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Under the Spell of...Spiders
Lesson Plan 3

Facts, Feats, and Folklore

Objectives:

  • learn fascinating spider facts
  • state several folkloric sayings and beliefs about spiders

Materials:

Subjects:
science, art, folklore

In this activity your students can use spider facts, fallacies, and folklore to create an entertaining bulletin board or other display.

Procedure:
1. Hand out copies of the information under Would You Believe...? and Fantastic Folklore. Explain that all of the information under Would You Believe...? is true. Most of the folkloric information, on the other hand, is superstition, although it's possible that a couple of the sayings may have a grain of truth to them. For example, it's possible that spiders, being sensitive to changes in barometric pressure, might resume web-building when stormy weather starts to clear up (see the first saying). But by and large, superstitious sayings about spiders are just that: superstitions.

2. Have each student illustrate one or more of either the true statements from the Would You Believe... sheet or the folklore information.

3. Have the students use their illustrations to design a bulletin board or other display. You may want to have them do a little research on their own so they can add other fascinating spider facts, feats, and folklore.

Required Materials

Would You Believe...?

Fantastic Folklore

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