Children almost always hang onto things tighter than their parents think they will.
Charlotte’s Web
The book I selected for this month was Charlotte’s Web, by E.B. White as several of the classrooms I visit are reading the story in their classrooms. This is a favorite story of mine from my youth that is full of heart and teaches wonderful lessons about making and
maintaining friendships.
One of the teachers I work with shared this website with me, LitWits, that has creative activities to go along with the reading of the story.
YouTube reading of the story: Charlotte’s Web. The story is just over 4 hours long.
Alternate book for younger students: Charlotte’s Web board book.
The skills worked on this month are many. Here’s but a few:
- Book knowledge (i.e., title, author, page turning, image walking)
- Use of low vision tools while reading the book
- Develop hand and eye coordination
- Soliciting assistance appropriately
- Fine motor
- Communication
- Positional concepts
- Choice making
The craft I chose to go along with the story was a wooden spider web with spider. The students were allowed to decide how many spider webs they wanted to use in their hanging craft.
For this craft, I needed:
- Unfinished spider web wood
- White craft paint
- Mini storage containers with lids
- Wooden clothespins
- Cotton balls
- Parchment paper
- Halloween spider toy rings with colored gemstones (any spider ring will work)
- Hot glue gun & glue sticks
- Gift tags with string attached
My students started by choosing from a bag how many webs they wanted to use based on an example I had made. No one chose over three. Once the webs were chosen, we put those aside on top of parchment paper to wait on paint.
As most of my students have fine motor goals, I had them use a clothespin to grab a cotton ball. If they had trouble doing this, they had to solicit assistance appropriately…also another goal for many of them. They had to shake the paint to mix it before squeezing it into a container with a lid.
Once the parchment paper is back in front of the student, they could start painting using the DIY paintbrush. Instead of using brush strokes like you would with a paintbrush, the students were directed to dab it thus creating a bit of a texture as they painted.
This was a two-day craft as the paint needed to dry before we could continue. The students then took their painted webs and arrange them the way they want them. For the spider, I had cut the ring part off days before as I was prepping the activity. The student then chose which ring they want to use and placed it on top of their web design.
I hot glued everything together the way they designed it. While the webs cooled, we worked on the Charlotte’s Web work from class. A tag was added to each web not only to hang them, but also to have their name and year added to it.
Tips:
- Have a student that doesn’t like touching paint? I use disposable
vinyl gloves on the hand that is holding the item in place while the
hand that is painting the item does not. - Using the mini containers with a lid helps from wasting paint as well
as helps the students work on opening/closing containers. - I personally don’t like to use glue sticks anymore as I have to change
them too frequently. Instead, I use hot glue sticks – 3 ft or longer.
This is much more effective for me and less glue sticks to carry! - We added the tag before I used hot glue to secure the items together
as the “knot” of the string could be added to the hot glue to keep it in
place. - I use a “jewelers” tweezer to help keep my fingers from touching the
hot glue. Any tweezers will work. I like the jewelers tweezer because
of the curve at the end.
Extension activities
- Write a positive short phrase (2-3 words) to someone in the classroom or school campus and deliver it when they are not at their desk. Tell them to think like Charlotte.
- Create a sensory tub with decorative spider web Halloween decorations that has ‘spiders’ in it. The students can then explore the webbing to find the spiders. I’ve been known to hide other ‘bugs’ in the tub to add to the search. Students can count how many of each bug/spider there are also.
Another article about Charlotte’s Web to spark creativity.
