The Very Busy Spider (Pre-K)

One of my annual favorites is telling Eric Carle's The Very Busy Spider with a spider puppet glove. The story moves so quickly and fluidly, it lends itself to easy narration. I have a large piece of square cardboard that I have cut into an octagon shape. With the puppet, I hold a skein of yarn in my hand, under the puppet, and wrap it around the cardboard as I tell the story.

The trick is to take your time and wrap the yarn slowly around the cardboard web. It builds excitement as the children watch a web forming right in front them.

At the end, I have a little pipe cleaner fly I stick under the yarn.

Simple and effective.

Props:
a large octagon-shaped piece of cardboard
a skein of yarn

Puppet:
a spider glove puppet