Arachnid Nature Club Hike - FREE Arachnid Journal Page

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Last week we had a blast with some families from our homeschool group on our very first homeschool nature club hike. The topic of the hike was Arachnids! The children ranged in age from 2 - 10 and all of them had a blast.

I told all of the children to look high and low to find spider webs during our hike. When they found one they gave a yell, "I found one," and we would all take a few moments to observe the web and spider. I even caught a few spiders so the kids could observe them up close. We found lots of Orb Weaver spiders and lots of Daddy Long Leggers (though they are not part of the spider family). Periodically we would take a little break so I could tell the kids a few spider facts.

10 Awesome Itsy Bitsy Spider Facts:
1) Spiders are not insects,they are arachnids.
2) Spiders have only 2 body segments, 8 legs and no antennae.
3) Spiders eat mostly insects, but some even eat small frogs or mice.
4) In GA we have only 3 dangerous spiders: Brown Recluse, Brown Widow and Black Widow.
5) Spiders art part of the Anthropod classification.
6) Thanks to spiders scientists have been able to tougher materials for bullet proof vests.
7) Spider silk = 253,816 PSI
8) The Goliath Birdeater Tarantula of South America is the largest spider in the World.
9) ALL spiders have fangs! And, almost all have venom in them. Lucky for us, most spider venom cannot harm us because it is quite weak.
10) Spiders spin about 65 yards of silk a day and live for three years. So they spin about 71,175 yards in their lifetime.

I was of course armed with my fabulous Handbook of Nature Study book and Audubon Insects and Spiders App to help guide me. I never go on a hike without these.

At the very end of our hike I handed each of the kids an Arachnid Journal Page that I created.

Additional Resources:
-Spider web pictures
-Spider Mini Helper CurrClick
-National Geographic Spider web pictures
-Handbook of Nature Study web unit
-Dangerous Spiders listed by State
-Spider lapbook pieces - Homeschool Share
-Spider web crafts and Spider crafts