K/1/2 Class Project:

Spider Observation Project:

In November our K/1/2 class  made a terrarium using  garden dirt, cuttings from a  house plant, and several branches.  We caught two spiders and put them in the terrarium.  We were hoping that the spiders would spin a web.  It was hard to catch live bugs for the spiders to eat in November.  All that we caught and put in the jar was a maple bug and  a ladybug.  The spiders were not active over the winter and we thought that they were dead as they just stayed in one spot.  The ladybug  and the maple bug were  active  in the winter.   We would see them  moving around inside the jar.  In February we noticed some spider webs and by May there were layers  of webs.  By April we could no longer see one of  the spiders and the maple bug.   But the other spider was becoming more active.  There were layers  of webs in the jar and the spider would jump on the ladybug when it went by. In May we were able to catch live bugs for the spider and we were amazed at how quickly the spider would jump on any new insect that we put in the jar.  The spider would often carry  the insect around for a few minutes or in the  case of the fly, the spider was on top of the  fly until the fly was gone.   In April we noticed a white sac.  We are unsure if it is a wrapped up insect or if it is an egg sac. 

November      
                We made a terrarium.  We put garden dirt, twigs, and cuttings from a house
plant into a jar.  We put in two spiders, a maple bug, and a ladybug into the
terrarium.        
                                                 
December      
           Not much is happening.  The spiders are not moving. We think that
they may be dead.  There is no web.  The ladybug and the maple bug are
actively moving about in the jar.  We have not been able to catch any more
 live insects.           
January
 Not much is happening.  The spiders are not moving. We think that they may be dead.  There is no web.  The ladybug and the maple bug are actively moving about in the jar.  We have not been able to catch any more live insects.  We can see the spiders but they are not moving.  We are certain that they must be dead. The lady bug and the maple bug are still active in the terrarium. 
February
We can see a spider web! We can only see one spider and the ladybug.  One spider and the maple bug can't be found.  
March

We can still see only one spider and the ladybug.  The web is larger.  The plants are growing larger. The spider is not active but the ladybug continues to move around in the terrarium. 

April 
The spider keeps jumping on the ladybug, but the ladybug can get away.  There is a white sac in a web.  The spider stays near the sac.  We are wondering what is inside the sac. The plants are bigger.
May

The spider keeps jumping on the ladybug.  The spider doesn't seem to be able to stop the ladybug.  The ladybug doesn't seem to get caught in the spider web. 
 We have caught some live insects. The spider jumps on any new insect that we put in the terrarium within seconds!  After the spider jumps on the insect, the spider carries the insect around for a minute or so.  We found a live housefly to put in the terrarium and the spider jumped on the fly and was on top of the housefly until the housefly was gone (about six hours).

Today we noticed two spiderlings when we fed the spider a mosquito! Then we counted seven more. Then we could count 27. Then there were too many to count! They are very tiny and we used the magnifying glass to observe the spiderlings! We have baby spiderlings! We plan to l let them go at the end of the week!