Spider Research Project: Classroom Room Transformation
Once the air starts getting cool students start getting antsy. The cooler air means that Halloween is just around the corner. I understand trying to fit in all of our education requirements before it’s time for break. To keep my students on track, we have to compete with Halloween and get creative. I have found one method of engaging my students that never seems to fail.
I know you are all wondering “Well, go ahead and tell us already!”
It’s a Spider Research Project!
Easy Classroom Set Up!
Spider Room Transformation is what I used to easily transform my classroom with the help of my students.
I’m not about making hours and hours of work for myself, so I like to keep things simple.
To set up the room, I used masking tape on the carpet to make a giant web and filled it with books from our library about spiders.
I stuffed a black garbage bag with papers from the recycling bin to make the body of the giant spider and cut up another garbage bag to make the legs of the spider.
Then I added some webs from the dollar store!
Easy peasy!
I didn’t spend a lot of time or money on the spider. All of my supplies cost less than $10! My kiddos were thrilled to see a giant spider occupying their classroom the next morning! They asked if it could stay up all year!
Spider Research Day
I started by reading the spider letter to the class and introducing the different assignments we were going to do that day. I explained that I had an assignment for each subject. Each time we completed an assignment, we got to add a new spider to our giant web! When the web was full of spiders, we would unlock a spooky treat!
My students didn’t believe me when I said that we were going to learn about the life of a spider while decorating the classroom. They probably thought I was a little silly.
To set the stage, I passed out the researcher hat craft. I gave my class some time to get creative and create a hat (creativity is an awesome way to start a day). My students wore their hats as they completed the other assignments in the project. They absolutely loved these hats! It made everyone feel like a “real deal” researcher.
At the start of every subject I handed out a new life of a spider assignment that aligned with the standards we were covering that week.
I encouraged my students to use color on their assignments so the papers would be brighter once displayed. As I collected assignments I also asked my students where they thought their work would look best. This got them really excited because they had lots of great ideas that they wanted me to hear. When it came time to decorate the room I included as many of their ideas as I could.
Here are a couple Spider Research Day activities we used:
All of these activities and more can be found in the Spider Room Transformation Kit.
In ELA we worked on reading passages and recording the information we learned in our fun Spider Flip Flaps. The flip flap covers the life cycle of a spider, labeling the parts of a spider, and even includes an acrostic poem on the back. This spider research project is great for adding to a spider themed bulletin board!
It’s part of the spider room transformation set and in my TpT shop by itself.
My students were struggling to remember to punctuation at the end of sentences, so I thought it would be fun to turn our punctuation marks into little spiders.
Let me tell you, not one student forgot their punctuation mark on this activity!
We drew spider webs on our whiteboard to practice our weekly phonics sounds! This is a super simple idea you could use for spelling words, vocabulary words, math problems… you name it!
In math, we were working on 2 digit addition and subtraction, so I put our questions on spider themed scoot cards and hid them around the room! This was a fun way to add movement to our day and help students practice their math skills!
Spider Research Project Conclusion
This project is super fun because covers every subject. I was able to use each assignment to match what I was teaching that week. My students were able to practice their weekly spelling words and math problems with a whole extra level of engagement. This project is so fun and can literally teach anything you need it to!
The class loved this Spider Room Transformation so much. It was an awesome way to give students a change of scenery without missing any precious instruction time.
Remember, any small change will be noticed AND exciting for kids! You don’t have to spend hours and money to make a day of learning extra special.
You might just need some masking tape and a garbage bag!
Have you ever tried a room transformation? What did you do? Comment below to give teachers some new ideas!
Ps. I put together a list of 5 easy Halloween activities over on the blog too!