Spiders!

Like many of you, we have been learning about spiders during reading for the past couple weeks. I used the topic of spiders to teach about reading nonfiction, what schema is, and how to revise misconceptions. It was so much fun, the kids were so into it, and I think they learned a lot!

First we wrote down our schema about spiders on "brain files" (I got them from the amazing ladies at lessonplansos.blogspot.com). Then, I read pages from the book, Spinning Spiders to build more spider schema.

After a couple days of reading this book and sharing what we learned (and revising misconceptions), I gave my students a Time For Kids article about different types of spiders. They worked in pairs to fill out the Spider Schema worksheet to practice finding "new learning" and adding it to their schema. 

As a culminating activity, my students wrote a paragraph about spiders. Only about half of them fit on this bulletin board, but I think it turned out cute anyway! (The other half are on the wall next to the classroom door.) I found the adorable spider paper template from Courtney at Swimming into Second Grade...so helpful!