Winter Picnic

Materials

Blankets

Picnic food (hot dogs, cookies, chips, drinks, fruit, and so on)

Paper plates, plastic bowls, cups, and so on

Picnic basket

S'mores (graham crackers, marshmallows, and chocolate)

Hot chocolate

The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats

Old newspaper

Instructions

1. Read The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle to the children. Closely examine the
spider web on each page as the spider in the story builds it.
2. Show the children some pictures of spider webs and try to find some real
spider webs to observe.
3. Talk about how spider webs all have the same basic form. Point out the
concentric circles and connecting lines. Ask the children if they would like to
make a spider web of their own.
4. Cut out a 12" x 12" (30 cm x 30 cm) piece of clear adhesive paper for each
child.
5. Peel the covers from each paper and tape them to the table in front of each
child.
6. Give the children some string. Encourage them to arrange the string on the
paper in "spider web" fashion.
7. Provide some small plastic spiders, flies, and other bugs for the children to
place on their webs. Or, make your own bugs from paper.
8. Hang the spider webs throughout the room for everyone to enjoy.
More to do
Games: Play "Spider Web Toss" by tossing cotton balls at the sticky spider webs
hung around the room.
Movement: When observing spider webs, point out how the spiders move.
During movement activities, ask the children to move their bodies like spiders.