldn’t wait to share it with you to try.

 

The Printables & Prep

Gather your materials; you will need the spider printables and the spider web printable too. The web is small enough that you can print it and use it on a cookie sheet. You will also need some magnetic tape, scissors, and a laminator.

Print out the printables.

Spiders Printable <— download here

Web Printable <— download here

Laminate and cut out. Add magnets on the back of the web and spiders.

Place the web and the black spider on the board. Place all the other spiders in a basket or even just pop them in your pocket. You’ll be handing them out to your students later.

The Rhyme

Next practice this little tune because you will be singing during this spider themed circle time! The song’s tune is the familiar ” One Little Duck”

“One little spider went to play, on a spider web one day, they had such enormous fun that they called for the ( color ) spider to come!”

Repeat with two little spiders, and so on.

The Spider Themed Circle Time

After you read the book, tell your students that you have a web like the web in the book here on the board. You have one black spider on the web but a whole bunch of other spiders in your basket/pocket. Explain that you need their help putting the right spiders on the web. Hand out the colored spiders to each child, saying the color as you do. Remember this is more about participating in a group activity than color recognition, but learning colors is a secondary goal. As you hand them out say ” Jenny you get the green spider.” for example. This not only helps that child but any child who is listening as well.

Once every child has their spider tell them that when they hear their spider’s color called out they need to stand up and put their spider on the board. If you don’t have a magnet board you can simply place the web in the middle of the circle and have the children place their spiders in the middle.

Time to sing!

“One little spider went to play, on a spider web one day, they had such enormous fun that they called for the ( color ) spider to come!”

When the next spider is added I start the tune with ” Two little spiders”,.” , then three and so on.

When a color is called out and the child doesn’t come up, do not fret. Simply say ” Can anyone find the friend who has the yellow spider and encourage them to put it on the web?” Let the students scaffold for each other, even very young preschoolers are capable of this.

How To Differentiate This Spider Themed Circle Time

My students loved this activity and were happily engaged the whole time but simple color recognition may not be challenging enough for older students. Instead, you can add letters or numbers on the spiders and instead of singing “…that they called for the yellow spider to come.” They can try ” They called for the number 4 to come or letter g to come!”