Spider Dramatic Playscape

The children have been fascinated by spiders this week. We have read stories about them and used them as math manipulatives in some of our ten frame activities.  Today the children hoped to bring them outside.

 

"We can use yarn for the web! We can spin a web ourselves for them!"

 

The children took turns weaving and winding a light coloured length of yarn around a circle of tree stumps.

 

 

This took some coordination and effort as the children had to move over and under the yarn in order to create a realistic web.

"Look at all the shapes! There are a lot of triangles in this web!"  Math is everywhere, even outdoors the children observed!

After the web was created the children used the stumps as chairs and sat in a circle in order to play together more effectively.

As an observer I overheard much rich oral language in the children's discussions. They were roleplaying that the spiders were a family on the hunt for food - this involved turn taking, speaking in role, and the use of specialized vocabulary in order to make the play meaningful and realistic.

 

Many children participated and although the spiders looked quite realistic, no child was too scared to play.

As an eco-focused school instilling a love and respect for nature and all living things is a priority. What better way to help children appreciate nature then by encouraging them to play with realistic spiders right out in the beautiful autumn sun!

Eventually the spiders were on the move and found new homes in the yard! I can't wait to see what adventures await us on Monday!

 

Colourful Yarn

Children practised fine motor skills while persevering with a challenging task today as they sewed with colourful yarn on a soft chicken wire base.

The variety of yarn colour and texture was interesting and the children spent much time weaving their favourites together on the base. 

As the children worked they engaged in rich conversation together reminiscent of social sewing circles. 

Rich math talk also emerged as children discussed the different lengths of yarn needed for their project. 

Spider Web Playscape

My children have been very interested in spiders lately. We have noticed so many webs in our gardens, especially in the morning when they are covered with dew. I thought it would be fun to use some black yarn and plastic spiders in order to turn our light table into a spider playscape. It was so easy to do!

First I tied the loose end of the yarn to one of the table's legs.

I modeled how my children could wind the yarn around and across the table, weaving it in and out in order to make a unique web. We ended up using two balls of yarn - one for each child - but if you are doing this with a larger group of children you might consider using only one ball and encourage the children to problem solve how they might take turns creating one web together.

This activity took a lot of coordination as each child needed to figure out how to wind the yarn around and across the large table, while keeping it tight enough to retain the 'web like' appearance. They also needed to work together. A few times they ended winding each other into the web and had to figure out how to cooperatively create the playscape.

As my children worked, they began to notice and name the shapes they saw in the web. They also realized that the sides of the table were beginning to look like they were covered in webs too, opening up the possibilities for the play space.

Once they were happy with the web, we added plastic spiders (found as Halloween rings at the local dollar store). I was pleased to see that neither child was reluctant to handle the very realistic looking spiders. I'm hoping it helps them feel even more comfortable with creepy crawlies when they encounter them in real life.

Such an easy way to use little materials and a light table to inspire creative dramatic play. Our spiders had all sorts of adventures on and around the table. Tomorrow I'm going to read some books about spiders and encourage my children to retell the texts on the table.