A Spider’s Web
Unit Plan Overview
Theme:
A Spider’s Web
Literature Base:
Charlotte’s Web by
E.B. White
Unit Duration:
2-3 weeks
Grade Level:
4-5
Language Arts:
- Read
7 chapters per week; aloud, silently, homework
- Spelling
lists with words from each chapter
- Chapter
comprehension questions
- Letter
to the author
- Written
alternate endings
Math:
- Primary
use of the Everyday Math series;
chapters 5 and 6
- Geometry
Science:
- Spider
research
- Live
spider observation
- Identification
of types of spiders and their parts
- Weather
study (as the seasons change in the book)
Social Studies:
- Farming
practices in the United States in the 1950’s
- Family
culture in the 1950’s
- Government
in the 1950’s
Technology:
- Spelling
list computer word searches
- Word
processed letters to author
- Word
processed alternate endings
- Use
of the software “Geometer’s Sketchpad” in geometry lessons
- Internet
spider research
- Informational
web page design about spiders with links to research process and student
information (MITTEN connection)
- Farming,
Family culture, and government research done by students online
- iMovie
that reenacts a scene from Charlotte’s
Web
- Microsoft
Power point presentation about life in the 1950’s
- MacIntosh
Appleworks software program to chart and graph data collected from live
spider observations.