the very busy spider literacy planning

• Teaching primary
• Stories and poems

The Very Busy Spider

This lesson plan for A1 level primary learners aged 5 to 6 years old helps raise awareness about visual impairment.

This is a series of activities and related worksheets for you to download and use with the storybook  The Very Busy Spider.  Learners will make a touchy feely book and give a presentation of the story. It forms part of the  Promoting diversity through children's literature  series, produced by the British Council Teaching Centre in Paris.

5-6 years old

About the story

The Very Busy Spider is a story which describes a spider's day. A spider is flown onto a farmyard fence and she starts to spin a web. The other animals ask if she wants to play but in every case the spider didn't answer. She was very busy spinning her web. The book is touchable and the strands of the spider's web are embossed onto the page so children can follow them with their fingertips. The book allows for work on raising awareness about children who are visually impaired. Beautifully illustrated by Eric Carle.

Language areas

• Farmyard animals and places
• Spider-related vocabulary
• Animal body parts
• Traditional games using a blindfold

Diversity themes

• Raising awareness of visual impairment
• Finding out about Braille

Main outcomes

• Making a touchy feely book
• Making a spider and a web
• Singing a song 'Spider in the web'
• Giving a presentation of the story

The Very Busy Spider , Eric Carle, Hamish Hamilton, ISBN 0241 11430 6

Story notes by Nicky Francis

The materials form part of the Promoting diversity through children's literature series, produced by the British Council Teaching Centre in Paris. You can download materials for five sessions of around three hours each. The materials include:

• A sequence of activities – a plan for you to follow
• Worksheets – for you to print and use with your learners

Research and insight

Browse fascinating case studies, research papers, publications and books by researchers and ELT experts from around the world.

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The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle: An Interactive Lesson Plan for Classrooms or Homeschools

• Donna Cosmato
• Categories : Lesson plans & worksheets for grades 1 & 2
• Tags : Teaching grades pre k to 5

This fun lesson uses the book The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle, and takes 30 to 60 minutes to present. Literacy teaching tips are included; use this as a stand-alone lesson or combine it with other lessons in an Eric Carle series .

Objective: This elementary level lesson plan teaches guided reading, prediction, language arts, and prewriting skills. Students connect printed words with spoken words and develop vocabulary fluency, and word recognition.

Lesson Plan Supplies and Prep

Before class, prepare the bulletin board by placing the push pins in a five point star shape – one at the top, two on either side, one each on the bottom left and right. Make a slip knot in the yarn and affix it to the top push pin. After the story is told, the yarn is looped from push pin to push pin to form a star as the discussion questions are asked and answered. The yarn is then looped around the outside of the star to form a web during the remaining question and answer session.

Example: Start at the top middle push pin, wrap the yarn around the pin and bring it down to the pin in the right hand corner. Ask a question, let the kids answer, and wrap the yarn around the push pin. Bring the yarn up to the pin in the upper left hand corner and continue the pattern until a star pattern is formed

The following supplies are needed for this literacy lesson plan:

• The Very Busy Spider,by Eric Carle
• One skein red thread
• Five push pins
• A small portable bulletin board or other board to insert the push pins.
• Easel for bulletin board

Classroom Lesson Plans - Tell the Story

Show the book cover to the class, and then point to the title and say it aloud. This helps emergent readers to connect the printed word with the spoken word. Since weaving the spider web requires hands-on activity, we recommend reading the story first. Mark the pages corresponding to the discussion questions with sticky notes, and refer back to those pages as visual clues to help the class answer the questions.

Teacher Resources – Discussion Questions

Try these discussion questions to get the class engaged in the activity:

• What did the horse invite the spider to do?
• Why didn’t the spider answer?
• The cow wanted to share her grass, but the spider ignored her – why?
• What happened when the sheep wanted to run with the spider?
• The spider did not answer when the animals spoke to her – was she being rude?
• The goat tried to get the spider’s attention – what did he say?
• What did the pig want the spider to do?
• Why didn’t the spider chase cats with the dog?
• When it was naptime, who took a nap? What did the spider do?
• Who wanted to go for a swim with the spider?
• Who caught the fly?
• The owl wanted to know who made the web, but got no answer. Why not?

For other Eric Carle lesson plans, please read “ Fun Elementary Math Lesson Plan: The Very Busy Spider.”

Recommended Reading List

Try these books in your classroom or at home to extend the lesson of The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle.

Slowly, Slowly, Slowly Said the Sloth by Eric Carle

The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle

The Magic School Bus Spins a Web by Joanna Cole

Learning About Spider by Jan Slovak

On Beyond Bugs: All About Insects by Tish Rabe

This post is part of the series: Lesson Plans for Teachers The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle

Here is a series of articles supporting teacher lesson plans on the children’s book The Very Busy Spider. This collection of articles includes a lesson plan and literacy building activities.

• Teacher Lesson Plans: The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle
• Use The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle to Teach Math Skills
• Elementary Art Lesson Plan: Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle

• ELEMENTARY TEACHING , LITERACY

The Very Busy Spider Activities and Lesson Plans for 2024

Elementary teachers looking for lesson plans and activities for The Very Busy Spider will find this post helpful. It includes resource recommendations, free teaching ideas, and information about the book. You’ll have everything you need to deliver engaging interactive read aloud lessons based on this story.

With themes of goal setting and patience , this The Very Busy Spider picture book by Eric Carle is a favorite in 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade classrooms. It will be a big hit in your classroom too!  Learn  more about this book below!

Engage Your Students with The Very Busy Spider Lesson Plans & Activities in 3 Easy Steps:

• Read a summary of The Very Busy Spider . You can find it in the section below.
• Check out the teaching ideas for reading comprehension strategies, grammar topics and social emotional learning skills that can be taught using this children’s book.
• Download the book companion to make lesson planning simple with The Very Busy Spider reading comprehension questions, writing prompts, teaching ideas & no-prep extension activities.

THE VERY BUSY SPIDER SUMMARY

One morning, a spider gets blown across a field by the wind and lands on a fence post near a farm. She starts to build her web between two fence posts and works hard on staying focused.

Many animals on the farm come up to the spider and ask her if she wants to play with them. Each time, the spider keeps working on her web because she is very busy. At the end of the story, the spider finishes building her web and catches a pesky fly in it. The spider falls asleep because she had a very busy day.

THE VERY BUSY SPIDER LESSON PLAN IDEAS

Each of our 400+ Starts With a Story book companions come with a teacher’s guide to make lesson planning quick and easy, printable worksheets and digital resources that cover ALL of the standards-based reading comprehension skills.

When it comes to writing lesson plans and finding activities for The Very Busy Spider , we’ve already done all of the heavy lifting for you.

We found this book was especially good at teaching the topics listed below.

READING COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS

The text-based The Very Busy Spider reading comprehension questions focus on:

• analyzing illustrations
• visualizing

LITERATURE-BASED SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING LESSONS

We found this story to be a great SEL picture book to promote:

• goal setting

GRAMMAR, VOCABULARY & WORD STUDY

THE VERY BUSY SPIDER ACTIVITIES

You’ll receive all of the following resources aligned to the story:

• comprehension questions
• 30 writing prompts with themed paper
• vocabulary activities
• word study print & go activities
• ideas for grammar lessons with focus sentence printables
• social emotional learning discussion topics
• graphic organizers to target specific comprehension skills and strategies

YOU HAVE 2 OPTIONS! WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE TO PURCHASE THIS BOOK COMPANION?

BOOK INFO FOR ELEMENTARY TEACHERS

What are the reading levels for the very busy spider.

• Lexile® Measure: 330L
• Guided Reading Level: I
• DRA Level: 16
• Accelerated Reader Level (ARC): 1.9

Who is the author? Who is the illustrator?

The book was written by Eric Carle . It was illustrated by Eric Carle .

What genre is The Very Busy Spider?

It is a fiction book. You may want to check out our genre activities or read our blog post, How to Teach Genre to Elementary Students .

How many pages are in the book?

The story is 24 pages long.

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• Language Arts

The Very Busy Spider Activities & Printables

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We sometimes use affiliate links in our content. This won’t cost you anything, but it helps us to keep the site running. Thanks for your support.

This simple story of is the foundation for gobs of great lessons for your preschool or kindergarten student. Since The Very Busy Spider is set on the farm, you can use it to learn more about farm animals. You can also review a nursery rhyme, read some poems, sing a song, and learn more about spiders and webs. Grab our free The Very Busy Spider activities and get started!

The Very Busy Spider Story Summary

Early one morning a little spider spins her web on a fence post. One by one, the animals of the nearby farm try to distract her, yet the busy little spider keeps diligently at her work. When she is done, she is able to show everyone that not only is her creation quite beautiful, it is also quite useful! The Very Busy Spider from amazon.com

The Very Busy Spider Activities and Lessons

Your preschool or kindergarten student will love reading the story and diving into these fun lessons and activities based on Eric Carle’s book.

Pre-Reading: Hide and Seek with the Fly Have your young student find the fly on each two page spread of  The Very Busy Spider .

Nursery Rhyme and Drama Little Miss Muffet Sat on her tuffet, Eating her curds and whey; Along came a spider, Who sat down beside her, And frightened Miss Muffet away.

This is a fun nursery rhyme to act out; you can take turns being Miss Muffet and the spider. You can even use some small props like a plastic bowl, plastic spoon, toy spider, bow in the hair (for Miss Muffet). When the spider frightens Miss Muffet, she can throw her bowl and spoon up in the air! 

Language Arts: Reading Comprehension Use the animals in the book for a memory game with your young child (after you read, see how many animals he can remember; this will develop reading comprehension skills). Language Arts: Poetry In Eric Carle’s book of poems,  Animals, Animals , you will find some poems that go along with the animals in this book: Horse pg. 74-75 Cow pg. 21 Pig pg. 50 Rooster pg. 52-53, 84 Owl pg. 46

Science: Farm Animals Many farm animals are mentioned in this book. Which animals in the story live on a farm? Which animals do not live on a farm?

You may want to check out some books from the library about farm animals or just focus on one farm animal.

Spider Webs & Spider Diets Spiders spin silky webs where other insects get stuck. Why don’t spiders get stuck? They tip-toe around on their web! To demonstrate this for your child, create a simple web on the floor with masking tape (tape side down–it won’t be sticky). Pretend to be spiders by tip-toeing around on the web.

You could make some flies and let your child stick them to the web mentioned above. Now, let your “spiders” tip-toe around on the web and eat those flies! (Spiders eat flies, mosquitoes, and other small insects.)

Spiders don’t chew their food. Once an insect gets stuck in the web, the spider shoots poison into it. The poison turns the bug into liquid, and the spider drinks her meal.

Here is a little song that will also reinforce what your child has learned about what spiders eat.

The Spider in the Web Sung to: “Farmer in the Dell” The spider in the web, The spider in the web Spin, spin, oh watch him spin, The spider in the web. The spider eats a (bug name) The spider eats a _________. Spin, spin, oh watch him spin, The spider in the web.

Another idea to reinforce the silky web is to search for silky textures in your home. Note the tactile web in  The Very Busy Spider .

Spider Anatomy Spiders have two body parts (head and abdomen) and eight legs. This is different than an insect. Insects have three body parts (head, thorax, and abdomen) and six legs.

The The Very Busy Spider unit study also includes ideas for a craft, a snack, and a spider web activity.

The Very Busy Spider Printable Lapbook

In addition to the lessons above, The Very Busy Spider unit study download also includes these lapbook printables:

• Little Miss Muffet Mini-book
• Animal Questions and Pocket Use for a memory game or for story sequencing.
• The Spider in the Web Accordion
• Insect Legs vs. Spider Legs Flap Book
• Who Lives on a Farm? Mini-book
• My Spider Art Book

The Very Busy Spider Lapbook Example

Here is a lapbook sample for this unit study. It was made with one file folder. If you are new to lapbooking, you can read through our How to Make a Lapbook Guide .

How to Get Started with The Very Busy Spider Activities

Follow these simple instructions to get started with the The Very Busy Spider activities, lessons, and lapbook printables:

• Buy a copy of the book, The Very Busy Spider , or borrow one from your local library.
• Choose the pages you want. There is a black and white version as well as a color version. Print the The Very Busy Spider unit study.
• Choose the lessons you want to use with your student (a highlighter works great for this).
• Choose and prepare the The Very Busy Spider lapbook printables you want to use with your student.
• Enjoy a week of hands-on learning with your student.

Download the Free The Very Busy Spider Activities & Printables

Use the form below to subscribe to the newsletter. Once you confirm, you’ll receive an email with the link to the printable activities and lapbook. If you are already confirmed, simply enter your name and email address below, and you will receive an email with the link.

More Eric Carle Insect Activities & Printables

Spiders aren’t insects, but The Very Busy Spider unit study does discuss the difference between spiders and insects. If your student seems interested, and if you love Eric Carle books, check out these other resources.

Share This Article

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The Very Busy Spider planning

Subject: Literacy for early years

Age range: 3-5

Resource type: Unit of work

Last updated

29 November 2022

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Spider Week featuring The Very Busy Spider

Published: Sep 30 · This post may contain affiliate links

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This week we have a fun theme that works for Halloween, fall or really any time of the year. We're looking at Spiders and have chosen a book by one of our favorite kid's author and illustrator The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle.

So here we go your Spider Week featuring The Very Busy Spider from the Virtual Book Club for Kids

Find Your Activity Plan Here

The Very Busy Spider The Virtual Book Club for Kids Featured Book This week

We have included links to the books on Amazon. As an associate, we may earn from qualifying purchases.

This week's featured book is The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle . With classic Eric Carle illustrations, this story tells the tale of a little spider building its web.

You can listen to the Read Aloud of The Very Busy Spider here:

Weekly Virtual Book Club Plans

Get ideas for activities, crafts and recipes based on popular themes and featured books straight to your inbox each week to inspire you to connect and create with your children

Spider Songs and Finger Rhymes

The itsy bitsy spider song | twinkle little songs.

There's A Spider On The Floor | The Kiboomers 

Five Creepy Spiders | Super Simple Songs

Spider Week Activity Plan for Preschoolers

Each week here on the Virtual Book Club for Kids we try and give you 5 simple activities to play, learn, create and have fun with your preschoolers.

You can pick and choose which activities you wish to do as well. You'll also find a link to even more ideas for fun on this theme with your Pinterest board which is shown below and you can visit.

If you are looking for a weekly structure to these activities one of the team has put together this plan for the week. However, it really is up to you how you structure your week and the activities that you do.

Spider Week Activity Plan for Preschoolers featuring The Very Busy Spider

A fun week of planned, simple activities on the theme of spiders for preschoolers inspired by the picture book  The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle .

Spider Web Fine Motor Activity

Our sensory activity this week is a  spider fine motor activity  that lets your little ones get releasing the spiders from their web.

Letter Matching Spider Web Activity for Preschoolers

We're matching up spiders with the letters on their web with this week's  spider alphabet activity .

If you don't have felt spiders why not make them yourself from paper or craft foam.

Preschool Spider Snack that also Strengthens Counting Skills

Our spider math activity this week is also our snack. Count and eat a fun way to learn for your preschoolers. Check out this  Spider Counting Snack  to have some edible learning fun.

For extra fun you might want to make spider meatballs for lunch!

"The Very Busy Spider" Cutting Activity - Munchkins and Moms

One to really supervise your preschoolers with but cutting skills are so important and this  Very Busy Spider Cutting Bin  is good fun and practice of this really important skill.

Water Color Resist Spider Web Kids Art

This week's art project is to make some  Tape Resist Water Color Spider webs  with your preschooler.

This is fun to do and try making one yourself alongside them as well.

More Spider Themed Activities for Preschoolers

If you would like more ideas or alternatives then you can find even more ideas on our Spider Week Pinterest Board.

Spider Themed Books for Preschoolers

Whether you want to switch the spider book for this week or add some others to your reading basket here's 3 of our favourite Spider Books for Preschoolers for you to read together.

Diary of a Spider by Doreen Cronin

I'm Trying to Love Spiders by Bethany Barton

Spiders by Gail Gibbons

For additional activities for Halloween you may also enjoy these weekly plans.

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Grade 1 • The Very Busy Spider

Published June 21, 2022 by tfurman

The Very Busy Spider

Lesson Summary

Design a Spider Web

A spider spends her entire day building her web and has no time to play with the other animals. By the end of the day the spider is so tired that she falls asleep, only catching one fly.

Students will learn how different spiders make all kinds of webs and then design a spider web that can catch and hold at least 20 flies for 1 minute so that the spider has lots to eat after playing with it’s friends.

STE or Math Standards

• Inheritance and Variation of Traits: 1.LS3.1. Use information from observations (first-hand and from media) to identify similarities and differences among individual plants or animals of the same kind.
• Engineering Design: 1.K.2.ETS1.2. Generate multiple solutions to a design problem and make a drawing (plan) to represent one or more of the solutions.

ELA Standards

• Comprehension and Collaboration: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.1.1. Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade 1 topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.1.1.A. Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions (e.g., listening to others with care, speaking one at a time about the topics and texts under discussion). CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.1.1.B. Build on others’ talk in conversations by responding to the comments of others through multiple exchanges. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.1.1.C. Ask questions to clear up any confusion about the topics and texts under discussion.

The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle

Published in Grade 1 Science

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Cara Carroll

The Very Busy Spider

October 6, 2010

I love starting the month of October learning about spiders.  We read several non-fiction books that the kids adored, but they also LOVED this Eric Carle classic…The Very Busy Spider.

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Reader Interactions

October 28, 2010 at 3:30 am

So excited to find your blog! We just finished doing lots of spider activities…I will be adding some of your ideas next year. Jonelle Bell aplacecalledkindergarten.blogspot.com

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The Very Busy Spider Curriculum Units

Quick overview.

Curriculum activities based on the popular storybook "The Very Busy Spider" by Eric Carle to promote early literacy. Includes objectives, activities, and assessments necessary to provide young children with a language rich educational program to meet the basic needs in each of the five domains commonly addressed in the prekindergarten classroom.

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Early childhood comprehensive curriculum uses familiar children’s literature to provide a solid educational foundation of the basic skills necessary for children to be successful in kindergarten. Uses rhyme, rhythm and repetition as the foundational approach to teaching, making this curriculum appropriate for all young children and especially effective for children with autism, language delays, or developmental delays. Storybook is not included.

• Teaches animal identification
• Reinforces animal sounds
• Predicts which animal will be on the next page
• Repetitive words and phrases
• Graphics include raised print spider web
• Unit is appropriate for any time of the year
• Reading and Phonemic Awareness Alphabet Matching Game The Busy Spider’s Favorite Words and Objects Spider’s Color Farm Spider Syllables The Friendship Hayride
• Math Counting Spiders How Many Spiders in the Jar? Estimating Amounts Counting and Matching Spider’s Animal Friends The Busy Spider Simple Addition and Subtraction
• Science The Very Busy Spider’s Science Journal Making a Spider Vivarium Build a Spider Animal Families
• Creative Writing and Social Studies The Very Busy Spider Creative Writing Prompts Poems on the Farm Do Spiders Scare You? Feelings Class Book

This curriculum systematically provides activities that provide explicit instruction on the most basic foundational skills, including activities for the common domains of speech/language, cognitive, gross motor, fine motor, daily living skills, and socialization. Uses rhyme, rhythm and repetition as a strategy to ensure that there is an intentional, extended focus on the most basic skills necessary for future academic success. Research has proven that having a firm understanding of these basic essential skills is necessary to achieve educational success in higher academic learning.

Activities reinforce basic fundamental concepts and are systematically offered in a variety of literacy based lessons throughout each domain. This curriculum unit uniquely provides a flexible structure where the environment and teaching strategies are solidly predictable with elements of creativity and exploration woven into each day. Includes color CD containing over 100 activities with printable graphics which teachers can manipulate in color or black and white to decrease prep time.

Most of the concepts in the activities are offered in multiple levels of difficulty. This allows teachers to work on a particular skill individually or in a small group setting with children functioning at different levels. Every child has the opportunity to be successful which promotes a “can-do” attitude and fosters positive self-esteem.

Language skills are embedded into the activities in the domains of Speech and Language, Cognitive, Motor, Daily Living, and Socialization. Read It Once Again ensures that your students will be constantly immersed into a language rich curriculum.

Goals and objectives for activities provided in the speech and language section of every unit are designed to fulfill the requirements of many Individual Educational Plans (IEPs) for children with language delays. This feature enhances the probability of mastering IEP goals and objectives.

Each unit includes an “At-A -Glance” as an introduction to the vocabulary used in the story. At- A- Glance lists all of the nouns, verbs, and teachable concepts found in the story. This is a handy tool for Speech and Language therapists who are seeking stories with a low or high volume of vocabulary, particular nouns, verbs or words with certain suffixes or pretexts.

Literary units are presented in a format which encourages teachers, therapists, parents and other related services to easily share the content of the curriculum. The storybook, the unit, its goals and objectives, and related activities in each domain become the common factors which unite professionals to intertwine and overlap services. Therapists can easily provide push- in services in the classroom which benefit teachers and most importantly, children.

• Meets the needs of a wide range of abilities in a single classroom
• Literacy-based using familiar children’s literature
• Provides a structure for parent involvement
• Research-based and aligns with typical state standards/ developmental guidelines
• Promotes literacy
• Provides continuity for your Early Childhood department
• Easy to create long range planning
• Follows state standards and developmental guidelines
• Can be used alone or in conjunction with other curriculums as a supplement
• Supports special education IEPs (Individual Educational Plan)
• Documented record of student success
• Coordinates classroom activities with special therapy services (SLP, OT, PT)
• Provides guidance and structure for inexperienced teachers
• Motivating and flexible format for experienced teachers
• Improves speech and language skills
• Gross motor
• Daily living
• Socialization
• Phonemic awareness
• Social studies
• Creative writing
• Creates an atmosphere combining literacy with fun and learning
• Promotes early literacy by introducing them to familiar children’s literature
• Age appropriate materials promoting success
• Captures the fun of using rhyme, rhythm and repetition as a tool for promoting language
• Introduction: teaching strategies and guidance for implementing each unit
• Parent Letters/Student Assessment: including goals and objectives to introduce and conclude the unit
• Assessment Tool: student achievement based on goals and objectives in each domain are monitored by a numbered rating scale
• Graphics, Lesson Plans, and Grids: simple graphics of characters and objects found in the story
• Color CD containing over 100 activities, parent letters, student assessment, lesson plans in word format, and printable graphics which teachers can manipulate in color or black and white which will decrease teacher prep time.
• Speech and Language: vocabulary activities and concepts
• Cognitive: colors, numbers, shapes and more
• Motor: gross motor covers large muscle activities; fine motor covers cutting, pasting, lacing and pre-writing
• Daily Living: dressing, hygiene and recipes relating to the story
• Socialization: activities dealing with emotions, group games for peer interaction and reward certificates
• Music and Rhymes: Mother Goose rhymes, songs and finger plays
• Phonemic Awareness: lower/upper case alphabet letters, sight words from the story, rhyming words
• Math: number identification, simple addition and subtraction, graphing, measuring
• Science: simple investigations, predict outcomes, understand properties can change, recording and journaling
• Creative Writing: use imagination to expand on concepts, use a combination of drawing, writing and dictation to express thoughts
• Social Studies: demonstrate good citizenship in the classroom, describe differences in people, families and dwellings, identify community helpers
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The Very Busy Spider

by Eric Carle

Intended Grade Level: 1st and 2nd

Summary of book

A number of farm animals try to distract a spider that is busy spinning her web.  Unable to be distracted, the busy spider is relentless in her work and doesn't stop until her work is complete.  Because of her determination, she ends up with a beautiful and useful web.  Colorful pictures can be seen as well as felt.

About the Author

Eric Carle was born in Syracuse, New York in 1929. When he was six years old he moved with his parents to Germany.  After graduating from art school Carle made his return to American where he became a well known and loved author and illustrator of picture books for very young children.  His technique is very distinctive and instantly recognizable by readers because he uses a collage technique for his illustrations, using hand-painted papers, which he cuts and layers to form bright and cheerful images.  The themes of his stories are usually nature related, which he believes is an interest shared by most small children. Carle's goals for his books is to always offer the child the opportunity to learn something new about the world around them. Some of his most famous works include The Very Hungry Caterpillar,  Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, and Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?.

                                                                                                    official website                                                                                                        

                                                                       Eric Carle                                                                        

Complete the following activities, in the order they are listed.

Activity One:

Before reading "The Very Busy Spider" follow this link to print the spider handout.  After printing the handout, on each of the spider's 8 legs, write a word that begins like spider (sp) beginning.  In the body of the spider, write everything you know about spiders and also what you would like to learn about spiders.  For example, you may know that all spiders have 8 legs or you may want to know why spiders don't stick to their own webs. 

   Spider Handout

Activity Two:

This Link will lead you to a list of spider facts. After reading over the facts, write about the facts that you thought were the most interesting or that surprised you the most. You must choose at least two of the facts. Make sure to include why you thought they were interesting or if you have a particular fact you would like to know more about. You will later use one of these facts in a spider story that you will write. 

         Spider Facts

Activity Three:

While reading "The Very Busy Spider" use this worksheet to keep track of words that you don't know or understand.  Next to the word, write what you think it may mean just from reading the book.

Vocabulary Worksheet 

Activity Four:

Go to the web dictionary and check your definitions for each word.  If it is not correct, fill in the correct definition. Then write a sentence correctly using the word and it's meaning. 

Activity Five:

After reading "The Very Busy Spider" follow this link to print the outline so you can write your own spider story. Be sure to include one of the facts that you found most interesting from your "before reading" activity in your story.

        Spider Story

Activity Six:

After writing or typing your spider story, follow this link to draw a picture online. The picture should relate to your story somehow, whether it be a picture of your spider or another one of the characters in the story. Be creative with this! Make sure to print your picture when you are done.

        Art pad Drawing

  Activity Seven:                                                                                                                        

Follow the link to color this picture online. Make sure you also read the poem, "Little Miss Muffet", that is below it.

    Little Miss Muffet Coloring Activity

grading rubric :

1 . Print off this grading rubric .

2. Gather all of your printouts and worksheets and put them in the order that you did them.

3. Put the grading rubric on the top of the pile.

4. Make sure your name is on the top of the rubric

5. Staple your pile and hand in the packet.

* Remember that you should have 6 activities to turn in.

Other Books by Eric Carle

                                                    The Very Hungry Caterpillar                                                    

Does A Kangaroo Have A Mother Too?

A House for Hermit Crab

The Foolish Tortoise

The Greedy Python

website created by

  Heather Terflinger