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Spider Facts for Kindergarten

Children are natural curiosity seekers. Kindergarten teachers can take advantage of this natural curiosity and turn it into an educational experience. In conceptualizing how to go about entertaining, as well as educating children as young as five about spiders, the exercise can involve a process of describing the spiders' anatomy, what they eat and how they hunt their prey, their fangs -- as well as teaching about the venom and silk strands which they use to form their webs.

Arachnids
- Children can learn how spiders differentiate from insects through the identification of their eight legs and two body segments. Through discussion as well as pictures, children can see that spiders do not have wings or antennas and do not have the ability to chew their food. Teachers can explain that as an arachnid; spiders are part of a family that includes ticks, mites and even scorpions.
Body
- Showing kindergartners pictures of a spider's anatomy will allow them to visualize the different parts associated with spiders. This includes the front segment which includes its eyes and mouth. Many species of spiders have more than eight eyes. Spiders do not have bones beneath their skin, as they have an exoskeleton. Teachers should relay to children that spiders wear their skeleton on the outside of their bodies to protect their insides from harm.
Venom
- When discussing poisonous spiders, teachers should tell kindergartners that spiders do not have teeth and use fangs to inject their prey with venom. The venom that comes from within a spiders glands, will render the prey paralyzed and helpless, allowing the spider to feed on the victim for an extended period. An important point, which needs explaining, is that not all spiders are poisonous.
Webs
- Children need to know that all spiders are capable of producing webs. However, not all spiders choose to spin a web. A spider will spin a web to catch its prey. Webs consist of many layers of silk sticky lines that capture creatures that wander in. Often, spiders will spin a web in order to travel and climb; and sometimes they will wrap their prey on capture.
What They Eat
- Spiders do not hunt people for food. It's only, when threatened that a spider may lash out and attack a human. For example, the tarantula that has a scary appearance, is not an aggressive spider -- and it will not pose any harm to humans, unless it is cornered or mishandled. In most cases, spiders are carnivorous and eat insects; such as flies, moths, and caterpillars. However, some large spiders will feed on larger prey such as fish, birds, and small four-legged animals. Teachers should also acknowledge that some spiders are omnivorous and feed on the juices of plants, vegetables and fruits.

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